I keep hearing people say that the art style of a webcomic doesn't matter. That a comic can still be great--despite having bad art--if the story and/or jokes are good. To "prove" their point, people mention the opposite as a point of reference; a good-looking comic with bad jokes is a bad comic.

To these people, I've got one thing to say: you're wrong. A comic is a symbiotic relationship; a good joke helps the art, and good art helps the joke. Let me put it another way. Imagine you're watching a movie with an engaging plot and great jokes. Sounds like a pretty good movie, right? Well, now imagine that the movie has the worst acting in the world, and the actors look like they fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch. Still think the movie sounds good?

What I'm trying to say is that a comic's art does matter. By nature, humans are visual people; sight is the most important of our senses. By nature, a comic is a piece of visual art. That is, unless your comic is accompanied by an audio file, narrating the comic for the reader, it is a completely visual experience. As such, it must appeal to the reader's visual tastes or it will not be as effective.

Now, I'm not saying that art is the only thing that matters. I do agree with people that a visually appealing comic that is ultimately shallow will probably not be very good. But I also contend that neither will an ugly comic with a sparkling punch line. Unfortunately, though, many people don't seem to realize that there is a necessary relationship between art story. Take a look at the most successful comics out there, print comics as well as web comics. What do they all have in common? They all look nice and are written intelligently. Those cartoonists were all able to balance their art with the jokes, neither taking precedence over the other. Don't believe me? I challenge anyone to find a good webcomic that is an extreme; either ugly but witty, or beautiful but boring. I bet that you'll never find one. Or if you do, I'll bet that the comic would be much improved if the artist invested more time into balancing it more.