Black and White Comics, Yay or Nay?

[imiogri]

I prefer color, but black and white can be just as effective if you do it right. A problem I've seen with black and white is bad contrasts that make things messier to look at. Those kind of problems tend to turn me off. If you know how to balance the grayscale properly it can be really neat. I'd never call it any lazier than using color if the story and dialogue is good. (This comes from someone who only draws in color and never plan to do BW)

[ZatchZ]

What about the use of screen tones?

[TenguHarley]

I'm fine with both but as @ScreeKeeDee mentioned, depending how you go with it, it could be hard to follow through and know what's going on for the characters and stories, despite that yes we got some text to aid a bit on that, its a bit of a struggle.

Though I do black and white with my series since its faster but also I always love manga style though friends have talked to me about trying to put off some pages in color like how mangakas do it with their manga as a special.

but low key.. I feel that everyone would expect it in color.. ^^;;

[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.