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| Images copyright their relevant owner |
I published this post before a couple or so months back, but then removed it to accommodate a publisher who felt it detracted from a project he was then working on. That project has now reached fruition, so I feel the question raised in the post is a valid one, hence me now offering it up again for your consideration.
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Which of these versions of the same strip do you prefer, readers - the original colour strip or one of the two black and white (or grey-scale) offerings presented below? I have to declare my preference in favour of the colour strip, but if I had to pick one of the non-colour offerings, I'd lean towards the first one as, in my view, it captures more of the 'essence' of the page than the somewhat washed out incarnation below it. Tastes will vary of course, but the closer a reprint collection is to the original appearance of the contents, the better, as it captures more fully the visual impact the strips had on their initial printing.
Feel free to contribute to any discussion that may ensue.
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| Note that the little fine-line visual effects around Davy's head in the last panel are extremely faint, as a direct result of converting the page to 'black & white' |
Kid,
ReplyDeleteI wish I could put up images on your blog.
Russ Cochran put out in the 1980s Black and White Editions of EC comics of the 1950s. That includes Mad, Tales from the Crypt and many other titles.
Currently they are being reprinted in color and, by another publisher, in black and white.
Which is better? The black and white ones show more detail and you get a better view of the actual artwork.
The color ones seem more natural and certainly more vivid and often add the stories.
My verdict: Well, it’s a hung jury. I can’t decide. I like whichever one I was reading at the time. Maybe we can set up something where I can send you two or three pages in color and the same pages in b and w. (If I can scan without breaking the binding)
I think it depends what the source is for a reprint, Barry. If original b&w art or proofs are being used, then the printed result can show more detail than the original printed comic on newsprint paper. If a colour reprint is sourced from the original colour negs (or recoloured b&w negs) then the detail should still be evident. In the examples I've shown, the 3rd b&w page has been created by upping the contrast (and probably a few other technological trickeries) to bleach out most of the colour, which is hardly an ideal method for obtaining a b&w result, as some of the finer detail is rendered weaker. By all means, feel free to send some pages for comparison.
ReplyDeleteIn general color. The only black and white greyscale comic I thought was better were the Warren Spirits.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever saw those Spirit pages, PS. I'd have been more satisfied with the Davy pages if they'd been reproduced from b&w sources that had never been coloured originally. 'Bleaching' out the colour isn't always satisfactory in every instance.
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