Comics are primarily a visual medium. And there are some good artists, and bad artists, along with good writers and bad writers.
Bad art can ruin a good story, and make a bad story worse, and Good art can sometimes make a bad story better, and a good story shine.
My question, Do you have a favorite story in a comic that is an exceptional story, but you find the art is not great, maybe even terrible?
(and I realize good art/bad art is purely subjective, so maybe call it "art you don't like")

Example:
Starman #11. In which we find out the fate of Ragdoll. (supposedly)
Very gripping story, probably one of my top 10 of all time. But the art.......OY!
To my eye, it looks rough, rushed, amaturish, just plain awful. Had the artist been the regular artist, I would never have picked up the series. But the story is just.....wow!

Another example, Dark Knight Returns. Frank is not one of my favorite artists. Sketchy, rough, half finished looking art, downright ugly in some places. Great layout, and panel placement, but the actual art leaves me cold a lot of the time.
BUT the story is great. It is one of those re-read once a year books.

In both cases, the writing overshadows the art. Had the writing been bad, or even mediocre, I would have passed on the books.

Anybody else?

Alan Moore's Supreme. The stories are quite entertaining, but there's some appalling art on display.

Yeah, the only reason I've never read Alan Moore's Supreme is the artwork I've seen from it.

A lot of the JSA stuff with Joe Staton art is pretty disappointing. Staton can be a good artist, but he sure wasn't on that run.

All-Star Squadron after Buckler and Ordway left. Pretty pedestrian art with great Roy Thomas tales for the bulk of the run.

Yeah I agree w/Trevor re: JSA/Staton

Cosmic Oddysey.

I loved the story, could not STAND the art. I don't like Mignola's stuff. I know some do, I'm cool with that. It's a personal preference thing. To this day I can't re-read the book because I can't bear to look at a 3 foot tall 6 foot wide bubbled John Stewart.

I was planning on picking up some SUPREME trades soon. Youse guys are now making me re-think that decision.

I heard that Chris Sprouse drew a lot of that stuff, and I love his work. Should I be afraid of other artists' contributions?

Welcome JurisFlash!
I agree with you to the extent that I hadn't seen anything else by Mignola.
I picked up all the Hellboy stuff a couple of years back, and think that it's cool now.
It's definitely an aquired taste.
He works better in certain circumstances than others.

I was just rereading that recently. I liked the art but I can't say it was the big draw to the series. Wouldn't go so far as to say it's appalling though.

Whose "bad" art are we talking about, here?

Hellboy is really where his art shines. In other works it is a bad fit. He truly did find his niche with Hellboy.

Now, see, I loved Mignola's COSMIC ODYSSEY art. If anything, I liked it more than Starlin's writing!

I pulled the TPBs off the shelf to refresh my memory. The bad art's mostly confined to the first volume, and perpetrated by a plethora of Liefeld's studio artists. There's good work too by Chris Sprouse and Rick Veitch. The second volume is streets ahead with the exception of Ian Churchill's and Liefeld's work.

In this case, then, I just want that first volume of stories repencilled.

Sprouse's work on Supreme is great and generally well regarded. I like Veidt's flashbacks, though he's not always as well liked. The stuff by Liefeld and his stable is pretty awful, but don't let it stop you.

Substantial number of pages by Joe Bennet, Mark Pajarillo and J.J. Bennett in the first volume, and Churchill and Liefeld (for two pages only) in the second.

Pick it up, Frank. Just don't decide whether or not to get the second volume solely on the basis of the art in the first volume, for the second is a vast improvement.

I'm with you on this one!

Sprouse is one that has gotten better as he's been drawing. I loved how his work looks in Alan Moore's Tom Strong

Has anyone read Ultimates 3? I haven't been able to go further than a quick perusal, the art seems that bad to me.

Ultimates 3 belongs in the Bad Story/Bad Art thread.

Works for me Rob.

I love John Romita, Jr. now, but his 80s X-Men run was horrible and uninspired - especially in costume design.

And while George Perez has never been a detriment to a story, his work is usually full of so much detail, it can at times be a drag on such books as JLA/Avengers and B&B.

I can't think of a tory I've loved in which I hated the art but...

I wasn't a huge fan of the style of art used in Earth X

I think the Preacher art could have been better.