Dave Stewart, because he doesn't overdo it with effects or too many different colors, never distracts from the art, and uses his colors to enhance the storytelling. He uses a very classy color palette.
Dave Stewart. He’s an amazing colorist and he’s colored 90% of the comics in the Mignolaverse, where he is able to match his colors to the artist that worked on the comic.
Yeah, Dave Stewart is pretty much the best. But I'm also a fan of many other colorists, like Laura Martin (always great, probably the best for the more mainstream superhero look), Matt Hollingsworth and Dave McCaig. As a Brazilian, I'm also partial to Cris Peter's work.
Episodes where you make fun of bad comics are fun, but episodes like this - in-depth explorations of different facets of the medium and industry - is why I subscribe.
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man I think a lot of modern colorists try too hard to add shape and volume to the panels where the line-art has already done that job. By that I mean, the inker has already taken the time to painstakingly render the light and shadow of the scene through line weight, hatching, stippling, solid blacks and other techniques...then the colorist adds a gradient and specular highlights onto every single surface anyway. The effect is too extreme. It makes skin, hair, and cloth look shiny like plastic or metal. The line-art is speaking one language, where the world is flattened to have black lines around everything and shadows look like brush strokes. The coloring needs to respect the “flat” interpretation of the world with bold, solid colors. Adding attempted photorealistic shading with gradients and lens flares just makes a huge mess that is much too exaggerated.
This is what bothers me the most. Look at the EC reprints. They ruin the art. It’s an insult to the art, what they did. I’d rather see photographic reprint of an old comic or just see the art with no colour if they’re going to do that
I agree, I think, even with digital you should try to minimize the volume information as much as you can, cos everything is already there...but id say its usually the art director's fault, not the artist. My wife works as a colourist, and sometimes she has to do shitty colouring per request, no matter how much she tries to explain how wrong those colors are, or how bad it will look.
I was wondering how i watched this this morning and was wondering how it had been posted at 6pm tonight... dude cares enough to lose view to correct his mistakes, ie. A Man
Exactly that. Down to earth, humble guy. Very much appreciated! How anyone can watch his videos and think he is the type of guy who deliberatly steals content without giving credit, is beyond me.
I was also like that, even if I admit I have been noticing that more and more. I come from Italy and for us comic books are originally black and white and they look better and when they are colored , they are not colored as well as American comics
Im the opposite. Always prefer reading comics with virbant quality coloring. Been reading comics for over 30 years. Today I struggle when reading b/w comics.
I didn't mean to imply that I didn't appreciate coloring, just that I'd never really realized the care and choices that go into it. The video definitely brought that to my attention.
That's funny, because I don't really read comics at all, but whenever I do think about them I often think of color. I actually tended to think that those old comics were gaudy and offputting, _before_ reprints. However I've also been put off by the new plain, flat realism of digital comics coloring. And seeing some images of old comics online I'm often struck by just _how_ bright and ridiculous looking they are, and I would struggle with whether I was looking at a retouched image, because it seemed like it sometimes, but honestly I didn't think publishers did that. Despite how I felt about those early comics images, with their muddy, often misprinted colors of limited palettes, this video gives me a far greater appreciation for not only the work that went into them, but the artistic choices that were being carefully made. I get that what we got was Chris' curated perspective, but the examples he gave really hammered home the violation that can come about from presenting a work literally. Either the literal colors of local objects and settings, or the literal inerpretation of color selections that predate RGB monitors and modern printing techniques. I may not have been fond of the look, but at least it didn't confuse the eye.
@@PJSPP I find that really, really weird, tbh. I mostly prefer B & W over colour, anyday. Especially when you have a master of "spotting blacks" and page design like Xaime Hernandez, Toth, Mort Meskin, Jim Woodring etc etc....I get the feeling that Paolo Rivera could do some fantastic B & W work too. All this shiny digital stuff is getting played out, that's why so many up-and comers (and established) cartoonists are using risograph printers.
Chris, I'm doing everything I can to blow this channel up. As far as I'm concerned, you put in the work, the research, the effort that deserves payback. It looks like your fanbase might realize this as well. We're all behind you. Don't ever think you're alone. If you need inspiration to continue, look back at this and realize you got this New Orleanian Cajun hooked and inspired. Realize your worth.
None of Your Business True. Every single fact uttered in this, or any video on this channel... Villarrubia is behind them all. He also directed and edited the video and wrote the script.... .....the shirt Chris is wearing was actually hand sewn by Mr. V. The glasses you see Chris wearing in every episode? Jose crafted those himself using nothing but common household items.
Got to agree. When I saw the controversy blow up I thought it was because Chris had used Villarubia's work without permission. On visiting the page you see it's just a comparison of old and new images. Does Villarubia contact Steranko, Buscema et al to get their permission to use their images on his Facebook page? Nope, because it's fair use. While it can be argued Chris has swiped some of the examples that Villarubia compiled, a simple acknowledgement - which Chris did verbally and onscreen AS WELL AS IN the Description (and even in the apology video and in messgaes on Villarubia's Facebook page!) is sufficient. More than sufficient, in fact. I didn't see the original video so I don't know how much Chris cited Villarubia's posts in that, but he has done MORE than enough now.
@@JamesBurrTV STRONGLY disagree that Comic Tropes has done "more than enough". I think what he has done is the bare-minimum baseline (for all future videos) for crediting his secondary sources. That being said, I have faith he will not repeat this situation in the future. Just keep in mind Villarrubia is the injured party in this event, not CT.
This video made a lot of sense to me. I've done a lot of reading of the older marvel stories in their digital masterworks and there was always something that made them more difficult to read and gave me a little bit of a headache. Seeing the color comparisons it clicked. The reprints are so bright that it can be straining to the eyes as well as losing the depth which makes it more difficult it larger panels to identify the relevant action, it becomes muddled. I think it's probably off-putting to readers, as it was for me, when first seeing the art style as you said in the video. I always figured they just scanned the old pages and it would be interesting to see the originals.
I agree. I think the ink was used for what it set out to be in it's time which complimented the penciling process too. But I do see a decomposition in many of the redigitalized works that can fairly decompose the art.
Interesting to see the Angel story. I've long complained that the Golden Age Marvel Masterworks are so heavily colored that I'm often reminded of preschool toys.
It’s so interesting how different am experience you get with comics based on if you read the digital version versus the original issues. I used to find old comics in thrift stores and book stores and I was amazed at how browned and brittle the paper could get. Makes sense that they would need to recolor it. You could also argue that reading a book monthly issue by issue is a totally different (and perhaps unintended) experience from getting an omnibus and binge reading it like a book. Many older comics were meant to be self-contained monthly installments packed with ads and now they’re just chapter #X of a series running #XX issues.
Neal Adams' Batman Illustrated books are another example of drastic changes made to the colors of reprints. They're colored the way Neal wanted, but the original decisions are gone. The covers of a lot of books printed in the 60's and early 70's were very nicely done with subtle color shifts and were very saturated. I always wondered how they did them compared to cutting acetate separations. You can see this in the Fantastic Four cover with The Thing that you showed a couple of times in this video. My favorite cover of this type is Amazing Spider-Man #44. That whole run of early Romita SR covers is like that.
One of the best TH-camrs (and people) out there, regardless of content. This is what integrity looks like. We love your passion and your dedication, Chris!
For years I felt the same thing, that when older books are reprinted the colors are way too bright. For example, when the Bernie Wrightson and Len Wein Swamp Thing stories are reprinted I've always felt they should reprint them on paper that has a muted tone, not bright white, replicating old newsprint. Without that, the new colors destroy the moodiness of the swamp, etc.
Many of my older color paperbacks have aged and faded and now looks closer to an old comic. But it's important to note that we can't tell most of the time what was the original color of old comics, as most of them were printed on paper which lost its colors pretty quickly.
Props and respect to you, @ComicTropes, for featuring fan art on your videos. Back in the day (very early 90's) a local comic book store that I frequented had a fan art wall in the back of the store where the owner would hang random comic book sketches created & submitted by all the local kids. It was a mix of submissions by all ages, and it inspired us younger kids to work harder to develop our skills as artists, in order to be able to compete in that same wall space with some of the older teens who were knocking their shit out of the park. It also gave us an early taste of how it felt to "succeed" and have our art validated...that our art was worthy of being seen by everyone else in town. It was a relatively small space on that wall, but it had a huge impact on me, and I'm sure so many other kids as well. Very cool to see you continuing this kind of thing with your channel.
Why colorists have long been left out of the credits has baffled me since I was a boy. Sometimes, they weren’t even credited inside the book. When my books are published each creative position is under an umbrella heading of “Artists” with their respective contribution appearing thusly: Pencil artist, ink artist, color artist, letter artist. It’s nice to see that you are taking time to highlight the colorists and big props to you for talking about Pat olliffe! When I first saw Otomo’s Akira in color I was pleasantly immediately enamored with the color work. It clearly and immediately showed the attention to the story was given that it required.
I'm rewatching this instalment three years (or was it two?) after first watching it. It's an excellent overview of the the most technical aspect of comic book production, without delving into the nuts and bolts. Great presentation. As someone who spent a career in graphic design, I can say that I found handling colour the most satisfying and at the same time almost the most frustrating aspect of the job (the most frustrating by a country mile were the sales reps!). If the general reader finds the mechanics of colour for print confusing, I'd have to say so do some within the graphics industry as well. Designers are more often concerned with the finished result and not with the means of achieving it, leaving the details to production staff, and then throwing a fit when things don't turn out the way they expected. As a young reader in the Sixties, I had access to two completely different forms of comic book presentation; the American version with Marvel and the English version with Eagle and Century 21 published by Fleetway for the most part. The American product was cheap newsprint and printed by what was probably letterpress or early offset, utilising coarse 65-line screens (maybe even coarser) in flat mechanical colour, with often terrible registration (It's interesting to compare comic books with the colour comic strip supplements of weekend US newspapers, where the newsprint was usually of a higher quality and the halftones were less coarse, up to 85-lines depending on the presses; they still had registration issues, though). English premier comics, like Eagle, were printed on higher quality newsprint, in full, painted colour or greyscale throughout, with fine halftones and, from what I've read, used gravure presses. This did not apply to all English comics. Lion, Tiger and Beano were printed on lower quality paper in black and white with either spot colour or an odd 3-colour halftone mix, with similar registration issues to their American counterparts. But Eagle, and later Century 21 were different and featured very skilled illustrators, notably Frank Bellamy in both magazines. Bellamy is an entire subject in himself but regarding his use of colour, he used a very monochromatic pallete across his work, sometimes the same scheme over an entire spread, with maybe just a vivid highlight here and there. His dynamic style could easily have inspired bright, garish colour schemes, but he eschewed those for a more subtle palette, even on strips like Thunderbirds. Early on he painted with watercolour but later used Dr Martins dyes. In an interview, he once stated that he only used red, blue and yellow, preferring to mix all secondary or tertiary colours from those three. His reasoning was that printing presses only used three inks plus black to achieve the finished result, so he saw no reason to overcomplicate the process. Whatever one thinks of this approach, the results certainly speak for themselves. Today's computer colourists could learn a lot by studying artists like Bellamy and Hampson.
Ironically, reloading this video is akin to a reprint 🤣 I admire that you took the time to say what you did and call attention to it and correct it. You probably didn't even need to apologise but you did so sincerely. Most TH-camrs don't respect copyright enough to he honest like that. Very professional sir! About the subject- you should make it known that digital versions use additive color which uses light to make color combinations. Where as inks and paints use subtractive color which gets darker when you mix it all...I believe anyway, I don't remember, I learned this in design school 🤣
I haven't read a single comic book in my entire life yet I keep coming back to this channel. Chris is probably the most genuine dude on this entire website and listening to him talk about his hobby is incredibly wholesome.
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This is a brilliant, brilliant piece, Chris. Consider me subscribed! (Signed, colorist of Morning Glories, Darkwing Duck, Sons of Anarchy, and more)
THANK YOU CHRIS! I have been on this case for a long time! I HATE the way digital and hard copy reprints destroy the original colourist’s work. They should put a huge apology to the artist at the start of the book. Why can’t we just get high quality scans of the original work?!
You can't duplicate a reflected image on paper as an emitted image on a computer or tv screen. LED screens are notorious for not being able to display magenta and purples. Ken Rockwell has a few articles on this at his website. You can't translate palettes and moods from one medium to another very well. Thanks for this thoughtful dive into an ignored but central feature of comic book storytelling!
I knew it, he's so honest that if you passed out free pie and he got two slices. He'd turn one back in. Golly, what do you do with a honest and intelligent dude? Tell him he is the best at showing the work of the comic colorist and you really have given me an education concerning comics. Keep up the fantastic work.
Glad this was re-uploaded, a particularly great episode. I'm probably going to show some parts to my son who was asking about coloration, but i didn't know enough about it to give a good answer before watching this.
I recently discovered your channel and I am really impressed. I don't consider myself a comic book fan or very knowledgable about them and I find I learn so much from your videos. They are entertaining, engaging, and educational. Much respect to you for your good work.
My favorite today is Laura Allred. Her style is very reminiscent of the 60s comic & pop art. And her work always gave me that feeling of Dorothy opening the door to Oz with each flip of the page.
Great episode, glad you updated it so it could be seen. Don’t worry Chris, mistakes happen and you owned up to it like a real person of integrity would. You’re a better person for it, and now that we’ve seen all the great work, we are too!
Villarubia is being a bit of a drama queen. He raises as stink on his FB page and spurs his followers to shame you in your comment section, but then completely ignores you when you apologize and reach out to him. You came out as the better man here.
Taking some time to answer doesn't mean to ignore, maye we're a bit hurrying-asses here. But this not waiting the answer and just upload it again, despite the word said of not doing, just shows everything clear.
Who’s indulging in drama deriving from people who run educational pages anyways LOL. I love comic tropes I’ve never seen him starting shit,just posting great and informative content
Well, he obviously did have time to post new stuff on his FB, but no time to reply Comic Tropes. He's being childish and acting all butt hurt. Poor baby.
Did I understand correctly that American comic book artists were not able to color the original drawings until the 1980s due to printing limitations? British publisher Hutton press introduced a photogravure process to print comics like Eagle, Girl and Swift as far back as 1950. That process meant that artists could color the actual drawings. You can see the results in the stunning artwork of people like Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy among others which reproduced beautifully with the photogravure process.
Im glad you put Adrianne Roy in there as example. She was my favorite colorist. This was one of the most informative comic videos I have ever seen. U did awesome with this
It was amazing, but I wish I could have sent him these two interviews for pertinent anecdotes to include: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=508 (Dave Sim interviewing Neal Adams about colouring and the old CMYK process--GREAT READ!) and Frank Santoro interviewing Oliff about Akira and his techniques: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=491
What an excellent topic for a video. It dovetails with a question that I asked you on a live stream as to why inking got finer and more detailed toward the end of the 80s and into the 90s. Another passionately informed production. Your hard work does not go unappreciated.
I like your show because you're chilled-out, never raise your voice, teach us about a niche topic in relatable language, and are super knowledgeable about what you love. Can't ask for better.
This video is BRILLIANT! Part of the magic of vintage comics was the crappy paper, but the limitations really brought out the artistry not just of comic creators but printers and publishers - which this video brilliantly demonstrates. Nice job, I really enjoyed this!
I'm glad I found this video. I started reading some of alpha flight from the early 80s, and I was missing some issues, so I figured I'd read them on marvel unlimited instead of paying a lot for key issues.. big mistake. It really takes you out of the story sometimes. They can and should treat these classics with respect. I hope the right people see this video and take into consideration what they've done. Thank you for shining some light on it.
You’re a great person Chris. Thank you for your work. Always appreciated. Keep up the good work. Two 👍🏾👍🏾 up. That being said, that intro was of epic proportions. Best intro ever.
My God, Chris! I think you have really outdone yourself with this one! Beautiful job. Never gave a second thought on the difficulties and intricacies of comic book coloring, but will definitely appreciate it more from now on. Thank you for giving us a new insight on this art form that we so much love.
Chris, I have so much respect for you and your work. Your channel is one of the best overall. Take care, and keep up the amazing work that you're doing.
Since, I was a kid when Image Comics started, colors and better paper was one of the main things that made me an Image fan. Thanks for this episode. Another great one.
Excellent video Chris! I got that feel from when I first discovered ComicTropes from this one - felt like I was looking at a world unexplored. This was so cool to learn about the coloring process and just how different it was back then vs now. Plus how tarnished original artwork can be from digital remastering
I know everyone else is telling you how great you are too but man these videos are fantastic and you seem like one of the most genuine human beings on the internet. Keep making great videos. You’re an important part of the comic book community.
Oh, SECONDED! I'd love to see an episode on Steve Rude and/or Nexus, and a big jump into Jim Woodring's stuff. Also an overview of the all-female comics of the underground/alternative era (Tits 'N Clits, Wimmin's Comix, Twisted Sisters ESPECIALLY for introducing so much new post-underground/alternative talent and putting it all into one package)...who's with me?!
FINALLY! There are not enough people talking about this! It would be nice to get reprints of the textured, thoughtful coloring of the past. I can't stand some of the Photoshop paint bucket happening in these restorations. I'd be nice to get corrected reprints closer to the original. Great video again Chris!
im not even halfway through and my eyes have already been opened to how much ive been underestimating classic comics and their art. this makes things all make a LOT more sense
Your final Statement resonates truely with my own opinion on a proper executed reproduction: Staying true to the original art in coloring is the best option. Btw... Your videos are always a pleasure. 😊
Wow that's a lot of information to unpack, great job Chris masterful video. You really are the best Comic's channel out there. I've been watching you since you had only hundreds of views at best for each video. I hope you blossom to millions of subscribers in the near future.
Man, I felt so happy watching this episode. Thanks a lot! It's informative, it's soothing and it's enlightening. Your script shines and your delivering is great. You're doing an amazing work. Thanks a lot for that.
YES we absolutely do. I worked on hundreds of books, for Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc, that I never got credit for. It's what I signed up for, to be fair, but it leaves you with a terrible, empty feeling (and it's not like the pay is great for flats).
@@Salmonator2000 It's the initial step of the coloring process, taking the B &W page and putting down the first layer of color. The amount of artistry that goes into it varies, it's more of a technical process that shaves around an hour off of the coloring time for the actual colorist. You can see some of my old flats at madflatter.tumblr.com if you're interested
@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar Looking at how intricate your flats are, it opened my eyes to just how intensive and underrated the work that goes into the process. I usually just put down messy blobs of color since I figure no one will see the stuff behind the lines anyway, but they can be works of art in their own right 😅
I just wanna say thank you for making these videos, they are extremely informative and well researched and i don't know any other creator that takes the time to make videos like this on topics so niche and specific to artists, for someone really interested in this things this channel is a godsend
Check these out: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=491 That's Frank Santoro interviewing Oliff about Akira and his techniques, this: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=508 is an interview with Neal Adams by Dave Sim. Great anecdotes all around and some GREAT technical information.
This was a fascinating episode. I had no idea of how complicated coloring was as far as printing was concerned for all those decades. I also now understand why comics look so much different now than they used to and why things got a little strange in the late 80s/early 90s as a transition was occurring! I appreciate what you do Chris! Thank you!
Great video. I’ve actually discussed this issue along with a related one of Blu-Ray remasters of animated series quite a bit in my facebook groups. There are some reprints and remasters I absolutely hate because of how they butcher the colors & darkness levels...
Yet another great episode - thank you for all the hard work you put into researching all these topics on the creation, and the creators of the comics we love. too many other comics channels here tend to just highlight (and essentially just read through) some random issue of some random mag with little to say about it beyond 'well, that sucked'. You really get into the who, the what, the how and the why of SO many aspects of comics, and your love and dedication really show. I truly respect what you're doing, and the integrity you've shown in going above and beyond to make sure that your sources are properly credited. Keep up the good work, my good sir!
I love old comics but unfortunately modern digitally coloured reprints are one of the only practical ways to have affordable access to them. Some of the unofficial free comics sites offer a decent library of scanned silver and bronze age stuff. But when you read the comments on those sites they are full of people complaining about how they want the digitally remastered stuff. I think a lot of young readers dont necessarily appreciate the aesthetic of pre-digital printing. It looks messy and faded compared to what they are used to.
Also, your point on how reprints misrepresent the colors originally intended reminds me of the color limitations of the Game Boy Advance, and the Game Boy Color! It's something not a lot of people talk about, but both the Color and the Advance had unlit screens, with only the Advance getting lighting options later in its lifespan with editions of the SP. Because of this, a lot of games, especially on the Advance with its broader range of colors, needed really high contrast to be visible and coherent under ambient or outside light, meaning that you get a WILDLY different experience playing the games on the original Advance compared to, say, a backlit model, or using the GBA slot on a Nintendo DS, or playing a re-release on the Wii U. The colors are all so bright and saturated, and it makes moody, atmospheric games like Metroid Fusion feel a little cartoonish and, like you said, almost Dayglow. And in terms of the contrast, you get washed out games like Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, where playing them on a lit screen makes them look almost like a poster you left in a window directly facing the sun for a couple months. It's weird trying to decipher what the best experience is; like how games on old consoles look different on flat screens vs CRTs. Do you alter the game's colors, or do you leave it as is? Which is the true experience? Though in comics' case, the answer's more straight-forward; the remastered coloring should take the artist's work into account more so you can better represent their intent, rather than taking the colors very literally and robbing the story of its impact. Just an interesting thought!
Man, this was an interesting history lesson. Plus I feel like I got some interesting recommendations for comics to check out. Thanks for your hard work, man!
Really interesting. I remember when computer coloring first came about that often times the colorist made the characters and objects look like balloons from adding specular highlights and making everything look super shiny.
Thanks for the lesson in how coloring gets done at the various technological evolutionary levels. It's also good to get some validation for why I really prefer to collect and read the original brown pages for 60's-80's comics that were created in that style, to experience the color tones and moods as the artists intended.
I'm so glad to find this video; I hope this channel has more of this kind of thing. I've only recently started reading modern reprints of old comics. I love the clarity and the sharp details, but the colors are obviously just painfully bright - why go to the trouble of recoloring everything if it's going to be ugly? I don't get it. And I wonder why readers haven't raised hell about it, to get Marvel and DC to stop doing this. In any case, I'm fascinated by the radical changes in comics over the past thirty years. After ignoring comic books for many years I picked up a book by Alex Maleev a few years ago and I was instantly shocked and astounded, not only that technology could reproduce such imagery, but that publishers would be willing to sell it. I hope to learn more about the history that has made such things possible. Seems like this channel will be a good source of info!
I personally enjoy the bright colors of some marvel reprints, those were my introduction to a lot of old stories. I found the recolored art pretty exciting, however I dislike a lot of modern digitally colored comics. Not all obviously, but I think modern coloring techniques can look really bland. But stuff still looks great on newsprint as always.
Really enjoyed the side by side comparisons showing how(for better or worse) reprinting can change your first impressions of a comic. The Killing Joke is one of the first comic reprints I had ever witnessed
People need to informed about the issue of bad reprints. Even as an artist that should know better I looked at reprinted books and thought the color jobs were painfully garish. I forget the colors were for newsprint type paper and not modern glossy book paper and I've worked with actual presses.
I have a question: you said that the original printed colors become oversatured in couche or digital. In Jose Villarrubia posts, he calls poor "recolored" in most of cases. It is the original colors in different paper the problem or the new colors?
Great video, incredibly interesting! When I saw this would be your topic I was hoping you'd mention Marie Severin and I was not disappointed. She was so talented, and she deserved more work as an artist too. Thank you for introducing me to the great work of Villarubia too.
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Mr. Villarubia did not reply to me so I edited the video to explain what I’ve done. So: who’s YOUR favorite colorist and why?
Dave Stewart, because he doesn't overdo it with effects or too many different colors, never distracts from the art, and uses his colors to enhance the storytelling. He uses a very classy color palette.
Dave Stewart. He’s an amazing colorist and he’s colored 90% of the comics in the Mignolaverse, where he is able to match his colors to the artist that worked on the comic.
I really like Matt Hollingsworth. The Wake was just beautiful
I really like Laura Allred. I think the palette she uses works great with Mike's art.
I tend to enjoy the more old-school, "flat" looking stuff.
Yeah, Dave Stewart is pretty much the best. But I'm also a fan of many other colorists, like Laura Martin (always great, probably the best for the more mainstream superhero look), Matt Hollingsworth and Dave McCaig. As a Brazilian, I'm also partial to Cris Peter's work.
Episodes where you make fun of bad comics are fun, but episodes like this - in-depth explorations of different facets of the medium and industry - is why I subscribe.
Same! I've learned so much about this medium since I started watching!
Videos like this should be categorized as educational and informative as well.
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man I think a lot of modern colorists try too hard to add shape and volume to the panels where the line-art has already done that job. By that I mean, the inker has already taken the time to painstakingly render the light and shadow of the scene through line weight, hatching, stippling, solid blacks and other techniques...then the colorist adds a gradient and specular highlights onto every single surface anyway.
The effect is too extreme. It makes skin, hair, and cloth look shiny like plastic or metal. The line-art is speaking one language, where the world is flattened to have black lines around everything and shadows look like brush strokes. The coloring needs to respect the “flat” interpretation of the world with bold, solid colors. Adding attempted photorealistic shading with gradients and lens flares just makes a huge mess that is much too exaggerated.
This is what bothers me the most. Look at the EC reprints. They ruin the art. It’s an insult to the art, what they did. I’d rather see photographic reprint of an old comic or just see the art with no colour if they’re going to do that
I like solid colors no matter the rendering or simplicity.
I agree, I think, even with digital you should try to minimize the volume information as much as you can, cos everything is already there...but id say its usually the art director's fault, not the artist. My wife works as a colourist, and sometimes she has to do shitty colouring per request, no matter how much she tries to explain how wrong those colors are, or how bad it will look.
Yes I think the lens flares and glowing effects are going to be what make contemporary work look dated in the near future.
things often end up too smooth looking and losing their shape and texture ironically
You're one of the real ones, Chris.
I have to agree
I was wondering how i watched this this morning and was wondering how it had been posted at 6pm tonight... dude cares enough to lose view to correct his mistakes, ie. A Man
@@thewyldness Ditto !!!!
Exactly that. Down to earth, humble guy. Very much appreciated!
How anyone can watch his videos and think he is the type of guy who deliberatly steals content without giving credit, is beyond me.
@@fabiankoenig6499 because, they're dumb lol. Alex Sebastian for example is the #1 dumbo as evidenced by his comments on this thread
I've got to admit, despite decades of comic reading, I've never given that much thought to the coloring. This video is much appreciated.
I was also like that, even if I admit I have been noticing that more and more. I come from Italy and for us comic books are originally black and white and they look better and when they are colored , they are not colored as well as American comics
Im the opposite. Always prefer reading comics with virbant quality coloring. Been reading comics for over 30 years. Today I struggle when reading b/w comics.
I didn't mean to imply that I didn't appreciate coloring, just that I'd never really realized the care and choices that go into it. The video definitely brought that to my attention.
That's funny, because I don't really read comics at all, but whenever I do think about them I often think of color. I actually tended to think that those old comics were gaudy and offputting, _before_ reprints. However I've also been put off by the new plain, flat realism of digital comics coloring. And seeing some images of old comics online I'm often struck by just _how_ bright and ridiculous looking they are, and I would struggle with whether I was looking at a retouched image, because it seemed like it sometimes, but honestly I didn't think publishers did that.
Despite how I felt about those early comics images, with their muddy, often misprinted colors of limited palettes, this video gives me a far greater appreciation for not only the work that went into them, but the artistic choices that were being carefully made. I get that what we got was Chris' curated perspective, but the examples he gave really hammered home the violation that can come about from presenting a work literally. Either the literal colors of local objects and settings, or the literal inerpretation of color selections that predate RGB monitors and modern printing techniques. I may not have been fond of the look, but at least it didn't confuse the eye.
@@PJSPP I find that really, really weird, tbh. I mostly prefer B & W over colour, anyday. Especially when you have a master of "spotting blacks" and page design like Xaime Hernandez, Toth, Mort Meskin, Jim Woodring etc etc....I get the feeling that Paolo Rivera could do some fantastic B & W work too. All this shiny digital stuff is getting played out, that's why so many up-and comers (and established) cartoonists are using risograph printers.
Chris, I'm doing everything I can to blow this channel up. As far as I'm concerned, you put in the work, the research, the effort that deserves payback. It looks like your fanbase might realize this as well. We're all behind you. Don't ever think you're alone. If you need inspiration to continue, look back at this and realize you got this New Orleanian Cajun hooked and inspired. Realize your worth.
he didn't put in the research, though. José Villarrubia did
None of Your Business
True. Every single fact uttered in this, or any video on this channel... Villarrubia is behind them all. He also directed and edited the video and wrote the script....
.....the shirt Chris is wearing was actually hand sewn by Mr. V. The glasses you see Chris wearing in every episode? Jose crafted those himself using nothing but common household items.
Got to agree. When I saw the controversy blow up I thought it was because Chris had used Villarubia's work without permission. On visiting the page you see it's just a comparison of old and new images. Does Villarubia contact Steranko, Buscema et al to get their permission to use their images on his Facebook page? Nope, because it's fair use. While it can be argued Chris has swiped some of the examples that Villarubia compiled, a simple acknowledgement - which Chris did verbally and onscreen AS WELL AS IN the Description (and even in the apology video and in messgaes on Villarubia's Facebook page!) is sufficient. More than sufficient, in fact. I didn't see the original video so I don't know how much Chris cited Villarubia's posts in that, but he has done MORE than enough now.
@@JamesBurrTV he didn't at all in the original video, as far as I can tell.
@@JamesBurrTV STRONGLY disagree that Comic Tropes has done "more than enough". I think what he has done is the bare-minimum baseline (for all future videos) for crediting his secondary sources. That being said, I have faith he will not repeat this situation in the future. Just keep in mind Villarrubia is the injured party in this event, not CT.
Not only one of the best creators on here, but also an amazing human being. Thank you, Chris!
This video made a lot of sense to me. I've done a lot of reading of the older marvel stories in their digital masterworks and there was always something that made them more difficult to read and gave me a little bit of a headache. Seeing the color comparisons it clicked. The reprints are so bright that it can be straining to the eyes as well as losing the depth which makes it more difficult it larger panels to identify the relevant action, it becomes muddled. I think it's probably off-putting to readers, as it was for me, when first seeing the art style as you said in the video. I always figured they just scanned the old pages and it would be interesting to see the originals.
I agree. I think the ink was used for what it set out to be in it's time which complimented the penciling process too. But I do see a decomposition in many of the redigitalized works that can fairly decompose the art.
Profound amounts of integrity. You're great, Chris.
Interesting to see the Angel story. I've long complained that the Golden Age Marvel Masterworks are so heavily colored that I'm often reminded of preschool toys.
It’s so interesting how different am experience you get with comics based on if you read the digital version versus the original issues. I used to find old comics in thrift stores and book stores and I was amazed at how browned and brittle the paper could get. Makes sense that they would need to recolor it. You could also argue that reading a book monthly issue by issue is a totally different (and perhaps unintended) experience from getting an omnibus and binge reading it like a book. Many older comics were meant to be self-contained monthly installments packed with ads and now they’re just chapter #X of a series running #XX issues.
I'm glad you decided to add in that fix, although I believe you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, it's an honest mistake I believe
I agree. But it shows that Chris has something most don't. Class
Agreed.
Chris, your integrity’s admirable. You’re a real-life research hero!
Neal Adams' Batman Illustrated books are another example of drastic changes made to the colors of reprints. They're colored the way Neal wanted, but the original decisions are gone. The covers of a lot of books printed in the 60's and early 70's were very nicely done with subtle color shifts and were very saturated. I always wondered how they did them compared to cutting acetate separations. You can see this in the Fantastic Four cover with The Thing that you showed a couple of times in this video. My favorite cover of this type is Amazing Spider-Man #44. That whole run of early Romita SR covers is like that.
One of the best TH-camrs (and people) out there, regardless of content. This is what integrity looks like. We love your passion and your dedication, Chris!
If ever he's feeling down, I hope he just reads his comment section. Not a lot of channels can boast so much positivity there!
For years I felt the same thing, that when older books are reprinted the colors are way too bright. For example, when the Bernie Wrightson and Len Wein Swamp Thing stories are reprinted I've always felt they should reprint them on paper that has a muted tone, not bright white, replicating old newsprint. Without that, the new colors destroy the moodiness of the swamp, etc.
I've noticed that silver/bronze age reprints always look best when they're made on pulpy paper instead of the glossier paper. Now I know why.
A good way to fix it is to desaturate the colors
I'm glad you got to repost this. It was one of my favorite episodes.
Then I expect you'd really love José Villarrubia's posts on Facebook. You should check them out!
Many of my older color paperbacks have aged and faded and now looks closer to an old comic. But it's important to note that we can't tell most of the time what was the original color of old comics, as most of them were printed on paper which lost its colors pretty quickly.
Props and respect to you, @ComicTropes, for featuring fan art on your videos. Back in the day (very early 90's) a local comic book store that I frequented had a fan art wall in the back of the store where the owner would hang random comic book sketches created & submitted by all the local kids. It was a mix of submissions by all ages, and it inspired us younger kids to work harder to develop our skills as artists, in order to be able to compete in that same wall space with some of the older teens who were knocking their shit out of the park. It also gave us an early taste of how it felt to "succeed" and have our art validated...that our art was worthy of being seen by everyone else in town. It was a relatively small space on that wall, but it had a huge impact on me, and I'm sure so many other kids as well. Very cool to see you continuing this kind of thing with your channel.
Why colorists have long been left out of the credits has baffled me since I was a boy. Sometimes, they weren’t even credited inside the book.
When my books are published each creative position is under an umbrella heading of “Artists” with their respective contribution appearing thusly:
Pencil artist, ink artist, color artist, letter artist. It’s nice to see that you are taking time to highlight the colorists and big props to you for talking about Pat olliffe! When I first saw Otomo’s Akira in color I was pleasantly immediately enamored with the color work. It clearly and immediately showed the attention to the story was given that it required.
I'm rewatching this instalment three years (or was it two?) after first watching it. It's an excellent overview of the the most technical aspect of comic book production, without delving into the nuts and bolts. Great presentation.
As someone who spent a career in graphic design, I can say that I found handling colour the most satisfying and at the same time almost the most frustrating aspect of the job (the most frustrating by a country mile were the sales reps!).
If the general reader finds the mechanics of colour for print confusing, I'd have to say so do some within the graphics industry as well. Designers are more often concerned with the finished result and not with the means of achieving it, leaving the details to production staff, and then throwing a fit when things don't turn out the way they expected.
As a young reader in the Sixties, I had access to two completely different forms of comic book presentation; the American version with Marvel and the English version with Eagle and Century 21 published by Fleetway for the most part.
The American product was cheap newsprint and printed by what was probably letterpress or early offset, utilising coarse 65-line screens (maybe even coarser) in flat mechanical colour, with often terrible registration (It's interesting to compare comic books with the colour comic strip supplements of weekend US newspapers, where the newsprint was usually of a higher quality and the halftones were less coarse, up to 85-lines depending on the presses; they still had registration issues, though).
English premier comics, like Eagle, were printed on higher quality newsprint, in full, painted colour or greyscale throughout, with fine halftones and, from what I've read, used gravure presses. This did not apply to all English comics. Lion, Tiger and Beano were printed on lower quality paper in black and white with either spot colour or an odd 3-colour halftone mix, with similar registration issues to their American counterparts.
But Eagle, and later Century 21 were different and featured very skilled illustrators, notably Frank Bellamy in both magazines. Bellamy is an entire subject in himself but regarding his use of colour, he used a very monochromatic pallete across his work, sometimes the same scheme over an entire spread, with maybe just a vivid highlight here and there. His dynamic style could easily have inspired bright, garish colour schemes, but he eschewed those for a more subtle palette, even on strips like Thunderbirds. Early on he painted with watercolour but later used Dr Martins dyes. In an interview, he once stated that he only used red, blue and yellow, preferring to mix all secondary or tertiary colours from those three. His reasoning was that printing presses only used three inks plus black to achieve the finished result, so he saw no reason to overcomplicate the process.
Whatever one thinks of this approach, the results certainly speak for themselves. Today's computer colourists could learn a lot by studying artists like Bellamy and Hampson.
Ironically, reloading this video is akin to a reprint 🤣 I admire that you took the time to say what you did and call attention to it and correct it. You probably didn't even need to apologise but you did so sincerely. Most TH-camrs don't respect copyright enough to he honest like that. Very professional sir! About the subject- you should make it known that digital versions use additive color which uses light to make color combinations. Where as inks and paints use subtractive color which gets darker when you mix it all...I believe anyway, I don't remember, I learned this in design school 🤣
No words can describe how happy I am that you're continuing to make episodes. It just... it's brain food but enjoyable brain food. All the best.
I haven't read a single comic book in my entire life yet I keep coming back to this channel. Chris is probably the most genuine dude on this entire website and listening to him talk about his hobby is incredibly wholesome.
This is a brilliant, brilliant piece, Chris. Consider me subscribed! (Signed, colorist of Morning Glories, Darkwing Duck, Sons of Anarchy, and more)
THANK YOU CHRIS! I have been on this case for a long time! I HATE the way digital and hard copy reprints destroy the original colourist’s work. They should put a huge apology to the artist at the start of the book. Why can’t we just get high quality scans of the original work?!
*_The absolute integrity of this lad, you're awesome Chris_*
Who are you, Reed Richards, the smartest man in earth?
You are not wrong yet....so, maybe.
You can't duplicate a reflected image on paper as an emitted image on a computer or tv screen. LED screens are notorious for not being able to display magenta and purples. Ken Rockwell has a few articles on this at his website. You can't translate palettes and moods from one medium to another very well. Thanks for this thoughtful dive into an ignored but central feature of comic book storytelling!
I knew it, he's so honest that if you passed out free pie and he got two slices. He'd turn one back in. Golly, what do you do with a honest and intelligent dude? Tell him he is the best at showing the work of the comic colorist and you really have given me an education concerning comics. Keep up the fantastic work.
Glad this was re-uploaded, a particularly great episode. I'm probably going to show some parts to my son who was asking about coloration, but i didn't know enough about it to give a good answer before watching this.
Writing = 25%
Lines = 25%
Inking = 25%
Color = 25%
all Parts and Artist deserve credit and respect for their work.
I recently discovered your channel and I am really impressed. I don't consider myself a comic book fan or very knowledgable about them and I find I learn so much from your videos. They are entertaining, engaging, and educational. Much respect to you for your good work.
My favorite today is Laura Allred. Her style is very reminiscent of the 60s comic & pop art. And her work always gave me that feeling of Dorothy opening the door to Oz with each flip of the page.
Her work is amazing!
Great episode, glad you updated it so it could be seen. Don’t worry Chris, mistakes happen and you owned up to it like a real person of integrity would. You’re a better person for it, and now that we’ve seen all the great work, we are too!
I never in a million years would've guessed that those pages of Akira were digitally coloured. Those Einsers are well deserved.
Villarubia is being a bit of a drama queen. He raises as stink on his FB page and spurs his followers to shame you in your comment section, but then completely ignores you when you apologize and reach out to him. You came out as the better man here.
Taking some time to answer doesn't mean to ignore, maye we're a bit hurrying-asses here. But this not waiting the answer and just upload it again, despite the word said of not doing, just shows everything clear.
I think he could have least given him 48hrs to reply.
Who’s indulging in drama deriving from people who run educational pages anyways LOL. I love comic tropes I’ve never seen him starting shit,just posting great and informative content
Alex Sebastian nah fam if he can talk shit online he got time to reply LOL
Well, he obviously did have time to post new stuff on his FB, but no time to reply Comic Tropes. He's being childish and acting all butt hurt. Poor baby.
This is one of my FAVORITE episodes of yours, and I believe that you handled the situation in the best possible way
Did I understand correctly that American comic book artists were not able to color the original drawings until the 1980s due to printing limitations? British publisher Hutton press introduced a photogravure process to print comics like Eagle, Girl and Swift as far back as 1950. That process meant that artists could color the actual drawings. You can see the results in the stunning artwork of people like Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy among others which reproduced beautifully with the photogravure process.
Im glad you put Adrianne Roy in there as example. She was my favorite colorist. This was one of the most informative comic videos I have ever seen. U did awesome with this
It was amazing, but I wish I could have sent him these two interviews for pertinent anecdotes to include: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=508 (Dave Sim interviewing Neal Adams about colouring and the old CMYK process--GREAT READ!) and Frank Santoro interviewing Oliff about Akira and his techniques: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=491
You're blowing up dude. Congrats! You deserve it!
I'm happy you could reupload this video because in my opinion it's one of your better ones.
So glad this was reuploaded.
I respect the heck out of your effort to give credit where credit is due & to correct your mistake. Your integrity doesn't go unnoticed.
What an excellent topic for a video. It dovetails with a question that I asked you on a live stream as to why inking got finer and more detailed toward the end of the 80s and into the 90s. Another passionately informed production. Your hard work does not go unappreciated.
This really opened my eyes to the difference in recolored editions! I’m with ya all the way!
I like your show because you're chilled-out, never raise your voice, teach us about a niche topic in relatable language, and are super knowledgeable about what you love. Can't ask for better.
I've always been curious about coloring the early ages of comics. Thank you so much for this episode!
This video is BRILLIANT!
Part of the magic of vintage comics was the crappy paper, but the limitations really brought out the artistry not just of comic creators but printers and publishers - which this video brilliantly demonstrates. Nice job, I really enjoyed this!
Oh hi, you caught me watching a reuploaded video to give more support
I'm glad I found this video. I started reading some of alpha flight from the early 80s, and I was missing some issues, so I figured I'd read them on marvel unlimited instead of paying a lot for key issues.. big mistake. It really takes you out of the story sometimes. They can and should treat these classics with respect. I hope the right people see this video and take into consideration what they've done. Thank you for shining some light on it.
I can't thank you enough for covering this topic, I've had a longstanding issue with modern coloring in reprints!
Oh boo-hoo my comic book looks better than it did when I was a kid and now my nostalgia won’t let me enjoy some thing that’s much better quality
@@dylhole1501 you ever try to play an NES on a 4k tv?
@@dylhole1501, wow, thank you for irrefutably proving that you know absolutely nothing about comic book art. How humiliating for you. 🤦🏼♂️
Great documentary! Watchmen's colors were always my favorites :)
You’re a great person Chris. Thank you for your work. Always appreciated. Keep up the good work. Two 👍🏾👍🏾 up. That being said, that intro was of epic proportions. Best intro ever.
My God, Chris! I think you have really outdone yourself with this one! Beautiful job. Never gave a second thought on the difficulties and intricacies of comic book coloring, but will definitely appreciate it more from now on. Thank you for giving us a new insight on this art form that we so much love.
Chris, I have so much respect for you and your work. Your channel is one of the best overall. Take care, and keep up the amazing work that you're doing.
Since, I was a kid when Image Comics started, colors and better paper was one of the main things that made me an Image fan. Thanks for this episode. Another great one.
Image Comics being influential in every aspect, you have to love those guys. Amazing work Chris 🔥
Excellent video Chris! I got that feel from when I first discovered ComicTropes from this one - felt like I was looking at a world unexplored.
This was so cool to learn about the coloring process and just how different it was back then vs now. Plus how tarnished original artwork can be from digital remastering
Chris, you're my favourite comic book historian. I love your videos. That's all I have to say.
I know everyone else is telling you how great you are too but man these videos are fantastic and you seem like one of the most genuine human beings on the internet. Keep making great videos. You’re an important part of the comic book community.
Love the show man, do you think you would ever do an episode on Paul Chadwick's concrete? Or dark horse presents? 😁
I was just thinking about Concrete, myself! What an incredible comic that is.
Was Flaming Carrot one of his? The covers of that always fascinated me as a kid.
@@paultapping9510 same era different Creator, it would definitely make an interesting video
@@paultapping9510 I believe Greg Burden wrote and drew Flaming Carrot, covers included.
Oh, SECONDED! I'd love to see an episode on Steve Rude and/or Nexus, and a big jump into Jim Woodring's stuff. Also an overview of the all-female comics of the underground/alternative era (Tits 'N Clits, Wimmin's Comix, Twisted Sisters ESPECIALLY for introducing so much new post-underground/alternative talent and putting it all into one package)...who's with me?!
Fascinating! No pressure but I'm a 30 year old novelist just getting into graphic storytelling and you are my favorite arcane professor!
FINALLY! There are not enough people talking about this!
It would be nice to get reprints of the textured, thoughtful coloring of the past.
I can't stand some of the Photoshop paint bucket happening in these restorations. I'd be nice to get corrected reprints closer to the original.
Great video again Chris!
A lot of the old colouring was terrible and anything but thoughtful.
im not even halfway through and my eyes have already been opened to how much ive been underestimating classic comics and their art. this makes things all make a LOT more sense
Ooops! You caught me coloring the New Mutants Issue with a Black Sharpy! Speaking of improved coloring, lets talk about the history of Coloring!
Nice
Your final Statement resonates truely with my own opinion on a proper executed reproduction: Staying true to the original art in coloring is the best option. Btw... Your videos are always a pleasure. 😊
Chris is the nicest person in this platform
One of, certainly. Emerican Johnson and a lot of the "Breadtubers" are very nice people too.
Wow that's a lot of information to unpack, great job Chris masterful video. You really are the best Comic's channel out there. I've been watching you since you had only hundreds of views at best for each video. I hope you blossom to millions of subscribers in the near future.
Good to see you got to put it up
Man, I felt so happy watching this episode. Thanks a lot! It's informative, it's soothing and it's enlightening. Your script shines and your delivering is great. You're doing an amazing work. Thanks a lot for that.
I think you’d do an amazing job on a From Hell episode. People seem to forget about it these days.
This is a theme I had been interested in for years but never found a satisfactory answer until now. Thank you!
flatters do need credited, they spend hours and hours just on that color step
YES we absolutely do. I worked on hundreds of books, for Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, etc, that I never got credit for. It's what I signed up for, to be fair, but it leaves you with a terrible, empty feeling (and it's not like the pay is great for flats).
@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar yup, flatters make 10 to 20 a page. Hourly they are lucky if it breaks down to a buck or 2 an hour.
@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar What exactly is a flatter?
@@Salmonator2000 It's the initial step of the coloring process, taking the B &W page and putting down the first layer of color.
The amount of artistry that goes into it varies, it's more of a technical process that shaves around an hour off of the coloring time for the actual colorist.
You can see some of my old flats at madflatter.tumblr.com if you're interested
@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar Looking at how intricate your flats are, it opened my eyes to just how intensive and underrated the work that goes into the process. I usually just put down messy blobs of color since I figure no one will see the stuff behind the lines anyway, but they can be works of art in their own right 😅
I just wanna say thank you for making these videos, they are extremely informative and well researched and i don't know any other creator that takes the time to make videos like this on topics so niche and specific to artists, for someone really interested in this things this channel is a godsend
keeping your integrity is always the way to go man. Good Job. Love this show.
I'm so happy this got reuploaded. I missed it when it was out and i was super interesting in this topic.
Check these out: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=491 That's Frank Santoro interviewing Oliff about Akira and his techniques, this: comicscomicsmag.com/?p=508 is an interview with Neal Adams by Dave Sim. Great anecdotes all around and some GREAT technical information.
yeeeee. thhis is one of my favorites episodes. im happy its back.
Wow, those image of painted pages without the inks by Lynn Varley were a real eye opener! Thanks!!!!!
Yes. Chris. You rule!
This was a fascinating episode. I had no idea of how complicated coloring was as far as printing was concerned for all those decades. I also now understand why comics look so much different now than they used to and why things got a little strange in the late 80s/early 90s as a transition was occurring! I appreciate what you do Chris! Thank you!
Great video. I’ve actually discussed this issue along with a related one of Blu-Ray remasters of animated series quite a bit in my facebook groups. There are some reprints and remasters I absolutely hate because of how they butcher the colors & darkness levels...
you wouldn't be talking about the Dragon Ball Blue Rays would you?
@@wesley5729 the problem is that they used a terrible digtle noise removal
Yet another great episode - thank you for all the hard work you put into researching all these topics on the creation, and the creators of the comics we love. too many other comics channels here tend to just highlight (and essentially just read through) some random issue of some random mag with little to say about it beyond 'well, that sucked'. You really get into the who, the what, the how and the why of SO many aspects of comics, and your love and dedication really show. I truly respect what you're doing, and the integrity you've shown in going above and beyond to make sure that your sources are properly credited. Keep up the good work, my good sir!
I love old comics but unfortunately modern digitally coloured reprints are one of the only practical ways to have affordable access to them. Some of the unofficial free comics sites offer a decent library of scanned silver and bronze age stuff. But when you read the comments on those sites they are full of people complaining about how they want the digitally remastered stuff. I think a lot of young readers dont necessarily appreciate the aesthetic of pre-digital printing. It looks messy and faded compared to what they are used to.
Also, your point on how reprints misrepresent the colors originally intended reminds me of the color limitations of the Game Boy Advance, and the Game Boy Color! It's something not a lot of people talk about, but both the Color and the Advance had unlit screens, with only the Advance getting lighting options later in its lifespan with editions of the SP. Because of this, a lot of games, especially on the Advance with its broader range of colors, needed really high contrast to be visible and coherent under ambient or outside light, meaning that you get a WILDLY different experience playing the games on the original Advance compared to, say, a backlit model, or using the GBA slot on a Nintendo DS, or playing a re-release on the Wii U. The colors are all so bright and saturated, and it makes moody, atmospheric games like Metroid Fusion feel a little cartoonish and, like you said, almost Dayglow. And in terms of the contrast, you get washed out games like Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, where playing them on a lit screen makes them look almost like a poster you left in a window directly facing the sun for a couple months. It's weird trying to decipher what the best experience is; like how games on old consoles look different on flat screens vs CRTs. Do you alter the game's colors, or do you leave it as is? Which is the true experience? Though in comics' case, the answer's more straight-forward; the remastered coloring should take the artist's work into account more so you can better represent their intent, rather than taking the colors very literally and robbing the story of its impact. Just an interesting thought!
Man, this was an interesting history lesson. Plus I feel like I got some interesting recommendations for comics to check out. Thanks for your hard work, man!
Really interesting. I remember when computer coloring first came about that often times the colorist made the characters and objects look like balloons from adding specular highlights and making everything look super shiny.
Its back! Gonna have to rewatch!
Was watching this video before work. Couldn't finish so I put it on hold and when I got off to finish it was gone. Glad I could finish the vid
Good for you, man! Great video!
I found this channel because of this video. I've seen all of his other videos, one of the best comic book channels on TH-cam.
I loved the intro to this one. It was really clever.
Thanks for the lesson in how coloring gets done at the various technological evolutionary levels. It's also good to get some validation for why I really prefer to collect and read the original brown pages for 60's-80's comics that were created in that style, to experience the color tones and moods as the artists intended.
Glad you got everything situated. Dug the first time it aired, and second time too.
I'm so glad to find this video; I hope this channel has more of this kind of thing. I've only recently started reading modern reprints of old comics. I love the clarity and the sharp details, but the colors are obviously just painfully bright - why go to the trouble of recoloring everything if it's going to be ugly? I don't get it. And I wonder why readers haven't raised hell about it, to get Marvel and DC to stop doing this.
In any case, I'm fascinated by the radical changes in comics over the past thirty years. After ignoring comic books for many years I picked up a book by Alex Maleev a few years ago and I was instantly shocked and astounded, not only that technology could reproduce such imagery, but that publishers would be willing to sell it. I hope to learn more about the history that has made such things possible. Seems like this channel will be a good source of info!
I personally enjoy the bright colors of some marvel reprints, those were my introduction to a lot of old stories. I found the recolored art pretty exciting, however I dislike a lot of modern digitally colored comics. Not all obviously, but I think modern coloring techniques can look really bland. But stuff still looks great on newsprint as always.
Really enjoyed the side by side comparisons showing how(for better or worse) reprinting can change your first impressions of a comic. The Killing Joke is one of the first comic reprints I had ever witnessed
People need to informed about the issue of bad reprints. Even as an artist that should know better I looked at reprinted books and thought the color jobs were painfully garish. I forget the colors were for newsprint type paper and not modern glossy book paper and I've worked with actual presses.
I ferl like they should desaturate the colors so it dossent look so mutch of an eye sore
I’ve always wanted know more about the printing process in relation to color and how they made these books back in the day. Thanks Man
I have a question: you said that the original printed colors become oversatured in couche or digital. In Jose Villarrubia posts, he calls poor "recolored" in most of cases. It is the original colors in different paper the problem or the new colors?
Great video, incredibly interesting! When I saw this would be your topic I was hoping you'd mention Marie Severin and I was not disappointed. She was so talented, and she deserved more work as an artist too. Thank you for introducing me to the great work of Villarubia too.