Well, there’s no way I can agree with that. Achewood’s art style is not very evocative (I really want to say “not very good”), and you wouldn’t be able to tell what’s going on at all if not for the words. Even with those, there seem to be so many in-jokes and references to things I don’t know about that I have a hard time following it. While it is indeed less wordy, the words that are there seem chosen less carefully to me.

On the other hand, though Subnormality is often very wordy, it explains itself better (relies less on obscure references), and the artwork provides an integral part of the message, sometimes by far the dominant part (as in the two strips I linked).

Very often, the two are linked intimately, as in this strip where the reader’s expectations are subverted not once but twice, entirely due to visual techniques:
http://www.viruscomix.com/page529.html

I don’t care about how hot the girls are drawn one way or the other, as that’s not what the strip is about (the fact that you focused on that as one of the main positives is revealing – thanks for that, since it lets readers know if they’re likely to agree with your take or not). I think it is about humanity, about people, about slowing down and taking the time to listen to them with the sort of intimacy that is not often found in comics. And it’s not always going to funny. Often, I feel like Subnormality is as concise as it CAN be for what the author wants to show, as those tend to not be things that can be shown in three panels.

We can agree that novels also have a right to existence, alongside haikus? Traditional 3-panel comics are like haikus. Subnormality is often more like a novel.

Anyway, I just wanted to say where I’m coming from. Of course I agree with “different strokes for different folks”.

The criticism about “too many words” is also a little strange to me, as you also gave Achewood 5 stars, and the dialogue in that can hardly be accused of brevity; rather the opposite.

There are also many entries where there are almost no words at all… i.e.
http://viruscomix.com/page488.html
http://www.viruscomix.com/page537.html

“For a humor strip, Subnormality is rarely laugh-out-loud funny. It is, however, frequently clever.”

You forgot to mention moving, thoughtful and profound.

So, how did this work out?