Color or black and white? Whats your complexity?


razorg456's avatar
I see a lot of artists put quite a bit of emphasis on coloring
in their comic book pages upon creation. I can see this being
important for covers or splash comic book pages.

I don't see many comic books on DA in black and white. That
is truly a shame, because I think black and white offers just
as much complexity as a fully colored page.

What do you guys think? Are you more inclined to read a comic
book that is fully colored or less so? Is color the main attraction
these days?


Comments67
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Mirria1's avatar
Colour is nice, I do like it. But I do appreciate good old fashioned black and white as well. (Most Manga is usually the latter so I’ve grown used to it.)
I usually don’t really colour my stuff either, I just use shading. I personally find it easier. (I can never decide on the perfect colours and how to use them.)
saintartaud's avatar
I've always had a preference for black and white. Like, I wouldn't say I read many comics these days, but when I was really into comics, my favorites were all in black and white. Color limits the role of line quality and use of black in compositions, which can often be more striking IMO and if an artist is good create as much interest.
SpaceLorenz's avatar
I guess it just depends on how you manage them. I was used to colored comics that were well-colored (like Yoko Tsuno for example, I really like how the landscapes are drawn in these), then I began reading manga, and I found black and white pretty cool too. But I've read some pretty messy black and white comics (Walking Dead for example), as well as colored comics so yeah, I guess what's important is being neat and precise, color or not. Then of course colored stuff draw your attention better than black and white, so you gotta be extra precise and neat when working in B&W.
ByelobogHorn's avatar
Black and white 'cause I'm a grump.
When I was a younger I thought comics were ugly and manga was superior -- I was pretty ignorant. But looking back the biggest issue I had without even knowing it was the over-rendered muddy coloring that was popular back then.

Thankfully that trend is turning around and flat coloring is becoming more popular, but for the longest time I comics had a very overwrought look that was a turn-off. I was much more satisfied having a few sporadic watercolor illustrations in my Shonen Jump issues.
GrendalUnleashed's avatar
Of late several classic Batman stories have been reprinted without the color plates and I can't see the point. Even the Watchmen was given the same treatment after Gibbons redid the colors that Higgins originally produced.

It's all pointless: If a strip is produced in BW then the design of the artwork was for that medium and in color then the same.

Terry Moore creates in BW and his stories have vibrancy of the telling as did Sim in his epic Cerebus experiment.

That said the original Denny O'Neill '70's Batman comics I read in BW collected versions and have a hard time getting through collections of the same with the original color seperation plates included.
GrendalUnleashed's avatar
Cool!

No wait I just pointed out that Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil made a Batman that was as powerful when retold sans colour and that Frank Miller's Dark Knight was enhanced by the colour plates as was the Watchmen by John Higgins' color work and without the latter are less powerful.

What's next Paul Dini's animated series stripped of it's color...that would be just stupid as stripping the Fleisher Superman that inspired it of all color.

C'mon didn't you see 'They shall not grow old' and think what would Metropolis be like given the same treatment? And then the Batman serials, Horse Feathers, Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Lost Horizon etc.

100 year old films brought up to 4K color/3d treatment. That would be a new experience to the Star Wars/Home Alone generation.
IKrines's avatar
Black and white are the most common in print. It is cheaper.
I like black and white comics. They have a retro/indie vibe to them. But requires that you are good at Pencilwork/inking.
razorg456's avatar
This is very true. Since I'm not going straight to printing
my comics though I guess it might benefit me to apply
color to my works. If they should be fortunate enough
to make it to the printing phase, then I can always edit
them for that purpose. Thank you again for your input,
my friend, and enjoy your holidays :3
IKrines's avatar
Only if you keep to a consistent palette through everything.
ag-meade's avatar
I'm still pretty new to this site (and art in general), so haven't noticed audience preferences on color vs black and white - sorry I can't be of more help there. I typically read both types, though.

Personally, I'm drawn in by a combination of style and story. I think there's a lot that can be done with BW, especially with shading and textures. Just like color, there are lots of pros and cons for both.

I hope these questions might be helpful for you: Is the style you've chosen doing the work you want it to be doing? Is it getting your story across? What benefits would color bring to your work?
razorg456's avatar
Actually, I've been taught to approach problems using
the same kind of reasoning, so this will be very helpful
to me. I thank you for your time and input on this topic.
I feel more confident than before in what I want to do.
ag-meade's avatar
Happy to offer my couple of cents. I hope that I could be of some help. Good to know that you're feeling more confident now. Keep sticking with your vision and you'll get where you're going! 
razorg456's avatar
Greatly appreciated my friend. Please enjoy your
holiday and we will both see what the new year
has in store for us :3
ag-meade's avatar
I hope you're enjoying the holiday season too and that 2019 holds lots of art and positivity for you!
man-among-men's avatar
I agree, there is simply not enough people doing black and white, which is a real shame, cause the practice with contrast, and the skills you need to get those mind popping perspectives can be refined rather quickly in that medium. I'm a bit of a try hard, but I am attempting some kind of comic in the nearish future, and it will be a black and white, because of time and that little bit of room for the viewer to fill in. Anyway, the comics that drew me in are all very detailed, and tend to have a way of bringing up the same background subtleties multiple times. Often between issues as well. The action and scale must be polished if I'm going to read it again, otherwise, I'll just let it sit. But I think the real advantage to a comic, is how you can use it to passively world build. If you can manage to have all the details line up right, you can notice things before they happen, and it becomes something of a mystery book. This is not often brought to to great of an effect, but I love the little things like that. It really disappointing me when things change midway threw the series, and things just kind of fissile out as all you have been keeping track of has been boiled down while it's narrative comes to a halt.
razorg456's avatar
Yep, but now that I've had a chance to pose this
question, I understand why there are fewer
black and white comics versus color. Black
and white is truly a challenge when creating
an online comic book. You have to consider
what the viewer is using to read them and
whether or not it is conducive to the
site they are being viewed on. It
doesn't matter how wonderful your
black and white art is. If it looks pitiful
in a thumb nail it will likely be ignored...

All your other points have merits too and are things
I'm considering for my next upcoming comic book. I
hope to keep things relatively consistent as possible.
Thank you for providing me with your insight into this
matter :iconman-among-men: Hopefully it will reflect
in my up and coming works.
pa5cal's avatar
The answer is that it completely depends, as you can probably guess, on the skills of the artist and/or colorist.
Prime example is Sean G Murphy (Joe the Barbarian, Punk Rock Jesus, etc) --> No one who's colored his work makes it look good. His work in B & W, on the other hand, is amazing.
Conversely, Stuart Immonen's art (X-Men, [Black] Captain America) is pretty decent but is incredibly vibrant once colored by Marte Gracia.
Lastly, Chris Bachalo, lucky for me, has been teamed up with both great inkers AND colorists. His Steampunk comic book almost always had great colors while by some bizarre luck, I was given, by a great comic book store owner, an oversize version of on of these issues in B & W, without any word bubbles or text of any kind - one of my prized posessions.
Having such a busy schedule, if I do buy comics at all, I buy them only for the art, and both color and B & W are chosen, strictly depending on my taste.
razorg456's avatar
So it's the entire package your basically investing your money into,
when you pick your poison, not just the medium. I guess I better
be more concerned with the quality of the art and the story
its portraying. Even then, if it's just not someone's cup of tea--
no matter how good either of these aspects may be-- it could
still fail. This is in truth a very harsh business...
pa5cal's avatar
yep
Furthermore, when I was growing up in Canada, the Marvel and DC stuff we got was not colored.
Considering the limited color on newsprint paper you guys got here, we Canadians got better looking stuff, in my opinion. 
That is until Photoshop and other software was put into the comic color process.
Unless looking at Barry Windsor Smith Wolverine stories, most early comic print stuff did not look that great
razorg456's avatar
Interesting :3 I don't think I've even seen an
uncolored comic book page from Marvel or
Dc comics, ever. It would feel weird to me
seeing Spider-man or Batman in black or
white.
Blue-Dragon77's avatar
I like both, but I find that if the color page is done poorly, it's just a muddy mess :/ Also, some color combos look better than others. I personally prefer to work in black and white, because I'm not the best at using colors for a comic (though, I'm working on that :) I have splash pages, but I think that if it's done well, black and white can be better than color.

I mean, when I think of memorable comics...for me it's stuff like Frank Miller (who used minimal color at least in Sin City,) and Edward Gorey (a personal favorite, though he's not really a traditional comic writer.) I also like manga a lot...so...there's that XD

I think color was used well quite often in The Sandman, but like someone mentioned earlier, story is the main thing for me. If the page is confusing due to color or lack thereof, that is a problem. But overall, I can do either :)
razorg456's avatar
I understand your point. The same can be said for black and white
or any medium really. I guess the point that :iconpa5cal: and :iconzaron:
made are pretty on point. It really depends on the artist's skill level and
ability to make those comic pages as clear and concise to a reader
as possible. I'm thinking I'm going to focus on the story and the art
work and make my final decision afterwards. If I end up choosing
color, I want it to be because I can best convey my ideas through
this medium. The same will go if I decide to go with black and white.
I thank yo for sharing your opinion with me :3
pa5cal's avatar
sure
my pleasure