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Critics Corner
The Life of a Comic Colorist
Anonymous |
| June 19, 2002 |
This rant was an e-mail sent
to me by an
actual Comic colorist who wishes
to remain
anonymous, but who has graciously
agreed
to let me reprint their message
with minor
modifications to protect their
identity.
I send out my thanks to them,
and really
appreciate their giving the rest
of us an
idea of what the life of a colorist
can be
like... - Bridget
Dear Bridget,
I stumbled across your Sasha Bordeaux Fan
Site and, after recovering from your savage
reviews of my coloring, eventually began
to enjoy your reviews.
:)
I thought, though, I'd write and ask you
to cut us colorists a little slack.
Without a word from the editor, a Zip disk
shows up with a scan of the next cover. All
that I know about the issue that the cover
will be on is what is on the cover. Any foreshadowing
of the colors about anything inside the book
is purely coincidental. I send off the colored
file and maybe get it back with some corrections.
What happens to it after that is anyone's
guess. There have been many times when I
finally see a cover I did on the stands and
wonder, "what the hell did they do to
it?" in-house.
I'm not saying I'm not responsible for the
color jobs that you see. I'll take 90% responsibility.
I must have colored Batman a thousand times.
Imagine how many times I've colored a Batman
cover that has him croutching on a building
at night. He's friggin' gray, the building
is friggin' gray, the sky is friggin' dark
gray/blue/purple, and, when I try to throw
some color around or do something
different, I get the beat-down from the editor
that Batman should be a dark and moody book.
Anyway, I'm not here to bitch at you (too
much). Just keep in mind that the process
isn't the well-oiled machine you might expect
(or hope for). Shoot, I haven't actually
spoken to an editor in maybe a year.
If you have any questions like, "What
the hell were you thinking on that cover?",
drop me an e-mail. |
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