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  #1  
  06-06-2011, 05:27 AM
manthing's Avatar
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so where do you stand on recoloring old comics?

in case you don't know about it, here are some examples:






the originals were a product of their age - limitations of paper, printers, ink, technology, costs etc.

so, if the artist actually wanted it colored the way it is now, then fine. and the above examples seem ok to me.

besides, i never liked seeing conan looking so pink!

however, this example below is "butchery" to me:



it is so far removed from the original.
might as well have drawn a new picture.

so, where do you stand on this?
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  #2  
  06-06-2011, 06:10 AM
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I like it when obvious flaws are fixed. For example, all the horrible miscolorings in the Thundercats and Transformers comics. It was as if the inkers had never seen a Transformers episode or toy.

I also really like it when the artwork has been fully de-dotted, due to the really cheap/crappy printing quality from the 1970s-1980s. It's not so much the print work itself as it is the type of ink and press combined with the low-end rag paper used in comics during the bronze age of comics.

That crappy yellowing paper can be really difficult to read, at times. It's one of the main reasons I scanned comics as far back as the 1990s, in order to color-correct them in Photoshop (quick Auto Levels is usually good enough), and then view on the computer. These days, I view on an iPad.

I do have a problem with computer-generated art replacing old-fashioned comic art, like the flames in the above example.

I'm most fond of re-scans of the original artwork, when available. The pre-press masters.

On your bottom example, the artist may have wanted brown + gray + black, but the presses of the time would have smushed it completely black. That, of course, is no longer the case for better print work, or all-digital versions. So to go back and re-tool coloring is acceptable if it doesn't harm the integrity of the piece, and is best done with input from those artists (if alive).

Digital gradients are a butcher job, yes. That really crossed the line.

I'm completely lost as to why the doorway was redrawn. Unless it was to correct a mistake. Without seeing more pages, I cannot judge.

Understand that lousy printing was a choice -- not a limitation of the era. But the choice was so that comics could remain low-cost kiddie books. In the early 2000s, that was pushed aside, and is one reason comics went from $1-2 on average (1990s pricing) to $3 to $5 per issue. Although the cheap method had improved by then, many comics went the premium route anyway.
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  #3  
  06-06-2011, 12:42 PM
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LS - and others - the last picture - its the other way around - RHS is the original and LHS is the recolored one. they've taken away the door, and hidden parts of the chains, the jailers body etc in shadows. sheer butchery.
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  #4  
  09-08-2011, 12:06 AM
 
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I think it is good because new generation look for colour types and if it is like faded they are not interested so new colours will make read the comics for to new generation.
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