The History of Comic Book Coloring (and How Modern Technology can Ruin Reprints)

[@ComicTropes]

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?

[@thecolinwalton]

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.

[@AubreyLovelace]

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.

[@tylercohen2019]

I really like Matt Hollingsworth. The Wake was just beautiful

[@VHShit]

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.

[@andersonmbarboza1108]

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.

[@ProuvaireJean]

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.

[@jesstolley7193]

Same! I've learned so much about this medium since I started watching!

[@SamuelSEdme]

Videos like this should be categorized as educational and informative as well.

[@alejoparedes2388]

You're one of the real ones, Chris.

[@thewyldness]

I have to agree

[@jerkfudgewater147]

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

[@misanthropicmusings4596]

@@thewyldness Ditto !!!!

[@fabiankoenig6499]

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.

[@MrFaceNumeroUno]

@@fabiankoenig6499 because, they're dumb lol. Alex Sebastian for example is the #1 dumbo as evidenced by his comments on this thread

[@seangentry2943]

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.

[@MicahMicahel]

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

[@pixelperfect9867]

I like solid colors no matter the rendering or simplicity.

[@BDarOZ]

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.

[@awwn5934]

Yes I think the lens flares and glowing effects are going to be what make contemporary work look dated in the near future.

[@justbny9278]

things often end up too smooth looking and losing their shape and texture ironically

[@PDComicBookNetwork]

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.

[@Vimes86]

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

[@PJSPP]

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.

[@PDComicBookNetwork]

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.

[@futurestoryteller]

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.

[@vollsticks]

​@@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.

[@thewyldness]

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.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

he didn't put in the research, though. José Villarrubia did

[@citizensguard3433]

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.

[@JamesBurrTV]

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.

[@kullenberg]

@@JamesBurrTV he didn't at all in the original video, as far as I can tell.

[@tedwhitford9118]

@@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.

[@seanaverill236]

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.

[@rjr.6263]

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.

[@jdc4483]

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.

[@clarenceboddicker4023]

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.

[@Obscure_man31]

A good way to fix it is to desaturate the colors

[@AceAttorny]

Not only one of the best creators on here, but also an amazing human being. Thank you, Chris!

[@TheDreadPirateBluetail]

Profound amounts of integrity. You're great, Chris.

[@chrismyers2047]

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.

[@georger6619]

Chris, your integrity’s admirable. You’re a real-life research hero!

[@scottandrewhutchins]

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.

[@kevinconnor4228]

The Neil Adams recolouring on Batman omnibus is just the worst. A total hit job on his own work.

[@alaindeloin6714]

YES !!! I hate the new colouring. It' s sad to see this disaster on a genius work.

[@lobbymccawker2083]

Actually you are mistaken it's a huge improvement in fact.

[@Churrros]

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

[@Neon_Ghost1]

I agree. But it shows that Chris has something most don't. Class

[@altecapollyon]

Agreed.

[@iandorian611]

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.

[@theamericanwordsmith2670]

One of the best KZbinrs (and people) out there, regardless of content. This is what integrity looks like. We love your passion and your dedication, Chris!

[@CSGraves]

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!

[@jacobkeary6740]

*_The absolute integrity of this lad, you're awesome Chris_*

[@TeatroGrotesco]

Who are you, Reed Richards, the smartest man in earth? You are not wrong yet....so, maybe.

[@Kitsaplorax]

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!

[@adamlobbins2657]

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.

[@mot68000]

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.

[@asturwarrior]

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.

[@Robert.Deeeee]

I think he could have least given him 48hrs to reply.

[@mythicpeyote]

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

[@mythicpeyote]

Alex Sebastian nah fam if he can talk shit online he got time to reply LOL

[@mot68000]

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.

[@jbbarnes1067]

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?!

[@Ghstrbt]

I'm glad you got to repost this. It was one of my favorite episodes.

[@goochisan]

Then I expect you'd really love José Villarrubia's posts on Facebook. You should check them out!

[@Neon_Ghost1]

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 KZbinrs 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 🤣

This is a brilliant, brilliant piece, Chris. Consider me subscribed! (Signed, colorist of Morning Glories, Darkwing Duck, Sons of Anarchy, and more)

[@Frustratedartist2]

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.

[@GWrightstuff]

I'm glad you made the effort to credit José. But honestly, you should have asked his permission to use his research as well as the images he selected. And you should have waited for him to respond. The video is nicely done and presents information very nicely. Honestly, if you just would have edited out the stuff that was from José the video would have been fine and you could have avoided any controversy.

[@MrFaceNumeroUno]

How is this such a sticking point for you & the other 15 fools who gave this vid a thumbs down? He made a mistake & owned up to it. How about you & the rest of your sowing circle get all the way off his back.

[@rexharrison6827]

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.

[@sizwehonablue3610]

So glad this was reuploaded.

[@Pencilman246]

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.

[@nicolaspetitdemeurville8943]

Chris is the nicest person in this platform

[@vollsticks]

One of, certainly. Emerican Johnson and a lot of the "Breadtubers" are very nice people too.

[@IncredibleMD]

I never in a million years would've guessed that those pages of Akira were digitally coloured. Those Einsers are well deserved.

[@ledge-magee]

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.

[@DanielMercerArt]

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.

[@rippspeck]

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.

[@slasher0630]

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

[@vollsticks]

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

[@stardust_memories2260]

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.

[@dudezillasf]

Her work is amazing!

[@davidampleford6011]

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.

[@javialan2503]

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!

[@CuriousCritter17]

A lot of the old colouring was terrible and anything but thoughtful.

[@theswampus670]

Writing = 25% Lines = 25% Inking = 25% Color = 25% all Parts and Artist deserve credit and respect for their work.

[@HovektheArtist]

Oh hi, you caught me watching a reuploaded video to give more support

[@wheatie0770]

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!

[@hfbdbsijenbd]

You're blowing up dude. Congrats! You deserve it!

[@koufax3739]

Love the show man, do you think you would ever do an episode on Paul Chadwick's concrete? Or dark horse presents? 😁

[@officialgoogleyoutube]

I was just thinking about Concrete, myself! What an incredible comic that is.

[@paultapping9510]

Was Flaming Carrot one of his? The covers of that always fascinated me as a kid.

[@koufax3739]

@@paultapping9510 same era different Creator, it would definitely make an interesting video

[@officialgoogleyoutube]

​@@paultapping9510 I believe Greg Burden wrote and drew Flaming Carrot, covers included.

[@vollsticks]

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?!

[@Clay3613]

I can't thank you enough for covering this topic, I've had a longstanding issue with modern coloring in reprints!

[@dylhole1501]

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

[@manuelitopinon8396]

@@dylhole1501 you ever try to play an NES on a 4k tv?

[@TheIkaika777]

@@dylhole1501, wow, thank you for irrefutably proving that you know absolutely nothing about comic book art. How humiliating for you. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@Caxerw13]

This really opened my eyes to the difference in recolored editions! I’m with ya all the way!

[@BigBennKlingon]

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.

[@GiuseppeRedscarf]

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.

[@HotDirtyQuark]

Chris, I loved the lettering video, and thought this colouring video was a natural follow up. Love the content, love the videos about comic productions as much as the one shot on writers/artists. Glad you reuploaded this one. It's a classic.

[@andybaxter4442]

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.

[@annievoss2010]

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.

[@justingoers]

Yes. Chris. You rule!

[@The1776er]

flatters do need credited, they spend hours and hours just on that color step

[@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar]

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).

[@The1776er]

@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar yup, flatters make 10 to 20 a page. Hourly they are lucky if it breaks down to a buck or 2 an hour.

[@Salmonator2000]

@@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar What exactly is a flatter?

[@AladdinLeeGrantRutledgeCollar]

@@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

[@McShmoodle]

@@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 😅

[@minaverry]

I'm happy you could reupload this video because in my opinion it's one of your better ones.

[@aleksandarpejcic2077]

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.

[@adeelhabib6519]

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.

[@teensouljah]

I've always been curious about coloring the early ages of comics. Thank you so much for this episode!

[@n.gericke4550]

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. 😊

[@RobertMehling]

Good to see you got to put it up

[@thir13enthman]

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.

[@LowellLucasJr.]

Ooops! You caught me coloring the New Mutants Issue with a Black Sharpy! Speaking of improved coloring, lets talk about the history of Coloring!

[@-Teague-]

Nice

[@tempexrer5627]

This is one of my FAVORITE episodes of yours, and I believe that you handled the situation in the best possible way

[@nathanrohde3440]

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.

[@Obscure_man31]

I ferl like they should desaturate the colors so it dossent look so mutch of an eye sore

[@Hrotriks]

I did thought older comics had garish coloring , but never thought beause of bad reprinting , this has been an eye opener

[@duvan.deschain]

Image Comics being influential in every aspect, you have to love those guys. Amazing work Chris 🔥

[@colonelweird]

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!

[@officialgoogleyoutube]

Chris, you're my favourite comic book historian. I love your videos. That's all I have to say.

[@phillipjohnson8903]

I'm so happy this got reuploaded. I missed it when it was out and i was super interesting in this topic.

[@vollsticks]

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.

[@89Dustdevil]

I think you’d do an amazing job on a From Hell episode. People seem to forget about it these days.

[@thedarkenedruby4027]

Yay you got the video up!!!!

[@steakcrust558]

keeping your integrity is always the way to go man. Good Job. Love this show.

[@theguardian8317]

Interesting episode. There's a recent re-release of El Incal in Europe using the original colors and I remember when reading reviews in Amazon there was the occasional person outraged by the muted colors thinking the flat coloring done in the computer were the original colors and the coloring done in the original style was simply a printing error. This video reminds me also about opposite effect on people with old cartoons where people sometimes get upset because a remaster has more vibrant colors (e.g. Dragon Ball Z vs Dragon Ball Kai) because the belief that the remaster uses fake/incorrect computer colors and tones but what happens is that the versions people remember are from old TV archives, Film or VHS transfers where the colors have actually faded out because of time passed or because multiple re-transfers and the colors don't reflect the original vibrant coloring anymore

[@Ultrabingo]

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.

[@GenesGamingCorner]

This is the first Comic Tropes episode I ever saw and will always have a special place in my heart. For years, I was trying to get into comic books. BUT, for whatever reason, whenever I bought the most famous and beloved story lines, they would always look terrible! And comic book omnibuses aren't cheap; especially, since they go out of print CONSTANTLY! So, for years, I thought that comic books weren't for me. It wasn't until I stumbled upon this video (and your Vince Colletta episode) that I realized , "NO! comic books can still be great! It's those damn cheap publishers and the lousy reprints that's killing it for you!" Thanks for getting me into comics, Chris! And Keep up the great work!

[@francozambrano4980]

yeeeee. thhis is one of my favorites episodes. im happy its back.

[@apio7055]

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

[@sinjinbaker6031]

Good for you, man! Great video!

[@Stabity]

I found this channel because of this video. I've seen all of his other videos, one of the best comic book channels on KZbin.

[@TariOwei]

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.

[@Saginaw72]

I never understood what all went into coloring comics, but this video opened my eyes and I want to learn more. My gut would tell me when colors were fiddled with in reprints and I knew I wasn't getting a faithful reproduction, so like you suggested I wish they would scan the original comic and tweak where needed. Always look forward to your videos Chris and feel like I've learned a lot after viewing them. Great job.

[@Kenshiro3rd]

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...

[@wesley5729]

you wouldn't be talking about the Dragon Ball Blue Rays would you?

[@Obscure_man31]

@@wesley5729 the problem is that they used a terrible digtle noise removal

[@NorthTexasEagle1989]

Fascinating! No pressure but I'm a 30 year old novelist just getting into graphic storytelling and you are my favorite arcane professor!

[@dollars9597]

Its back! Gonna have to rewatch!

[@zachweaver3006]

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.

[@rq2757]

Matt Hollingsworth is my favorite colorist at the moment. He really understands the power of subdued, deliberate, flat colors.

[@TheMightyPika]

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.

[@Schnagelkott]

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!

[@grega8875]

Please support this guy. If anyone should make it off of KZbin it’s this dude. Happy to be a reoccurring patron of his content. Keep it up Chris.

[@poncut5074]

I loved the intro to this one. It was really clever.

[@keithcurtis]

As someone who started in the graphic arts industry with rubylith, amberlith, zipatone, presstype, swivel knives and formaline tape, I really appreciated this. It's soooooo much easier nowadays. Creators can experiment and quickly shift, edit or correct. Early colorists had to _plan_ carefully.

[@DoppelgangerShockwave]

Glad you got everything situated. Dug the first time it aired, and second time too.

[@taytaypierre1504]

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

[@Olympics2048]

Looks like Villarrubia wasn’t happy with the outcome. I won’t pass judgement because I’m sure the whole thing is more complicated than it seems. I understand your rush to reupload, especially being on furlough. I’m a huge fan, Chris. This channel is one of my bigger sources of comic book education. That being said, I’d love it if you listed your sources for videos with a works cited page. A favorite info-tainment podcast of mine always brings up major books read before a deep dive. It doesn’t devalue their work, because their presentation is part of the reason I keep coming back. If I do want more, I’ll read the sources for something more in depth. Chris, I’d love to read any sources you can provide. I’m voracious for comics info. I know I’ll keep coming back here, as well as enjoy any way to learn about this amazing medium. And with a works cited page perhaps something like this could be avoided in the future.

[@crazedzealots]

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.

[@daniel26395]

Chris' first drama :') he's come so far

[@Neon_Ghost1]

He's a real KZbinr now! Oh I mean influencer, that's what they like to be called now right? 🤣

[@MatthewClise]

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.

[@christianbjorck816]

New reprints of old material should be on quality matte paper, with a finish made in the computer to look like newsprint. Stark white glossy paper and too bright digital colors don’t do classic Marvel and DC justice.

[@shabangschmagoigal2091]

I personally really like the colors in the reprinted stuff. I think it breathes new life into it and makes me see it in a new way. I love seeing it on bright white glossy paper. I have FF reprint that made me cry, literally. The way Jack drew it, mixed with the color interaction, it was literally 3D, IT WAS POPPING OFF THE PAGE, NO ANAGLIPH GLASSES. I was amazed.

[@onewithsocks]

Comment for the algorithm to help with the hit you took for taking the old vid down

[@relev6567]

nice to see this video being reuploaded this quickly, I was a bit afraid to wait the approval toi long