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I recently talked with a friend about The Walking Dead and he said he liked it although it was a black and white comic, like a coloured book would be superior. That leads to my question: do you prefer one style over the other (black and white vs. colour) and is there a series or creator you prefer in one of the above. For example, here in Germany the first Hellboy trades are published in black and white and because I like Mignola way more when coloured, I bought the Library Editions from Dark Horse.
Malte from Germany
I am probably not typical of the average comic buyer who has a clear preference for color comics, but it doesn’t usually make a difference to me. Both color and black and white have their benefits, of course. Color is more vivid, and can paint a clearer picture of what’s going on in the world on the page. It can make it easier to distinguish characters, for example. On the other hand, it’s more expensive to produce color comics, both in printing, and in labor. Finding a good colorist also seems to be much harder than finding a good penciller as well, since I see a lot of indie comics with passable art, but abysmal digital color. So while color can float a book, it can also sink it just as fast. This isn’t an issue with most mainstream comics, because they’re simply not going to print black and white comics, but in the lower echelons of the market, it’s a real choice to be made, and not an easy one.
Black and white has its benefits as well. With a lot of artists, you get to really see what they’re doing when they work black and white. Coloring can cover up a lot of what’s gone into a page or what hasn’t. That can work for or against the artist, but seeing how some work looks before the color got to it is a revelation. There’s something raw about it, where it’s the most pure form of storytelling, and there are no shortcuts or tricks, and it’s just pure skill you’re looking at. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more quality books put out in black and white, but as digital becomes more prevalent, and the cost of printing in color vs. b/w isn’t an issue, I think we’ll actually see it less. I’ve done several stories in black and white, including Dixon’s Notch, and it can work very well.
Now, in terms of reprinting, that’s a different story. Black and white or color isn’t a deal breaker for me, but if it was intended to be one thing, and is reprinted as another, I can’t get behind that. I had no idea that Hellboy was reprinted in black and white. Dave Stewart’s colors are every bit as important to that book as Mignola’s artwork, and it seems like it would really be lacking in that aspect. The Walking Dead I don’t ever need to see in color. It wasn’t drawn that way, and the grey tones are just fine for me.
Josh Flanagan
I’ve never been a huge JLA fan (and other than Batman, I’ve never been too into DC… just one of those things). Well, I’m enjoying the new JLA DC is putting out, so I’ve been kind of curious about picking up some JLA trades and giving them a shot.
Could you suggest a list of three-to-five “must-have” JLA trades that I can get started with?
John M. from Buffalo, New York
No problem, John! It’s actually a testament to how long it’s been since the Justice League have had a really enjoyable comic book that I had to go into the way back machine for most of these trades. But here you are:
1) JLA, Vol. 1: New World Order – This one is the true must have. Grant Morrison and Howard Porter returned the Justice League to its former state of glory by reuniting the Big 7 and telling fast paced and action-packed stories. It was the Justice League for a whole new generation and it hasn’t been matched since. This trade only collects the first four issues, but if you like it, the Deluxe Hardcover had the first 9.
2) JLA: Year One – Coming out during Morrison’s run, this 12 issue mini-series from Mark Waid and Barry Kitson retells the classic story of how the original Justice League came to be, but for a modern audience and in a way that fit in with continuity at the time.
3) JLA: Earth 2 – As if Morrison hadn’t had enough of the Justice League with the regular series, he also penned this original graphic novel drawn by Frank Quitely that featured the Justice League team from his series first encountering the Crime Syndicate of Amerika. This book was loosely adapted into Justice League: Crisis on Earth 2, one of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
4) Justice League International, Vol. 1 – This one might be the diciest choice, but with must-read Justice League books it has to be on the list. Spinning out of the Legends event, which spun out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, this was the first new Justice League team in the modern age… and it was done as a vaudevillian sitcom. If you don’t mind your superheroes being funny as much as heroic, and if you don’t mind the 1980s writing style then comic don’t get much better than this.
5) Identity Crisis – Not a Justice League book in title, but a Justice League book to its core. In this 7 issue mini-series, Brad Meltzer, and Rags Morales positioned the Justice League and their families members into the midst of a violent and emotional murder mystery whose reverberations are felt to this day.
Those are my five must have Justice League trades. They vary in style and era and you should be able to find something in there to suit you.
Conor Kilpatrick
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I’d toss in JLA: The Nail as well. While it’s an Elseworlds story, which means it’s out of continuity, it does feature some sweet, sweet Alan Davis art.
really, for a JLA fan, all the Morrison stuff is required reading. Including some of the Waid stuff (particularly Tower of Babel)
YES. Tower of Babel is the best JLA story ever, especially for a Batman fan.
Tower of Babel is easily the best, however, you need to just skip the first 10 pages of the story. The “shrink-us-down-to-beat-the-bugs” plot is just awful.
@ChrisSnell lol i totally blocked that out of my memory, it was pretty bad
I’ve been on a JLA reading kick and actually find Joe Kelly’s “Golden Perfect” story (JLA: Golden Perfect) to be the most enjoyable from the late 90’s JLA series. Waid’s “Queen of Fables” (JLA: Divided We Fall) and the Christmas one (I believe it’s in the last trade Waid wrote) are also very good.
Wow thanks guys, I’ll need to buy those then! I’ve loved Morrisons run on the Batman titles and I’m enjoying his Action Comics New 52 issues so far! 🙂
sometimes with fully rendered color books from the big 2 i’ve found that there often is just too much middle grey value on a page, and as a result stuff just falls flat and depth perception and separation often suffers. Just like painting, sometimes you can get caught up in mark making and you forget about the entire composition.
I really like black and white books and even monochrome books…and love seeing some really dramatic stuff that omits all grey tones. Jeff Lemire’s indy work comes to mind.
If you like Batman then JLA: Tower of Babel is a must.
“Now, in terms of reprinting, that’s a different story. Black and white or color isn’t a deal breaker for me, but if it was intended to be one thing, and is reprinted as another, I can’t get behind that.”
Reminds me of DC’s “Showcase Presents” releases. Not really a major loss I guess, but it did throw me for a loop after I bought one and flipped through it to find everything in black and white.
Same thing with the Marvel Essentials… I got the first two X-Men trades and then the first Uncanny X-Men and while not a deal breaker, I do miss the colors on them… Fortunately the stories within are good enough for me to read through anyways and just for history lessons it’s great hehe!
The Showcase and Essential lines are really a trade off. You’re right, the B&W pages aren’t ideal, but you get a lot of comic for your money in those cases. That’s a choice each reader will have to make and, for me, I make that choice by a title-by-title decision.
“I make that choice by a title-by-title decision.”
Same here. While I wouldn’t bother with the multiple Batman and JLA Showcases, I’m damn glad to have Booster’s original series sitting on my shelf. And I didn’t realize they did the same with Marvel Essentials. Was this close to buying quite a few at one point.
When i was just starting my comics hobby i was very bias towards color books. Now i hardly notice whether or not a book is in black and white or color. I kid you not. Its not a big concern for me. If the penciling is sharp and the writing is even sharper it hardly matters to me.
“For example, here in Germany the first Hellboy trades are published in black and white and because i like Mignola way more when coloured, I bought the Library Editions from Dark Horse.”
These black and white editions (CrossCult, right?) are terrible. I bought the German version of “BPRD – Plague of Frogs” as a translation by CrossCult. Did not like it. It was also a smaller format (Like the German Walking Dead). It might only be fine in a universe, where one has no idea of the existence of the coloured original.
On some websites, even mentioning Identity Crisis is bound to get you tarred and feathered. I’m grateful that iFanboy sees the awesomeness of it, though. It was one of my first introductions to the JLA, and to this day it’s one of my favorites.
Really? I don’t see how anybody could hate Identity Crisis
I wasn’t a big fan of the art, and I truly did hate how DC and its marketing dept. whored out the term “Crisis” for this non-Crisis story — but the story was amazing for the most part.
@BionicDave, I wouldn’t say that they “whored out” the crisis title considering how at that time, infinite crisis wasn’t out yet and crisis wasn’t really a banner.
@Cap, I beg to differ. The event term “Crisis” has been a banner at DC Comics for decades — since well-before “Infinite Crisis” and even before that mini-series’ more popular predecessor, 1985’s company-defining (and perhaps industry-defining) “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” Since 1963, in fact, “Crisis” had been a special word reserved for DC stories of universe-spanning importance. And especially since the 1985 miniseries event which rebooted the DCU, the word “Crisis” was *hallowed ground* in the company. So, when “Identity Crisis” came along — a solid story about the JLA, yes, but certainly not deserving of the “Crisis” banner as DC readers had been trained to know it — DC Comics nonetheless played on the title and used misleading promotional tactics to dupe readers into thinking “Identity Crisis” would be just as universe-spanning as its past Crisis events. They most definitely “whored out” the Crisis brand.
Considering the ramifications of identity crisis, i’d say your definition of “universe spanning importance” fits just fine. Sure it didnt reboot the universe, but no one was saying it would.
@ed209AF Have to agree with you. I remember buying Identity Crisis, but I never felt like I was misled that this was some Universe-threatening event. Instead it was supposed to be Crisis-level in terms of its heart. I actually felt like putting the word Identity in front of Crisis was pretty obviously something important to the core of them.
I’m certainly not with you here. The other JLA stories are great but Identity Crisis was horrible.
I CAN see how people hate it. (I’m one of those folks.) Not that I begrudge you your appreciation of it. It’s emblematic of everything I hated about DC before the new 52. The stories are overcomplicated and overdark and extremely exploitative in their rapey/murdery-ness. (Raped, killed, burnt, and lying dead in the arms of an elastic guy? Yeah, nice comic.)
Plus, Batman’s mantra of “who benefits?” makes me think the World’s Greatest Detective has never heard the term “motive” before.
So, that one wouldn’t be on my list, obviously, though I know lots of folks who love it.
Have to admit that I didn’t really care for Identity Crisis either. I can see why it would appeal to some readers, and I wouldn’t call it trash, only it didn’t work for me. The solution to the crime just seemed petty and silly. I keep hoping that it’s been rebooted out of the New DCU, so that we can have the old Sue and Ralph back again . . .
If your a die hard Morrison and JLA fan you should check out JLA: Rock of Ages which features Morrison at his strangest yet most fascinating.
I have a slight preference for black and white work. I find that it is cleaner, easier to read and really shows off what an artist can do. Color doesn’t infuriate me unless its very bad coloring. Remember Marvel books from about 3 years ago? Destroyed a ton of otherwise quality pages.
Could you even imagine Sin City all in color? It would not be nearly as good. The stuff Frank Miller does with negative space in the black & white format is amazing. Sin City is the ultimate black & white book.
The JLA vol1 trade collects the first 9 issues, same as the deluxe hardcover.
Not the original TP.
I’ve never read Morrison’s JLA stuff, but really should one of these days. The Mark Waid sounds intriguing as well. As I posted above, I’m not that big a fan of Identity Crisis, but concede its importance. I don’t think that there is any need to apologize for the inclusion of the JLI series. I suspect that I am not the only one who remembers it fondly; for a generation this was their first introduction to the Justice League, and it stands up pretty well today . . .
I agree both color and black & white have their strengths, just like in movies or photography. Simply pick what suits best the artist/story. Jeff Smith’s black and white work in RASL has been terrific, while on the other hand, I have trouble imagining a page of the current Batwoman or Wonder Woman books looking as dynamic without colors . . .
I actually loved JLA all the way up to issue 100. Morrison and Waid were good but I also loved Kelly and Mahnke on the book as well. The Obsidian Age was really my introduction to the JLA. James Robinson’s Starman was the only other super hero book I had read before that.
While I don’t agree that the JLU series is the absolute best depiction of the Justice league, it is pretty damn fantastic. Really worth checking out for some great stories. Also, if you’re fairly new to the DCU it has a lot of introductions to characters and ideas that may make things easier on you before you dive head first into the deep dark pool of DC continuity.(I know, “reboot”, but it seems to me like a lot of the continuity is still there)
One glaring omission from the Justice League list is New Frontier! I guess it’s not really in continuity, but DC: New Frontier is easily in my top 3 favorite JL stories, and probably my top 5 comics of the last 10 years. The art is gorgeous, and the story is brilliant. I love the way the DC characters are woven into our own history. Oh, and the ending with the JFK speech makes me feel all worm and fuzzy!
“worm and fuzzy” *LOL*……..Jesus, apparently I shouldn’t be typing before I’ve had my coffee…