Colour vs Black and White Comics

[smokesalty]

Hey, I'm currently making some test pages and I'm currently trying out different styles. I like both coloured and black and white, but they both have their pros and cons.

What style do you guys prefer reading/ working in?

I honestly can't choose, but black and white takes much less time to complete. However, I've heard black and white/greyscale comics don't do so well on webtoon and tapas. I'll show you my work:

Coloured:

Black and white:

Here's my test comic if you want to read it: https://tapas.io/episode/2229473

[Bokyongyo]

For me personally, some comics work better in BW while some work better in color, depends on the comic.

However for working, with my comic it leans more toward gray scale rather than straight black and white which was my choice to do from the start due to me wanting a black and white esthetic from the day one, and also having the work load for the comic not be too overbearing. Coloring comics is a lot of work so really didn’t want to have to go through that during my comics early stages.

But overall think the grayscale look works and is a solid medium between the two just because I’m not stuck with solely two colors to work with. A lot of different values can be executed with gray alone

[Theo]

I work as an illustrator in a very colour heavy style, so to not feel like I'm working while drawing my comic I work in black&white. I also wanted to concentrate more on value and composition for it which working in monochrome really helps. And it's for me much quicker since I suck at colour consistency.

Honestly, I kind of think of working on the comic mostly for myself - and I definitely would enjoy working on it less if I felt as if I'm working.

[jermajay]

For me I think the colour comic works better out of the two examples you showed, partially because the colours just look nice, but also because you've added a lot more depth with shading - for example just in the skin you have 3 or 4 different values + gradients, whereas with the b&w comic you just have solid black and solid white. Adding hatching or grey tones would help differentiate say characters from the background, and make it easier to 'read' the scene.
Hope that makes sense - both look great and I am partial to colour anyway, so probably biased haha

[iHateFridays]

In general I prefer colour but black and white can def be used as a stylistic choice as well

[starless]

A BW comic's barely noticeable in the main page to begin with. Colorful and animate (since now gif is allowed) thumbnails catch readers eyes first.

I've seen many creators having colored thumbnails although their web series are BW comics. It depends on how you want to attract readers and promote but in general a BW work is harder to get an attention.

[darthmongoose]

I love working in black and white for print, there's something so elegant and expressive about it. For web though I find a lot of pure white or high contrast art very painful to look at as a light sensitive person, and I think it's nice to use the wide gamut of colour modern devices can show to create and consume work that uses colour in an expressive way. You can rarely get the same depth or richness of colour in a printed comic because CMYK with pigment is more limited than the colours a screen and RBG can show, so I think webcomics and colour are a good match.

[annaportia]

I definitely prefer working in color. I find it easier to get my ideas across in the best way. Personally, I find colored comics more interesting to look at (as a reader) so I always do my comics in color. That's just my personal preference. Though a definite pro for black and white is it's much faster. Thanks for bringing up this interesting topic!

[315Art]

I heard that the coloured comics do better as well in Tapas and Webtoon.
For your comic, I'd go with the first style, I can see that your characters rely in a specific colour scheme, it would lose a bit in black and white considering the good quality of your colours. Despite this I like the black and white one as well, but I think it lacks in depth. Have you tried to add at least a layer of greyscale?

Generally speaking, I believe that the tone of the story matters, for example, in my comic, set in the 1890s, I apply a "dirt" texture in order to resemble an old look, and it's in black and white, as the story could be a bit dark in some parts (and also, to be honest, it's faster to make).

[jeffanime1]

I do mine in B&W not because it's easier but because I wanted to stay true to the manga style my comic is drawn in.
Just use the style that works best for the story you're trying to tell!

[MacchiaStella]

I read manga and webtoons/manhwa/manhua so personally I do not care.

But yeah black n white comics usually do not do well.

I've read one tho and it's kinda popular

[Kirieslawa]

it depends where are you planning to publish it if it's only online version then go for a color, but if you want to print it it'll be easier and cheaper with black and white.

[ZatchZ]

It's because we live in a mobile app platform that color is preferable.

If you were working for print, Black and White would be ideal.

However, if you want readers, you need color or really good black and white art like manga.

[ellendallanora]

Unless you add screentones on the black and white version, it will hardly work nearly as well as the colored version.

[Zhengo]

Black and white only cause it's quicker. Also I just like doing high contrast stuff lmao

[Dariru]

I love line art, and often, while I love color artwork, the colors take away from showing off the linework. So I tend to be drawn to black and white comics with stellar line art.