Black-and-White Pages? 0

[My young Padawan]

I am curious about comic books with black-and-white pages.  What is it about black-and-white pages that many collectors enjoy so much?  I am curious about this topic because I own a piece of original comic art that I am considering having colored.  I do not want to make the wrong decision about having it colored.  Any advice on this matter would be very much appreciated.  Thank you in advance for any replies.

[kav]

Unless it is a low value page i would definitely not get it colored.

[ahsieh]

For me, it's the matter of originality. I had a nice talk with Mick Gray about this at a signing. Apparently, someone had tried to convince Mick to ink over some pencils Jack Kirby had done. Mick, bless his soul, refused outright, asking him to at least consider scanning the pencils if he really wanted them inked (i.e. he'd ink over the scans, like a blueline). Well, the guy seemed to take it personally, and went off to find someone else to ink over them. Hopefully, nobody agreed.

When it comes down to it, coloring over inks or inking over pencils might be more aesthetically pleasing to you, but that also eradicates any aesthetic value the piece had before the additions, not to mention the ability to look at the piece "before" it was colored ... especially if it's by someone like Jack Kirby. It's the same reason why people will still buy black and white versions of covers, even though a colored one exists.

Edited February 12, 2017 by ahsieh

[jimbo_7071]

I agree that a page should not be colored by anyone other than the original artist. (I probably wouldn't even want a page that had been pencilled and inked by different artists.) If I owned a modern B&W page, however, I'd consider hiring the original artist to hand color it.

Some of the Heritage auctions have featured some Krazy Kat strips that were hand colored at some point. I don't know whether they were colored by Herriman, but they're gorgeous either way. (If anyone owns one of those strips and is thinking about throwing it away because it has been colored, I'll be happy to take it as a freebie.)

[My young Padawan]

Thank you for the replies.  I agree that coloring the original comic art will certainly eradicate any aesthetic value that the piece currently has.  It would, in fact, be colored by the original artist.  The original artist was Neal Adams.

[Chadwick]

The pencils are the truest form of the artists vision as far as I am concerned. Inked is a collaboration effort(unless inked by the penciller), but is still very close to the artists vision. Colors can make amazing art look like a pile of sh|t, or it can make it pop. I prefer pencils and inks for OA, but if the actual artist want's to color the piece than that changes things. Generally coloring is rushed through and details get lost, I love reading Silver and Bronze in b&w, the details are so much more pronounced. Especially for artists such as Kirby or Wrightson who use a lot of line work and are detailed oriented to begin with. Can you get Neal Adams to color the piece on an overlay so you have both pieces to frame together?

[My young Padawan]

Thank you for the reply, Chadwick.  I appreciate your insight.  I have noticed that you are particularly fond of black-and-white pages.  As a matter of fact, I recently commented on your Conan the Barbarian #1.  I totally agree that the black-and-white details are much more pronounced.  I will ask Neal Adams if there are any other options available, but for now, I am planning on keeping it as is.

[kav]

My preference would be make a copy on bluline board and have him color that.  An overlay is limited in coloring options actual paper would be better.

[Comicdave]

If the page you want colored is from a published comic book, I would not have it colored. If you are adamant about having it colored I would get a copy printed and have Neal color the copy. If the art you have is a commissioned sketch then by all means have him color it.

Back in the 1980s I used to buy original art and get sketches by various artists. Comic book colorist Steve Oliff used to attend the San Diego Comic-Con every year and i would have him color my con sketches because for me they looked better colored. I saw a few pages of original comic book art that the buyers had Steve color, and while it looked nice and he did a great job, that particular page would no longer be in the original condition  that came off the artist's drawing board and was used to publish the comic book. I would almost liken it to an original page being destroyed in a fire or some such and the only thing left from it was a copy of the page. 

This says nothing to the difference in resale value.

[My young Padawan]

The piece is a commissioned sketch.  He also added texture to it.  My concern is that coloring it will neglect the original pencil sketch that was done prior to inking it.

[jimbo_7071]

Maybe it can be colored very subtly, with watercolors or colored pencils, without obscuring the details. Or maybe he could color selected foreground elements on the page and leave the mid ground and background elements B&W. I don't know why hand coloring by the original artist would hurt the resale value; for me it would enhance it.

Edited February 13, 2017 by jimbo_7071

[My young Padawan]

Thank you for the suggestion, jimbo70_71.

[AJD]

Sometimes black and white suits artwork and allows you to appreciate facets that colour would tend to obscure. Here's an exmaple from an Australian reprint of a Marvel romance story. The use of negative space here is wonderful, but wouldn't be as striking if the face area was coloured in (IMHO).

 

[My young Padawan]

I agree, AJD.  Thank you for the reply.

[Ken Aldred]

30 minutes ago, AJD said:

Sometimes black and white suits artwork and allows you to appreciate facets that colour would tend to obscure. Here's an exmaple from an Australian reprint of a Marvel romance story. The use of negative space here is wonderful, but wouldn't be as striking if the face area was coloured in (IMHO).

 

Some comic art works superbly in black-and-white, especially chiaroscuro work such as by Alex Toth and Milton Caniff.  Other examples ; Gene Colan, Jack Kamen, Matt Wagner.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Ken Aldred