Comic strips
Feb. 8th, 2004 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynI 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]
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]
Re: Art and Writing
Date: 2004-02-23 10:08 am (UTC)A Talented writer can carry a strip if the art is poor.
I actually think the former is a lot rarer than the latter. I've read many strips and comic books where the best that could be said for the art was "consistent". (And sometimes, not even that.) I can only think of one or two examples where artwork impressed me so much I overlooked indifferent writing.
While most of the strips I read are in black and white, I will tend to disdain black and white, perhaps because I'm trying to justify the extra effort I go to to put things in color.
I think what's really at work isn't so much a subconcious bias towards color as a subconcious bias towards attractive art. In your case, you put a lot of effort into using color effectively, and it makes your strip more attractive.
But a strip with well-done black & white art can be just as visually appealing, I think. I'd say that's why color isn't an issue for Freefall or Sluggy Freelance or Megatokyo. The artwork is clean, sharp, and attractive/ Color doesn't (or wouldn't) add a whole lot to it. It's just an application of fill tools. Big deal. ;)
But if you use color to provide special effects, shading, or other elements that your art wouldn't or didn't capture in black & white, then it's a real enhancement to the strip's visual appeal. And that's important to getting your foot in the door with a new reader, just as you say. At a glance, anyone can tell if your art is good or bad. The quality of the writing and the story takes a lot longer to judge. So you don't want that first impression to be a bad one. Makes plenty of sense to me.