Off My Mind: Comic Book Characters Vs. Creators

The characters are only as good as the people writing and drawing them.

We've all 'pretended that never happened' when a bad creative team trashed one of our favorite comics. (Hell, even the publishers do that by rebooting or otherwise erasing stuff with retcons they knew was poor)

On the other hand, comics I'd never pick up on the strength of the character alone I'll give a chance to if there's a writer/artist I know I like.

Both are equally important IMHO.

Always a bit of both. We have preferred writers and favourite characters.

Ditto on the combo front here. I try to stick with characters (Batman, X-Men, Wolverine, Wildcats, Authority, Ghost, Batwoman, Catwoman) then only read those titles if I like the creative teams. Currently the new creative team on Catwoman has me a little concerned. I'll give them a chance. I did stop reading Voodoo and Stormwatch because of the creative teams.

Then I try to give hot creators a chance (Snyder's American Vampire, Swamp Thing, and Lemire's Animal Man). On occasion I try an unknown artist or character. A current example would be Image Comics Revival.

Since I feel this article was prompted by the Liefeld and Snyder tweets, I'll share my two cents. I will never buy anything from Liefeld. Personally I think he ruined the New Mutants and is very stagnant as an artist. So I was never interested in Liefeld's Grifter even though I really like that character.

On the other hand, I was reading Snyder's Swamp Thing series before his Batman series. I tried all four Batman books at the launch and I hated Capullo's rendition of Joker in Batman #1 (plus I never liked his work on Spawn). So initially I was not reading Batman because of the artist. Snyder's great story pulled be back to that series even though I wasn't a fan of the artist.

For me, it's all about who's writing and drawing the stories. For example, Wolverine is theoretically a great character, but an inept creative team will only imitate what superior writers and artists did with him in the past. I certainly would not read a prose novel if it weren't written by a writer I liked, nor would I look at a painting full of interesting subject matter if the painter had no talent. It's the same for comics.

Oy gevault--the question this news story asks is one of MANY reasons I did my "Sorry State of the Superhero Comic Book Today" blog. I'm one of the few who reads a title not based on my choice of character or just my choice of creator--it's BOTH. I want my characters written by my favorite writers, who I trust to do their best to write and or draw good stories featuring said characters. It's why I love Gerry Conway's Firestorm, Roger Stern's run on Captain America, Larry Hama's GI Joe, and Bob Budiansky's/Simon Furman's run on Transformers. The only reason I decided to follow the current "Defenders" series is because I liked the concept enough--Marvel super team that deals with the more esoteric threats to the universe. It's also the only modern Big Two title I'm following, and I'm greatly disappointed that it's ending at issue 12. I'm going to at least give the new Hawkeye and Captain Marvel titles a try, for two reasons: A) Hawkeye and Carol Danvers are two of my favorite Marvel characters, and B) I met both Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick at a convention, and they were quite nice people, so I'll give their work a shot. But underneath both those reasons, I'll read those two titles with respect to the characters' original creators (Lee/Heck for Hawkeye, Thomas/Colan/Claremont/Romita Sr. for Danvers), knowing that Fraction and DeConnick are surely honoring those creators' legacies while putting their own spin on these timeless creations.

The characters lead me to try something, but if the comic isn't good, Goodbye!

Also if I'm tented to try something new (like with AC a year ago) and I see the creative team is great, I give it a try.

Who will be able to fill in Grant's shoes in AC?

Characters are more a factor than creators I haven't read Morrison's Batman or his Action Comics. But I loved his New X-Men, Marvel Boy & Seven Soldiers because I liked those characters more, Now interesting enough I haven't liked and Marvel boy stories or read any 7 soldiers stories after Morrison's run. So essentially it has to be the right combination.

I have always been a creator over character, there are no bad characters, just bad ways to write them.

Interesting discussion, personally I base my comic decisions on the creator. I will buy pretty much anything by Grant Morrison, and to a lesser extent Warren Ellis. 
On another note, that's a very strange headshot of Brian Michael Bendis.

Having only been reading consistently for about 6-7 years, I don't know some of the guys that have been gone since the 90s so I usually go with character first and if I'm mildly interested in another book and I know the reputation of the team, it would make me more or less likely to pick it up. In turn, getting to know new teams and writers could turn me off of a book I have been reading. I didn't like what Ann Nocenti did to Green Arrow recently so that makes me more likely to drop Catwoman when Judd is finished writing.

For me, it's a bit of both. There are certain characters I will follow, and only a very few creators whose work I know I definitely do not like at all will keep me away from their adventures, and I will tend to give series with these characters longer than I might normally give a book to win me over. Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Apollo, Midnighter are the big ones. But there are also writers I will follow, even if I don't care at all about the characters. Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Brian K. Vaughan, Alan Moore, and more recently Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire have been added to the list, among others. The list of creators I follow is definitely a lot larger than characters. Of course, when favorite characters and favorite writers meet is when it's the best. ;)

for me it is both. i love batman and i think i will always pick it up but a great team on a book will also make me check it out too.