A fun comic debate has always been which is more important good writing or good artwork?
Well in my head, it has always been good to great artwork can elevate even the dumbest story to the loftiest of heights, a place on the TOP DOGS of The Week list!
But that is a discussion for the strong at heart. Today I ask you, yes you comic reader, a question that has fascinated me since last November!
Is there such a thing as a hit or miss Comic Book artist?
I think we can all agree that there are hit or miss writers all over the industry. Jason Aaron, Mark Waid, and Al Ewing immediately spring to mind.
Jason, for example, wrote 7 years of unforgettable Thor comics. And then followed that up with a less than stellar Avengers (hey look it’s Blade before Blood Hunt) run, that I gave up trying even with fantastic Ed McGuiness artwork.
Mark Waid has too many titles of greatness to even mention but the Absolute Power was a chore to read even drawn by the generational talent of Dan Mora. Like I skipped issue #3 entirely and only skimmed #4 too see if I needed to know anything for the DC ALL IN one-shot or the Absolute line spinning out of it. Guess what, the answer was 100000% no sir.
Al Ewing wrote, in my mind, the 2nd greatest Hulk run of all time with Immortal Hulk, which I almost missed because of his Captain America And The Mighty Avengers #3, which is in the Top 5 of worst comic books I have ever read.
So clearly, to me, there are hit and miss writers. But what about artists?
I can’t think of a similar situation in my 40 plus years of reading. I can think of plenty of artists that went past their primes, or eventually turn into great masters.
For instance, no one, in the 90s could tell me that Rob Liefeld clone Dan Panosian could ever have produced this killer Dr Doom cover, yet here it is.
Likewise, no can tell me that Neal Adams or Jim Lee or even my hero Walter Simonson have not lost a step over the years. I mean just look at this cover. Good luck telling me this guy would have a decades long career if his early stuff looked like this. And yet, we all enjoyed the journey Adams took to get there.
And here we are. In all the writers’ cases, the misses follow directly after or before greatness. I added Avengers to my pull list because Jason Aaron’s Thor was soooo great no matter the quality of the artist. I had to be talked into reading Immortal Hulk (thanks Steve!) #1 otherwise I would not have picked that breathtaking first issue up.
Yet visually, the journey Mike Mignola has taken from giant blocky behemoths in water logged basins to nearly abstract lack of details is celebrated.
Even the super divisive Tradd Moore’s style which is now so off-putting to some on Dr Strange Fall Sunrise, was clearly heading down that path on his previous series Silver Surfer Black. 
So, you tell us, comic fans! Are there comic book artists that are hit or miss? For me, that answer is no. Apparently it is fine to evolve as an artist but the next talking head Bendis book better be as good as New Avengers #1 was.