Do you read comics or do you look at it?

Don't mind my ranting, but like right now, I'm holding AVX 11 (2012) and Dr. Strange Sorcerer Supreme #54 (1993)

It takes me about 7-10 minutes to read the entire AVX 11 issue. (that's when I put effort trying to sound like the characters in my head/ or out loud) It's 18 pages give and take a few advertisement pages. Strange SS 54 is 30 pages minus 6 advertisement pages, but reading the entire issue would take roughly bout 30/40 mins of reading.

Something about older comics is that every space counts for a text. Newer comics = every space on a page counts for graphical illustration. You'll see a lot of sentence breaks on current X-Men comics like (...I...) (...Was.... In... China...) (Now.. I'm in Washington....) (Beast won't shut up....) (I'm on the moon)

Here's another example:

This is what we get from current comics..... There's hardly anything to read only if at all.

Seriously now, how long does it take you to actually read a comic today? 5 mins? 10? How long did it take you to finish a comic 10 or 20 years ago?

If all I wanted was walls of text, I'd read a book.

There's the art to appreciate too. It takes me 45 minutes maybe to read a comic, I like to really examine the art work, that's half of the reason I buy them print still.(Most of the time)

Books are different though so comparing the choices of picking between the two doesn't stand the same way. Books are more 3rd person. Comics, the reader is the narrator and the character. You read the dialogues of what they speak in direct tones. Or at least that's how comics were back in the days.

Art is appreciative regardless, but the same can not be said for text if no text isn't present at all. So basically, just as you are looking at an art book, you guess or try to feel the context.... but only to find that there isn't any. Context can be taken however the way the viewer wants. That's not how it's supposed to be like in traditional comics, let alone novel books.

Some books are heavy on art some are heavy on text both as long as done well can tell stories. Text with words and art with the feel of a the visuals. Scott Snyder's and Greg Capullo's run in Batman for example is an example of mixing both great art with more than enough amounts of text.

In the end it's all in the style. Some scenes are easier and better interpreted through minimal text some benefit better with more.

I think current comic's artistic side is leaning a little too far in the japanese animation. It all started during Gen X comics iirc. You're right though. I do not wish to spend $4 on something that will not occupy my time and exercise my imagination for less than 5 minutes.

@Mercy_ said:

If all I wanted was walls of text, I'd read a book.

Old comic books take me a lot of time to read them but that sometimes is really hard for me.I prefer new comic books because they don't have so much text and look beautiful.

@Magethor: This didn't have much text because it needed to have an emotional impact.

I'm a scrub to comics but I made an observation very similar to the OP's that more dialogue = more value for money. It also occurred to me that as a medium, comics = artwork + dialogue. It's about using dialogue to "pan out" the artwork, to make the artwork "longer".

That said I do look at comics. (for one thing it is how I pick out a comic) But I appreciate being able to read them as well, not to mention it seems to me like business suicide to me to release comics without lots of dialogue.

If all I wanted was walls of text, I'd read a book.

QFT

art gets you there story keeps you there.

Without good stories you have early Image comics.

It would not shock me to discover most people who care more for the art and broken dialogue are younger

and are used to the modern day twitter and text style of communication.

@SC said:

Well yeah, obvs wen U have mod day writes twting dere scripts & dialogue 2 editors and etc U hav 2 sacrifice volume. Its called progress. lol C wat Bendis twted? Dat guy is hoot!

What?

@ENGLENTINE said:

art gets you there story keeps you there.

Without good stories you have early Image comics.

It would not shock me to discover most people who care more for the art and broken dialogue are younger
and are used to the modern day twitter and text style of communication.

You are absolutely correct.

It really depends on the comic. That one had little text to try and make Xavier's death more shocking (like the quiet in a movie after a major character dies). Walking Dead on the other hand has much more writing because of the simpler art.

A pictures worth a thousand words as they say.

I think the example the OP posted is beautifully done, and the art with simple dialogue actually adds to the drama and weight of the scene.

Part of the reason i love comics is the art, and i think these days they know how to effectively tell stories using imagery instead of just words better than past decades did.

and there was that one issue of new x-men where there was no dialogue at all, and it only told the story using the art. Loved that issue.

It seems to me, that comic books are like songs...

Songs are a combination of words and music. There are some things words can express that music never could. And there are some things that music can express that words never could. A song combines the two to express something that neither could express alone...

Comic books are like that... There are some things words can express that pictures/drawings never could. There are some things that pictures/drawings express that words never could... A comic book combines the two to tell a story that neither could tell alone...

Thanks all for replying.....

@Mucklefluga said:

@Magethor: This didn't have much text because it needed to have an emotional impact.

Emotion can be felt with both. But that's aside from the truth that the majority of the issue is just like that with hardly any text to read.

Also, what impact of medium stirs the spirit more? detailed text from a book or detailed images of a movie? 9 of 10 will agree more with a emotional impact with a book rather than a movie no matter how great the images are. When you read a comic, the still images is but an anchor of the scenery, when you read the dialogue and narration, the images follow and the still image begins to move fluently in your head as you read on. A still image alone without words to move you doesn't allow this fluid mental picture.

@ZEELLO said:

I'm a scrub to comics but I made an observation very similar to the OP's that more dialogue = more value for money. It also occurred to me that as a medium, comics = artwork + dialogue. It's about using dialogue to "pan out" the artwork, to make the artwork "longer".

That said I do look at comics. (for one thing it is how I pick out a comic) But I appreciate being able to read them as well, not to mention it seems to me like business suicide to me to release comics without lots of dialogue.

I agree and especially with that last part. If Marvel doesn't fix their stories, dialogue and historic consistency soon, they are very near to their fate of a business suicide.

@JediXMan said:

Here's the thing: I enjoy reading, but it needs to be good. Quantity =/= quality, which is the problem with older comics.

Read Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. They use a lot of text in their writing, but it's good. Older comics, unfortunately, are annoyingly cliche, featuring dialogue and useless exposition that nobody would ever say out loud.

For me, a bad artist can hurt even good writing. But if the writing is really, really good, I can overlook bad art. Good art can't fix a bad story.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that 1st part there. Quality of an image is of the taste of the eye of the beholder. But the quality of a story is a good story to anyone who reads it that can comprehend it. Sometimes you have to read a story twice to get the whole context of the whole picture. For just a picture alone, what you see if what you get.

Older comics are believed by popular vote from this generation to have what kids believe these days as "bad art".... But they do not see the beauty of this art. But setting the art aside, the story telling is superb.

Older comics, unfortunately, are annoyingly cliche, featuring dialogue and useless exposition that nobody would ever say out loud.

One of the beauties of a comic book is pure imagination. Who cares how a character speaks; it's their character. How boring would a character be if that character resembles everything a normal real human being talks and acts like? Pretty boring now that most newer generation comics speak very modern-like mono-toned. Magneto sounds like Cyclops, Cyclopes sounds like Emma Frost, Emma Frost sounds like Wolverine. Everyone's dialogue is the same. Another thing whom @ENGLENTINE: brought up....

@ENGLENTINE said:

It would not shock me to discover most people who care more for the art and broken dialogue are younger

and are used to the modern day twitter and text style of communication.

Is true to the fact that current day comic dialogue is ---- Twitter~ish .....

@CerealKiller said:

A pictures worth a thousand words as they say.

I think the example the OP posted is beautifully done, and the art with simple dialogue actually adds to the drama and weight of the scene.

Part of the reason i love comics is the art, and i think these days they know how to effectively tell stories using imagery instead of just words better than past decades did.

and there was that one issue of new x-men where there was no dialogue at all, and it only told the story using the art. Loved that issue.

I'm not too sure about that. You can take all of the bubble texts off of 1960's - 1990's comics and you will still have a story, but the story will have no true context. Words are the ones that move a story, images are just for the eyes. How can a blind person appreciate art? Through words and the feeling of those words.

@Magethor

well yeah, good points, but i still think you can get some bang for your buck when buying comics today even if it might not have as much dialogue.

@TDK_1997 said:

Old comic books take me a lot of time to read them but that sometimes is really hard for me.I prefer new comic books because they don't have so much text and look beautiful.

I'm the same. I'm reading Walter Simonson's Thor Omnibus, and as epic as the stuff he writes is, its A LOT of reading. A good quarter of the entire text is just thinking out the actions they will do or thinking the very obvious which the art can already depict. I like that modern comics aren't so text heavy and can deliver an epic story with amazing art. I spend 30-45 minutes on an average comic these days and it takes me like an hour to get through an issue of Simonson's Thor. I still enjoy it though.

I read them, to me what really makes a difference is that I honestly imagine it all like a movie and that scene where Cyclops kills Professor X what I do is basically take in the image and imagine it all animated inside my head the camera panning and cutting to each person's reaction. Another thing that really makes a difference is how memorable or how much you actually pay attention to the story, take Alan Moore's "From Hell" for example biggest frickin graphic novel I've ever read cover to cover, and I've only read it once like a year ago and I can still remember what it was about and how the story and everything connects. If the story isn't memorable why read it.

Well...there is loads of text in Conan and I still love it. Then again Wood is a great writer.

But more to the point, comics aren't supposed to be overloaded with information. The art is supposed to do as much of the work as possible.

For me, a good read is determined to the right amount of balance between action and plot movement. For example, I can skim through a Lobdell book in under 15 minutes because it's all action and barely any plot movement but if I try to read a Grant Morrison issue in that amount of time my head would explode.

This is kind of an odd question a I would assume most of us (the literate anyways) do both.

To be fair however, if we are presuming this question is relevant... it should include smelling the comics as it is what I do first.

@SC said:

Well yeah, obvs wen U have mod day writes twting dere scripts & dialogue 2 editors and etc U hav 2 sacrifice volume. Its called progress. lol C wat Bendis twted? Dat guy is hoot!

What. The. Heck.

@Mercy_ said:

If all I wanted was walls of text, I'd read a book.

^

The right balance is required.

Depends on artists or writers. Like Supergirl has lots of wordas but I think the art kinda sucks, but in Superman the arts amazing but there's not a great deal of dialogue. Its kinda half half on super boy though