Author: DOuG pRATt

All in Color for 12¢ – Part 2

There is a dark side, literally, to digital comic book coloring. Having more colors to work with meant more finely shaded tones. But what looks great on a computer screen can appear muddy on the printed page. This video is about the opposite problem, with colors being too bright.

Chris at Comic Tropes apologizes to José Villarrubia for not crediting him as the source for some of the images he used. Here are a couple of Jim Steranko examples that José posted on Facebook.

For this one I’m adding a Heritage Auctions image of the original art. Looking at it full size, you can see that most of the white lettering is a negative image made on a stat camera and pasted onto the art. In a past life I was proficient at stat camera and paste-up work. Never had a chance to try preparing color separations.

I’m not a fan of glossy paper for comic books. The Marvel Omnibus volumes are guilty of both overly bright colors and glossy paper, along with some poor restoration of linework.

Comic book letterer Todd Klein has this view on the subject of coloring. Todd mentions his use of #3 Winsor-Newton Series 7 brushes, which was also Joe Sinnott’s favorite brush.

https://kleinletters.com/Blog/coloring-comics-old-school/

Winsor-Newton Series 7 #3 brush and Hunt 102 pen nib, from the Joe Sinnott estate.

Designated Driver

My multi-function Canon printer is seventeen years old. Finding OEM ink cartridges for it is difficult and, when successful, extremely expensive. The scanner is excellent, as seen in the post from a couple of days ago, so it’s a keeper. I’m trying to decide on a brand of after-market refill cartridges to try.

I needed to print a tax document, and the Pixma MP600 said no can do, because one of the colors of ink has run out. ARGH! It was time to punt and pull out the even older, long idle Samsung ML-1710 laser printer.

I crossed my fingers that I could find a generic driver in Windows 11 that would work with a legacy printer. *Whew!* Success!

The AM Sound

When I was doing AM radio DJ duty, I could monitor either what was going to the transmitter from the studio, or what the transmitter was putting out over the air.

If I was working alone on a weekend, I always monitored the over-the-air signal. What I heard wasn’t quite what listeners with regular AM radios heard, because the station’s AM receiver had wideband reception.

My GE Superadio III, now almost 30 years old, has wideband AM reception. It’s only useful during the day, on stations that are well separated on the dial from other stations. Here’s an example of the difference in sound quality, for all that it matters anymore. 🙁

All in Color for 12¢ – Part 1

The title is a nod to All in Color for a Dime, by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson. Comic books haven’t cost 12¢ since 1969, but I am forever fond of my first few years being a fan.

Bob Wiacek is a former comic book inker who received some of his training from Joe Sinnott. Here is an example of Bob’s work from the millennial year, 2000, on pencils by Joe Bennett.

X-51 #11 p.10

Here is how the page appeared in print, with very effective colors by Mark Bernardo. This is an excellent, and relatively early, example of digital coloring.

With the combination of quality paper and improved printing technology compared to the old days, the images come alive. Where digital colors, good paper, and perfect printing can go wrong will be the subject of Part 2.

Sorry to say, Wiacek is now legally blind from a medical problem. Bennett was reportedly released from Marvel for political reasons.