Black and White Comics, Yay or Nay?

[irene_addler]

They can be very good if done right!!

[ChrisSim]

I think it depends on what you want to achieve as well as personal taste. I tend to think that black and white is quite superior to color work, as black and white feels more emotional and closer to the soul. Color usually looks very flashy and messy to me. If you look at mangas (usually done in black and white) that sometimes come with the first few pages in color, the color pages feel vastly inferior in quality to the bw ones.

Just my opinion though!

[dawgofdawgness]

Big yay! I love B&W comics. I'd say maybe they don't grab as much attention in the webcomic medium, but in general I really like the look of Nate Powell, Jeff Lemire, Wes Craig, etc. I'm not much of a color person so it's really aesthetically pleasing to me when the inks are the main focus. Also I really like the hard-boiled art style like in Charles Burns stuff:

Contrast.... to the max.
And on the topic of horror, I do think that adding color to a gritty, serious comic might make it seem more... campy? Distracting? At least to me. It's like if Walking Dead were in full color. It'd draw in more readers, maybe, but it definitely wouldn't have the same effect in my opinion.

[indigodrawing]

I'm not a huge fan, simply because my eyesight is poor and without colour cues I struggle to tell characters apart.

[ZatchZ]

I think that can be a case of characters have the same silhouette.

[indigodrawing]

It's really not. Unless the characters are so stylised they barely look human I really have a hard time telling them apart. Thanks for telling me how my eyesight works, though.

[Kelheor]

I haven't really read many black and white comics on Tapas, but I am a huge manga fan, so definitely yay!

[ZatchZ]

Sorry, I was insensitive.
I was referring to Gintama's rule of silhouettes when making character designs in manga.

[joannekwan]

I like them when they're done well like

King | Tapas

I have my own strictly black and white comic. It was certainly a challenge to do, but I think that made me appreciate the end product much more! It's one of my favorite comics I've done to date~

Erie Waters | Tapas

[danitasibert]

I work with making a black and white comic (with some greyscale)
i do prefer with with black and white, rather than coloring. for me my coloring process take too much time.

[nostalgicroxas]

Yay.

I see no difference between a colored comic vs a b/w one. If anything, color ones are more disappointing because they try to be "super amazing good" colors to get your attention, instead of directing the mood of the image; not all the times- but sometimes.

[mariusthered]

I like both but lean towards colour

[ToxicRamen]

Well, I have two comics that I'm working on and one of them is in color and the other one is a comic strip and it's in black & white.

[OttoGruenwald]

Yay Yay YAY!

The Power of Stardust | Tapas

[Ghostie]

I started off fullcolor and just couldn't keep up.
So I decided to start doing them in greyscale - BUT with color title, chapter pages, and first-pages of chapters. Especially because all my characters are fantasy and have unnatural skin tones, which is super hard to get across in greyscale. So I found a use for both - but the main storyline is grey for speed. (And it helps anyway my comic is noir gangster setting. I guess it kind of compliments.)

I think everyone should just do what works best for them - including coloring a single panel out of a black and white page to add some real POW to stuff.

[Maps]

I will read both black and white comics and color and will enjoy them equally. There’s OCCASIONALLY those times where I might struggle to get what I’m looking at in a B&W before it clicks. Color just differentiates things more.
But, yeah, love em both.

[CarolRiverArt]

I love both. But let's talk about functionality.

BW with screen tones fits better for print.
This happens in the Japanese manga industry.not in the American. This style works for large masses, cheap tint and paper for fast printing. Something like newspaper i think. Maybe if the comic gets popular, they'll start adding color pages special editions etc.

Now color. Color means lots of investment in the print side. But in the RGB world, is really welcomed.
So, if you are working digital, colors fits for you. People who read the comic from a mobile phone look for stunning graphics.

Now, some comics have a style with purpose (BW or 1 color) and also a great story. And still are popular. So I guess it depends how are you going to create the symbolism or meaning of your comic.

[PaulDevers]

I'm personally a huge fan of black and white! If given proper time to shade and add effects and stuff, it can lead to a degree of a calm beauty to the artwork. That, and hard black shadows are amazing to look at and can add an air of mystery/sinister.
Color is nice, but it can also be time consuming. Nothings also saying you can't go back and color it later, as that may be something to pursue down the road.

[Kokoneos]

For me it's usually a nay- especially if it starts off in color and I become accustomed to that style.
However, if the inkwork is captivating enough on its own then it's a yey. Like if it has nice hatchwork, fun abstract lining... and has a good handle on balancing the high contrast so the focal point doesn't get lost in every panel.. then it can be very beautiful and enjoyable.

[Donny]

Good points. Yes, it's very much about the technology. Black and White is primarily a cost consideration. It's much cheaper printing in BW.

In the America there was a boom of indie Black and White comics during the 80s (eg. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), but since then almost all American print comics are in full color. In Japan, they still publish the big manga magazines which usually have hundreds of pages, so I think they still use BW to keep them affordable. In America, single issues are actually comparatively expensive, using full color and nicer paper for fewer pages.

But, yeah, in a digital age, there's not cost difference to produce BW or color like in print.

I've been debating this issue for myself, because I was primarily print oriented: I was making a comic book that I wanted to get printed cheaply, so I was making black and white comic book formatted pages that I re-purposed for web comics. But I'm beginning to think that I should just forget about getting it printed and just stick to digital and make it in color.

I just love manga so much (and fantasize about being a mangaka), but I think I really need to get with the times and reality (ie. working in a digital medium and living in America)....

Anomie | Tapas