GHM Columns : GHM Staff : Doc Holiday and The VC Cowboy [ The Hippocratic Skinny ]

Well, here we are again, kiddies. Back for another edition of The Hippocratic Skinny with your dirty Uncle Doc and VC the commie bastard!

Now, first things first. I have to apologise for the delay since our last column. See, I went on a bit of a holiday, and as it happened I spent practically three whole weeks away from the computer. So that’s all my writing time gone. And then there’s the fact that VC’s a lazy bastard. But let’s not get into that, kiddies. So, in summary…it’s all his fault!

And so, to quote the greatest detective of all time…all righty then! Let’s get down to bidnezz (shut up, Gates!), kiddies. I’m sure you’re wondering what rancid, worm-infested intellectual feast we have for your mental plates today? Annnnnnd…it’s a goodie. Scout’s honour. I can tell you right now, this one’s gonna take us all the way from Controversial Lite™ (or Bitchy Lite™, if you believed VC’s last rant) to full bore Controversial. But to do it justice I’m afraid I’m going to have to get a little serious here, kiddies. Sorry ‘bout that.

This week’s topic for discussion is…

“ARE WRITERS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ARTISTS?”

Yes. Next question?

……

Ooooh, I can feel the hate all the way from over here.

Right, before every artist in comicdom goes into meltdown, lets just have a listen to what’s led me to this belief, shall we?

In the past I’ve spent a lot of time on comic message boards. I don’t get around quite as much as I used to (damn day-job!), but that’s neither here nor there. Let me tell you, if you ever spend any amount of time on a board that wannabe comic creators frequent, there’s one topic that you’re absolutely, no question, guaranteed to run across, and that’s whether or not wannabe artists should be paid for working on a wannabe writer’s comic (with the not always implicit implication that wannabe writers shouldn’t be paid for working on a wannabe artist’s comic). I’ve seen screaming rants and well-reasoned arguments on the subject, but you can basically break down the arguments to one of two POVs: either amateur artists should be paid because there’s a greater investment of time and materials on their part and without artists there wouldn’t be a comic; or amateur artists shouldn’t be paid because there’s just as much effort involved in the creative process and without writers there wouldn’t be a comic. Now, before anyone starts getting worked up, let me just say that not everyone on the “artists should always be paid” side is an artist, and not everyone on the other is a writer.

Now breathe easy - I won’t be inflicting my own opinion on you, as that’s not the point (though let me just add that when I had an idea not so long ago and I wasn’t prepared to spend months (if not years) trying to find an artist who’d work for a promise, I put money down on the table. Worked for me). I’m not here to argue who should and shouldn’t be getting paid in an amateur production, or who puts in more work, or who has a tougher job, or anything like that. The fact is that this topic, which I’ve seen bandied around so often, got me thinking about the creative process and led me to the inescapable conclusion that in the field of comics, writers are simply more important than artists.

Let’s examine the proposition. On the one hand we have the artists, who illustrate, ink, colour and letter the comic. They put together the artwork that tells the story. They use their talents to illustrate the action and hook the eye and draw the readers into the world of the comic. And that, I’ll tell anyone who asks me, is a very, very important job. The cold, hard fact is that, without the artists, there is no comic.

But there’s one thing in a comic that’s more important than all that, and that’s story. Without a story, all that lovely art is nothing more than a pile of disconnected pictures. Without a good story, no matter how pretty the art is, a comic isn’t going to last. (Of course, bad art can kill a comic, too, but in my experience bad writing will kill it a lot faster. Hey, I’ve heard it said more than once that Vertigo survives on fantastic writing and bad art.) And an exceptional story can elevate a comic to the status of a legend. Would Watchmen (or V for Vendetta or many of his other works) have been Watchmen (or V for Vendetta etc. etc.) without Alan Moore? Would Transmetropolitan (or The Authority, or Planetary, the first twelve issues of which I’ve just finished re-reading - sooweeeeet!) have been Transmet (or…well, you know) without Warren Ellis? Neil Gaiman and Sandman. Garth Ennis and Preacher. Frank Miller and The Dark Knight Returns (though would TDKR have been TDKR without his art as well as his writing? Interesting point, and I’ll be returning to that). And there are so many other examples where, while the artists have helped to shape the story and give it life, it has been the story, the core vision of the writer, which has made the comic truly special. It’s the same in movies, TV, prose, poetry, whatever. The execution can take many forms, but at the heart of it you must have a story (preferably a good one), or you’ve got nothing. Well, nothing, or reality TV.

But what about someone like Frank Miller, you ask, someone who’s both writer and artist? Well, that’s where it gets interesting. See, I have to confession to make. I don’t really believe that writers are, by definition, more important than artists. I believe that storytellers are more important than, shall we say, “pure artists”. A storyteller can simply be a writer, or they can be both artist or writer, or they can even just be an artist, because the best artists really do tell a story. And it’s possible to be a writer and not be a storyteller - but that’s a thorny one, so let’s put it aside for today. If you’re not creating the story, though, no matter how good you are, you’re just a cog in the machine. I’ve seen artists like that. They can be technically perfect and draw wonderfully emotive pictures, but without a sense of direction and a feel for the flow of a story, they’re just not going to cut the mustard (unless they find an accommodating writer who’ll tell them exactly what to do, of course). That’s why books on creating comics - the good ones, like Will Eisner’s and Scott McCloud’s and Denny O’Neil’s - emphasise storytelling so much. That’s why when editors look at art submissions, they want to see sequentials, not pin-ups.

So there you have it. The most important element of a comic is the story - and thus the most important person in the process is the one who creates that story, be it writer, artist, or whoever. Really, when we get down to it, all of us have contributions to make, and they’re all important. It’s just that if you’re not a storyteller, mine’s more important than yours. Heh.

Who's your fucking huckleberry, kiddies?!

GHM Online Columnists - Doc Holiday and the VC Cowboy

“ARE WRITERS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ARTISTS?”