Recolouring Kirby's pencils?

[Crimson]

Yeah I just posted something like this on my blog and was wondering if anyone else would be interested in seeing it.

What I suggested was that alot of newer fans see Kirby's (and earlier art work) as simplistic. After looking at pencils and inks from the time, I think most of this came from the colouring, which lost of the detail in the work.

Would anyone else like to see some of today's top colourists recolouring some of Kirby's pencils to show how detailed his work really was and also to show of vital colouring is to today’s comic art, I feel colouring is really under appreciated.

I heard we were getting something like this from the last Kirby/Lee story they found but I’d still like to see random pages and splash pages reproduced in a one shot.

I think it’d be very interesting.

[Affinity]

Coloring totally is underappreciated in the industry. It sucks and I don't know if it's going to change. I'm not one and don't plan on being one, but I do color my own work in PS and seeing how hard it is and how annoying and tedious it is, I think there's not nearly enough credit for an art team as a whole, and a book will be labeled as GREAT thanks to somoene's pencisl (ignoring the colorist entirely).

I think things might be changing, ever so slightly. Christina Strain, one of THE best in the industry, has a large name credit on the WWH covers. Her last name would be a start, but it says CHRISTINA STRAIN. That's really, really good. I think she had it on Runaways, too, but I don't remember for sure.

I wouldn't like to see Kirby's pencils remastered. I think super-stylized and shiny coloring like Frank D'armata's would ruin the Kirby art.

[KirkWarren]

Here's what Romita Sr would look like with today's colouring techniques. Its from Spec 261 when Roger Stern did a Roderick kingsley (Hobgoblin) and Norman Osborn crossover shortly after the Hobgoblin Lives revealed him to be the original Hobby.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/7729/261tj6.jpg


To be honest, I would love to see them take the original pencils / black and whites they have in Essential Spider-man and see them recoloured for today, but I doubt they would be willign to spend that much money on it or people would react negatively to the "altering" of the original material.


While not Marvel related, here's a prime example of colouring in comics.

This was an annouced cover for a Cyborg Superman one-shot released months ago. The flats are already applied to the image and the pencils appear less than flattering as is. Some might say the art is kind of generic or bland (even without the colouring accentuating this).

http://dccomics.com/media/covers/8131_400x600.jpg

Here is the finished promotional piece with digital colouring on those flats. The difference is huge and I'd wager most would be turned off of this comic if it used the dated colouring tecniques most Kirby and Romita Sr comics had to endure.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s93/SuperShik/Ad.jpg

[Expletive Deleted]

I copied this thread over to the Classic Comics forum, since this seems like it might be up their alley, too.

That copied thread is here (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=188919).

[Crimson]

Cheers ED.

That JR Snr looks great Kirk. I loved to see some of his stuff recoloured, same with Ditko's, I mainly mentioned Kirby as he is seen as the granddaddy of Marvel on the art side.

I think your example is perfect for showing how important colouring is today.

[Dusty.]

I LOVE today's coloring much more than the newsprint era. The paperstock today rules at Marvel.

Recoloring makes old stuff look new again. Just check out Dark Horse's reprints of the old Marvel Conan series over Barry Windsor-Smith and John Bucema's art. You can also see any classic collections cover.

I think Marvel would make it's money back and then some if they published their older work recolored, although the current paperstock finally has them looking great.

[Babylon23]

I'm not so sure about this.

While it could definitely work, it could also be a total disaster. Some modern colourists tend to overcolour things. Modern artists often accomodate this, leaving room for the colourist to work.

Kirby drew to the limitations of the day. He applied all of the light, shading and effects in his pencil work, knowing the limitations of the colouring of the time. Detailed colouring isn't really required on a lot of his work.

For a good example, check out some of the covers to the Jack Kirby Collector. While many work, there are a fair few where the colourist has been unnecessarily heavy-handed in their colouring.