Comics: B/W vs Color

[DarkSena]

As an oldschool artist I do remember the times when as a child I started watching anime and later out read my very first manga. Whilst western comics have been mostly always in the color the mangas were done in for me unknown technique called screentoning. When my interest grew into something more and I started to pursue drawing as something more. When I first collaborated in a book in 2009 all of us drew the classical style B/W manga. Ever since then mangas and comics have been also evolving and with digital age the age of webtoon came when the vast majority of comics are made now in color. Something which used to be premium (colored cover and title pages) are now completely in color. Of course now with the saving costs with webcomic reading platforms you can save the printing costs which are increasing all the time.

What do you think are the pros and cons for either reading/creating a comic done B/W or grayscale and those which are completely done in color? Which one do you prefer more? Let's also consider the different formats the digital webcomic one and the classic paper form. Being an oldschool I prefer having the comic done monochrome because for me the grayscale can express the emotions more and the depth can create a more dramatic scenery.

But what are your thoughts?

Thank you for joining my topic

[Kaisei]

I remember the weekday comics being in B&W, with the Sunday paper comics in color, so there's form in the western world. I'm not sure that the weekday newspaper is even printed anymore.

I used to do old school photography (putting the film on the reel in the dark of the film closet, enlarging photos in the darkroom under red light, processing them through a series of strange smelling chemicals, etc.), so I appreciate B&W art. It has a different vibe than color, and it speaks in a different way.

That said, to make a B&W comic, you can't just leave out the color. You need to be conscious of that lack of color and make good use of texture and contrast. There are issues, like same face syndrome, that hurt a B&W comic more than a color comic. You can't rely on hair color to distinguish characters. There are comics that pull off B&W beautifully, and others that are confusing to readers.

[darthmongoose]

Most of my early comics work was in black and white. I was a finalist in the last UK and Ireland Rising Stars of Manga back in... yeesh, it must have been 2007 or something? and did a lot of stuff with UK small press, all in black and white, often with screentones. My very early attempts at webcomics were black and white too because I was hugely influenced by Megatokyo.

But when I started seriously trying to build an audience, I switched to colour, pretty much because it's been common wisdom since even back in the 00s that it's easier to catch people's eye and to look finished in colour.

I do enjoy working in black and white. There's a lot of really interesting compositional stuff you can do in black and white that doesn't necessarily work in colour, and I think a lot of developing creators ought to try making a comic where they limit themselves to just "black, white and one mid tone" on a short comic to learn to better use light and dark in their compositions and character designs. I still think "Above the Clouds", my entry that placed in the '09 Manga Jiman competition, is one of the best comics I've ever made, and it's aged a lot better than my colour work from that time:

That said, I often don't like black and white webcomics because...er... a lot of people use greyscale really badly. They fill everything in with a bunch of mid-grey tones as if it's just a colour image that's been desaturated, and it becomes muddy and hard to read. If somebody doesn't have a really strong grasp of how to use black and white effectively to block out light and shadow in a scene or draw the eye where it needs to be or show depth, I feel like they really ought to just use colour. I particularly get boggled when I see somebody filling in every part of their panels with a lot of mid greys and then saying "I use black and white because it's faster!"... I don't really get how that's faster; everything's filled in and with different tones, which to me is indistinguishable from filling everything with different colours.

I have a lot of fun using colour for Errant, because there's a lot of fun things to do with colour too, like glowy magical effects, or associating colours with characters to add an extra layer of meaning in places, using clashing colours to show discomfort, or soft ones to create a Romantic mood... it can be a really fun tool to use! Like on this page, where the overall room is in shades of Gold, associated with the terrible King Urien, so you feel like he dominates the scene even when he's not there, and the yellow almost creates a deathly, sickly feeling or one of dust and decay, and then when she's thinking about Sarin Aoki, looking at her chair, the background is blue; her associated colour, to emphasise what's on Rekki's mind.

Colour can be used badly too though, like sometimes I see bad, garish, patchy fills of over-saturated, unnatural colours and I'm just thinking "ugh, this would have looked better left as the line art".

Basically, I like both, but I think creators need to commit to really using whichever one they pick to maximum effect.

[thepenmonster]

But what are your thoughts?

Artistically speaking: If your art is strong without color then color will do nothing to enhance it. If you need color to get over that finish line, you should use it.

Cognisantly speaking: The public expects color and are often openly hostile towards not having it. Companies hold the same views. If you want any hope of, say, Naver Webtoon plucking your comic out of their lineup and selling it to Korean Netflix color is a must have.

[DarkSena]

@Kaisei Oh yeah, back then at school we also learned how to develop our own photographs. That process did make you appreciate the time and effort of how the classical old photos have been done Nowadays every other smart phone is able to make very nice snaps in no time.

Well, in B/W of grayscale you use a diffent texture or tone to make the hair different, it's almost like coloring without using the colors, that's how the differences are made right

@darthmongoose For me it's a little bit a cringe to look at my old stuff and esp comics. When I open the book and facepalm myself how was I able to draw the faces so crooked I wonder, haha.

It's hard to make a monochrome comic work nowadays so it doesn't look completely flat or just odd, the most important there is the way how you're playing there with contrast. However in color for me is I take extra time to choose the fitting colors I wanna use and that'd (for me) make my workflow endless. I definitely do agree with you the last point.

@thepenmonster I agree with you with both statements. It sure is the very norm esp for the digital versions to be in full-color and it's kinda expected.

[Lensing]

Black and white comics have a different aesthetic which I really like.
The same like comics which are only colored with just one color or a very limited
color palette, it has something really stylish and I believe that limited options can
be a good tool to make strong and impactful creative decisions. It´s the same like
in music, I like really stripped down arrangements with minimal instruments, recorded
live. The decisions you have to make are very similiar

I´m a big fan of Will Eisner, Jordi Bernet and other black and white artists.
The art looks beautiful without colors, they put out some colored comics with
Jordi Bernet´s linework and it didn´t work at all, it lost the touch

[UrMom]

Oh man, I love B&W! My old attempt at a comic was just ink work on 11" x 14" bristol, it was so easy and quick compared to color. I feel like my characters were also a lot more expressive without color, but that might just be because I had time to have fun with it. As Darthmongoose said it can look really muddy and indistinguishable when you don't know how to use it, also another downside is a lot of readers don't like it. I used to get the occasional comment asking me to switch to color, or they would keep reading if it were in color, which sucks. Not gonna lie though, I was kinda in the muddy camp, had too much fun with hatching so I went a little overboard.

That being said, I probably would have done my current comic the same way (Hopefully with better understanding of storytelling shading.), but the story work best with color so that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately I guess I'm just a muddy bitch because my coloring is also just as muddy, but it's fun in it's own way. I like blue, and it shows, it's also a good challenge since there's a lot more that needs to be considered. Like, color composition, lighting and such are way more difficult with color imo. You can also play around with mood in color, B&W is very limited in that aspect. (Which I'm not very good at since I tend to forget ton a lot. But I'm slowly improving! Lol) As well as do color picking for certain scenes and whatnot.

[NickRowler]

I grew up reading newspaper comics which were in b/w with screentoning. This was done because it is cheaper to print b/w for newspapers. Tho now that digital comics are growing in popularity, newspaper comics will have a b/w for print and a color version for digital.

This is also similar to manga. Manga are usually released first in magazine that are printed on newsprint. Having them in B/W reduces the cost of the publication and also allows that artists to finish their work within the deadline which is sometimes a week.

I do like B/W comics but a lot of readers prefer color. I think the reason why is because similar to digital strips, digital comics don't have to worry about printing costs. A benefit to color comics is allowing to use color as a plot point. I remember as a kid thinking Gaara from Naruto was blonde because I didn't really have any color reference to work off of. I know people have the anime to look at but at the time, that wasn't really a thing that existed yet.

[Nugtown]

That said, to make a B&W comic, you can't just leave out the color

I've seen people not get the memo on this one. It's something I would consider my personal pet peeve, when there is a vital misunderstanding about why screentones are used or even what their appeal is. What I mean by that is i've seen a handful of comics made where people will color the comic first but then just shift it to greyscale and it looks terrible since the contrasts don't translate directly when put in black and white.

"How do I translate lights and shadow into black and white? How do I translate it in comic form with the traditional look of tones?" These were some of the toughest questions I had to answer and the only answer was studying authors I admired.

I use screentones because I draw manga. Tones have always been used because of the comics being put out on cheap newsprint, but it's become a distinct and identifiable attribute that makes manga what it is. I like the way it looks and overall it's also easier for me to do when I don't have to consider every aspect of color or the way it behaves in any combination of light and shadow.

I'll admit sometimes I wish I would do color because colored comics always get more attention just for the sake of it being attractive and all, and sometimes when I think about it I don't like how unfair it feels. But I like what I like so i'll keep doing it regardless.

[Flios]

Strictly talking from a reading perspective, color can indicate more moods than grayscale. Desaturated art can make you feel the dread, tension, or whatever emotion the artist wants to convey. Vibrant colors can also make viewers feel lively, happy, etc.
On the other hand, B/W comics can give you an entirely different set of feelings. You often don't have the wide range of emotions to visualize when working with grayscale, but depending on your fundamental art style, you can still create some different moods. Techniques can also enhance B/W comics, like subtle crosshatching, grayscale effects, etc.

[DarkSena]

@NickRowler Oh? You had comic strips in the newspaper? I haven't really seen anything like that in the newspaper over here. It always used to be blocks of text with a very few images.

Mangas were primarily printed in one color because in Japan there was more manga than newspaper and the ton of that which they've beenprinting 24/7 would cost a fortune if they decided to have everything in color. You might have noticed also the quality of paper which we call here in terminology "toilet paper" lol Just the low quality one to save the expenses.

@Flios You're right, by the end of the day it always depends on what the each and every person wants to express with their art and there are always preferences of each of us. Crosshatching to me as a person who draw in grayscale is very essential.
The decision is also up the to the artist what is expected from you to do and what you really wanna do

[darthmongoose]

However in color for me is I take extra time to choose the fitting colors I wanna use and that'd (for me) make my workflow endless. I definitely do agree with you the last point.

I get around this by just making a palette for all my characters to work from and using it consistently. If I need a specific lighting effect in a scene, I just change the colour of the edge highlights or add a simple colour overlay. I don't personally have a great need to agonise over the colours once I've done the initial picking out, since in most comic scenes, it's mostly the same scenery and the same characters in the same lighting over and over again until the scene is done with only occasional panels where that might shift for emphasis, but those usually still need to fit in the overall vibe and palette of the comic. So for me, it's rarely a ton of choosing to find colours. It can seem like an intimidating choice, looking at a whole colour wheel, but there's often an obvious choice that jumps out when you get there.

[Zay]

I grew up reading manga, so yeah I’m more drawn to black and white comics not to say I hate colours or anything, not at all, there’s just something I find aesthetically pleasing about Japanese comics. Also, I prefer making black and white comics. I tend to overthink a lot when coloring so it stresses me out a bit, but when I’m working with screentones it’s more relaxing for me and I get pages done quicker, y’know?

[DarkSena]

I'm so very on board with you in so many ways. The only difference between might be that I'm not very fond with screentones. At time when I started using Manga Studio I've literally been pulling out my hair So I prefer crosshatching and all shades of gray for my comic though but that's my own preference I guess

[Flug]

Still working on paper with no intent to switch, greyscales with markers are cheap and easy. So much to my highflying artistic thoughts. XD

[NickRowler]

Oh? You had comic strips in the newspaper? I haven't really seen anything like that in the newspaper over here. It always used to be blocks of text with a very few images.

Yeah, some there were a page (or 2-3 in larger newspapers) dedicated to daily comic strips. Then on Sunday, there was a larger color version. Series like Peanuts, Garfield, and Boondocks were originally newspaper comics.

A lot of them are available to read online for free

[JaveCraze]

Black And White:
Pros:
-Has the potential to be more moody (Although, not always)
-Higher contrast on average
-Useful for a 'manga style'
-Often way faster, unless you REALLY want to make a masterpiece every panel
-Saves you from having to spend a lot of time learning to master color.. except for the cover, I guess.
Cons:
-No color.. which is obvious, but if color is important to your story, you'll have to obviously spell it out to the audience sometimes...
-No color.. so the usual tapas/webtoon reader might be taken back a bit. Nothing wrong with that.
-More focus on lineart, so you can't really hide a below average lineart job with a bunch of pretty colors.. However, it'll help you to get way better at lineart because of that!
-Can cause confusion if your composition isn't in tip-top shape. Despite the quality of the art, some black and white manga like Berserk fall victim to this sometimes.

Color:
Pros:
-Beautiful color, so your audience will fully and truly know that yes, your main characters hair is turquoise.
-Color tricks.. not so sure what the name of it is. You know how the colored version of JoJo changes colors for mood? You can do that. And, you can use color in text and speech, to varying levels of success.
-The "expected" style. Readers on webtoon and tapas come to expect color from most webcomics, so they'll feel right at home if it's in color. Scroll format too.
-Its easier to make things look "clearer" because your audience can see the separation between objects with both color and values.
Cons:
-Takes WAY longer unless you're really rushing. And, you have to think about color and not just values. Oof.
-An extra craft that has to be mastered, along with all the other parts of comic creation.

My preference is black and white, mostly because coloring takes me way to long and I love that black and white comic style. Personally, I believe you shouldn't really care about which one nets more viewers and you should just pick whichever is more fun to you.

[Katzalcoatl]

You have to consider your public and what platform(site)/form (digital or printed) the comic was created for.

Manga are mostly B/W but they include lots of details, depicting lots of action. They were meant to be printed and read in a book style. That's why you read it from right to left.

Manga were done in B/W mainly because artists lacked time to color it each week (weekly jump).

Now comics like DC/Marvel had more time to get printed so they took their time to do it with color.
Unlike manga western comics didn't really share the space in their printed version with other authors.

Moving on to webcomics, they were greatly influenced by manhwa and manhua.
Both of this comics were designed to be read in a cellphone vertically.
That being said manhwa influenced webcomics more than manhua. Mainly in art style.
Manhua have more details but are way shorter than manhwa (in general).
Manhwa gets updated weekly but characters usually have less details allowing authors to make a longer comic than a manhua.
Manhwa episodes are still short allowing them to be published weekly.
A huge difference between manhwa author's and manga author's is that the former can take a break to prepare for the next season to keep a schedule while the latter can only take breaks during japanese holidays or when they get sick.

Knowing the history of how comics have evolved we can say B/W is not better than color and vice versa.
They are just practiced that way for different reasons.

If you want tl draw lots of details with a very limited time then B/W is a better option. But if you want to draw adding almost no details then you should use color.

Another thing you have to take into consideration is where you are uploading your comic. If it is a platform meant to be read up to down then you should use a manhwa/manhua style comic (with this logic your comic should be in color with short episodes and few details).

If the platform doesn't allow you to read up to down and instead you have to press next to see the next image then you should use a traditional comic/manga style be it in B/W or in color it all depends on the amount of time you have between each episode being made public.

Having said that, tapas' main attraction are korean manhwa. So you should consider that most people join for that korean Manhwa style since they want to read from their phone.

Webtoons is also a platform that has adopted this style. That's why all their serialized comics are done like manhwa but with more details and longer episodes (not by much) than a traditional manhwa.

Having said that it doesn't mean people won't like manga style art. But it will be far less popular due to the nature of said platforms.

If you want to publish a more traditional manga style comic in B/W I recommend using platforms like MangaPlus Creators. These platforms/sites are made for creators with this iconic style.

P.S. Western comics were also limited by their printers. If I recall correctly the hulk was originally supposed to be gray but got changed to green since the printer was having trouble with the gray version.
Comic history regarding color/B&W is very interesting and long.

[DarkSena]

@JaveCraze That's a very nice summary. Thank you for writing it, very appreciated
Yes B/W and greyscale has been always the most common with manga and it kinda does stick with me that way but you're right everyone is free to choose whatever feels the best for them.

@Katzalcoatl Yes, thank you going into details. I agree, the webtoon nowadays were definitely greatly influenced by manhwa, some people stick to classical book page format but for now mobile scroll format is being prefered. If you're main doing Webtoon it's fine but once you wanna make out of the noodle format a printed book then it means spending hours over hours over days completely rebuilding everything haha.

MangaPlus is very new to me I've just heard about that one recently but it's mostly publishing the big manga titles since it's ran by Shueisha. For now I'd say the big players in the webcomic are Webtoon and Tapas.

PS: You did remind me of the manga weekly collections, that's such nostalgia

[Jwebtoons]

My story is kind of like a webcomic/manga, I think it depends on what kind of feel you want it to have. Color can help differentiate certain scenes (sometimes I can't tell what I'm looking at in a manga).

Read The Legacy of Combat | Tapas Web Comics