Comic strips

[rowyn]

I was discussing web comics with a friend, and he mentioned that he had a subconcious bias for strips that were in color. It wasn't that he consciously looked at black and white strips and said "ew!" -- but he found that most of the strips he wound up reading were in color.

I haven't noticed this bias in myself. In fact, one of the comics I read daily -- GPF -- went to color and I didn't even notice. (Happened sometime in 2002 or 2003, I guess). Out of the 21 strips I regularly follow, nine are in color. But most of those were in b&w when I started reading them, so color didn't have an impact on my decision.

Perhaps more interestingly: I only read a handful of strips where I know the creator's sole income is from the strip. Those would be: Megatokyo, PVP, Sluggy Freelance, and User Friendly. None of those run daily color strips (though the last three do Sunday color).

But this has been on my mind, so I thought I'd do a little poll on it and a couple of questions. For variety, I'll fill out my own poll this time. :)


[Poll #245608]

Comments

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Certainly I don't subconsciously look for color strips. But the appearance of a color in an otherwise black-and-white strip might trigger someone to expect color.

"Bohemials" was interesting in this regard; jimrob used an approach similar to sepia tones frequently.
http://www.albionfuzz.com/d/20030327.html

"The Makeshift Miracle" also did this:
http://makeshiftmiracle.comics2u.com/d/20010910.html

But black and white works perfectly well. "Freefall", for example, and "Sinfest" do excellent jobs with B&W illustrations.

===|==============/ Level Head

Re:

[rowyn]

Unfortunately, the "no ink" style is much rarer; "Megatokyo" is the only strip I can think of that uses pencil art for the final product. Working with greyscale pencil drawings is a lot faster for me than any form of inking is likely to be, alas. Though I suppose if I got enough practice, I'd be able to do it quickly eventually. Either that, or I'd get sick of it and quit. One of the two. :)

Re:

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I think that if (dare I say WHEN?) I finally tackle the idea of doing a short-run web-comic, I'll probably do it in pencils. I'm not particularly good at making full use of them, but I just can't see myself being able to keep up the pace, if I'm tied down in the need to polish up every panel and make it sharp and inked and all that. Far more likely, I would pencil things in, adjust the curves a bit for clarity, and maybe do some touch-up on the computer, but that's it. That's the approach I've taken with the sketches I've been using for my "treasure cards" for D&D, and it's made a world of difference: I would have given up a long time ago if I had to ink them all - let alone COLOR them. (Or, there'd be a whole lot less treasure!)

Re:

[rowyn]

Somehow, I thought that inking things WAS quick for you. Your inkwork is so neat and clean when I see it, that I've had this idea you had it down to a science and it didn't take you that long. Shows what I know. :)