Covers, stories, or inside art pages

[jsniderfamily]

Do you buy SHI for the cover art, the stories, or inside art on the pages?

[Sunquake]

That's a tough one.  I have to say all three of course, but I would put them in this order.

Cover, inside art, and story.  Now, I'm a writer and in movies and books I would always say story and character first, but with comics, and especially Shi, the art is just incredible.  Plus you really don't know the story until you buy it and read it.  But the writing in Shi has always been good, so past stories factor into my faith in the writing.

There are other comics that I've seen with awesome cover art, then I flip inside and it's crap.  Those I rarely buy, but if the cover art catches my eye and the art inside is average then I usually buy it.  But after I buy it, the story is what makes me decide if I feel good about the purchase or not.

[pctchuck]

I picked up Shi from the beginning, so the cover was what grabbed me first, then when I saw the interior art I was blown away. After reading the story, I was in awe. The stories are what keeps me coming back. I've seen some pretty poor interior art and questionable covers (thinking Avatar here folks, not Crusade's work which has been pretty top notch from the start), so the stories are what makes the books.

[hauntmaster]

Story. Story. Story. In that order.
I almost enjoyed Illustrated Warrior better than the original series (almost!). That's why I'd rather see new series/storylines rather than lots of new cover variants.
I will say that having Billy do the art makes it a much more enjoyable experience than some of the other artists that have done Shi in the past.
Bad art can ruin a good storyline (the experimental/so-called cutting edge artwork in some of the Batman titles caused me to drop some of them). Likewise, the most gorgeous artwork in the world won't get me to pick up a book with a vaucous storyline.