Production values, worth it for the comic/idea?

This thumbnail had minimal polishing.

This twitter thread got me thinking.

What is this polish, or lack of for? To sell to a gatekeeper? Or to spread our ideas?

To impress a big publisher or to help resonate with a tribe?

What will sell an idea of a story? The idea or the production values in of itself? Many these comic makers from manga got me thinking. Is the labour in the polished illustrations or the idea?

Look at these time-consuming illustrational how-tos online. There's no how to when it comes to creativity. It's all polishing in hopes to make a hit.

Yet there's no reliable metric on what makes a hit. Persistent, sustainable consistency and luck.

Have to judge if these techniques add or detract from the experience of the idea, along with the time.

Be in the idea business first, not the polishing business. A convenient way to display the ideas, even a style overhaul if the time constraints are considered. Especially with cartooning.

It's an immense privilege to draw so detailed in the first place, yet it's a pleasure if there is such an opportunity if one so chooses. Yet the reductionistic cartoons can also make a point. If one can.

This may be making an 'animalistic' point, yet the starting idea of what to draw comes before the how-to, the starting idea for a big project matters more. The intuitive is always something to be learned. That's not what an instruction manual teaches.

Or the baroque detailed way, understand time considered, dressing it up as a convenient like raw meal prep in cooking presented as better. It's merely different compared to taking a meal out of the freezer and putting it into the microwave.

They are plenty of comics that have been successful without needing the polish.