Comments on: Color Quandaries #1: Killing Joke

by: Smellycatchris

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:05:53 +0000

From the get go it was moore and bolland’s killing joke, higgins was brought in as brian had already spent 2 years on the line art and could have taken as long again to colour it. It was never his decision to let another artist colour it, and the old version was completely against his colour recommendations and vision for the book. Apparently he was depressed as hell over it’s appearance and has done very little strip work since. I prefer the new one though would rather see it in original black and white. I saw the original art twenty years back in forbidden planet london, it’s so tight and precise it doesn’t need colour. Think the garish old stuff was well at odds with a lot of the subtlties brian puts into his work. Think with time people’ll truly come to love the new job, the original artist’s vision, once they get off their high horses worrying that dc are trying to rip them off with a repackaged book that dares to be different from the version they encountered in their youth. And as for the 80s being garish? Dark night, black orchid and year one all managed a slightly more subtle colour scheme than dayglo john higgins. Talking of whom it’d be interesting to hear Higgins’ account of things, did he have any contact with bolland before embarking on the project? Did he actually receive the colour notes? And where is the lens cap on the joker’s camera. . . ?

by: Unpopular

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:58:51 +0000

I prefer the original. I support an artist’s right to change their creation. I support the right of fandom to have both and keep the works they cherish unchanged.

I refuse to buy any Star Wars DVD until Lucasfilm does it right. Untouched original, anamorphic presentation, etc.

by: SKFK

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:39:27 +0000

I would have liked the new coloring better if Brian Bolland were only allowed to use the tools that were available to him twenty years ago. The obvious computer modeling on the Red Hood looks wrong to me. And I do not like removing the yellow oval at all.

Christopher Butcher: THE ORIGINALS is Dave Gibbons’ book, not Brian Bolland’s. Wrong Alan Moore collaborator.

by: Hangman Jury

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:20:53 +0000

Works on some pages, doesn’t work on others. I think the scene in the batcave looks a hundred times better than before. But I think the scene where Joker takes the hood off, sees his face, and cracks up laughing insanely is severely muted now.

So I’m fifty fifty on it; I don’t think it would make a single jot of difference for a new fan who’s never read the book before. If I were to give a friend the book, though, I’d probably pick the old version, if only because I feel that that “Joker snaps” scene I mentioned above is the most important in the book.

by: Scott Neely

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:22:37 +0000

Damn straight, Daniel!! Another DC ripoff and another artist doing a Lucas on the fans again…I was pissed at Neal Adams for going back to his Batman work and redrawing parts and recoloring the stuff.

by: Daniel

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:55:15 +0000

Y’know, for $17.95 the new HC should have had BOTH versions.

by: phil

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:54:18 +0000

I could have sworn that Bolland envisioned Killing Joke to be completely by his hand ( on the art hand, obviously) and had to ditch the coloring to Higgins to get the thing done (I think he wrote about it in the Alan Moore collection. I could check for sure but, eh, here we are).

So I could see why he would want to change it. I would. Plus he’s the one doing the changes not some studio sooooo I can’t fault him and I won’t judge till I see the full volume. Plus I was never really a fan of that 80’s Brit-garish color scheme.

by: Christopher Butcher

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:51:35 +0000

Just to reiterate, I do appreciate the level of craft that Mr. Boland has brought to the table, and I appreciate that it’s his creative vision as artist of the work being fulfilled. I would never argue that Mr. Boland isn’t a talented creator and one whom I respect, it’s just that, in this instance, his artistic decisions really aren’t to my tastes. I’m glad he’s happy with the work though, and it certainly appears as though my opinion is in the minority.

I actually think his strongest artwork in probably the last 10 years was THE ORIGINALS, his black and white (with greyscale) graphic novel. I just don’t appreciate his recent rendering or colouring choices, and I think it started with his work on the covers of Volume 2 of The Invisibles, where the colour rendering and design moved away from the style and execution of his ink work.

Besides that, I also think there’s something to be said for the appropriateness of the colour in setting mood for the story being told… The Killing Joke is a gruesome, grisly, and over-the-top effort that digs at the dark humour of the relationship between Batman and The Joker, both textually and metatextually, and how it will never change. It’s a joke, black comedy and a character-study… Not, you know. Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL.

Which isn’t to say that comics can’t (or shouldn’t) attempt Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL, it’s just that this ain’t it: It’s a story about how crazy Batman and The Joker are.

by: PastePotPete » Blog Archive » Those Killer Colors

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:03:14 +0000

[…] Color Quandaries #1: Killing Joke The Beat Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:05:00 GMT […]

by: TimCallahan

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:37:35 +0000

Please keep in mind that the example pages that are popping up here and elsewhere are from the FLASHBACK pages, and the rest of the book isn’t all in this muted color scheme. This complete package works quite well with the new colors.

by: Ken

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:42:53 +0000

I like the b/w look in some spots, but in others I don’t. Where is the purple for the Joker? Also, Batman sported a yellow oval around his bat and taking it away is not recoloring. This is like Paramount changing the special effects on a Star Trek episode. I don’t get what is so wrong with a comic book from the 1980s looking like a comic book from the 1980s.

by: Xenos

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:01:46 +0000

Hmm. I want to say that it looks more like someone forgot to finish coloring the remastered version than that they actually decided to change the coloring that much. Could this be a printing error instead of the intended coloring scheme?

Well, I’m glad I didn’t pick up a new copy and still have an original. Actually it’s third printing, but I think the art is the same.

by: Rivkah

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:00:00 +0000

I like the limited palette in the new one; I think it helps keep the focus on the action and driving the plot and story forward instead of forcing my eye to linger overlong on every panel. But that’s just IMHO.

by: Richard Starkings

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:03:10 +0000

I can tell you that when I was working with Brian, ahem, TWENTY years ago, he often talked to me about how he visualized each page being coloured — the way they look now is exactly as he described. I’m so glad he has had this opportunity now to present his artwork the way he always intended.

by: Toby

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:53:47 +0000

I think anyone’s that’s actually an artist will prefer the newer coloring. There’s no comparison. Having every color of the rainbow on every single object might look good on a Grateful Dead poster, but it’s out of place over Bolland’s moody, realistic artwork.

I’d be willing to bet that if the newer version had been the original and they recolored it to the way the original looks, there would be a shitstorm of complaints.

It’s only people’s loyalty to the memory of the first time they read the book that’s guiding their preference toward the original, me thinks.

by: Leialoha

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:51:22 +0000

It should be noted that the example page is one of the “it’s a flashback so the colors are subjective” ones so it gets the most reimagining. You can’t beat Brian’s own color. Or colour, either.

by: Cameron Stewart

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:16:42 +0000

Apparently the major change to the artwork is that the yellow oval around Batman’s chest logo has been removed in every panel. Interesting to know that Bolland has made other changes though.

I don’t know how I feel about this - the new colouring is very well done, but I’m not so keen on the idea of going back and revising past works of art, they should be able to stand as a product of their time. If every artist were to go back and alter their past work to “fix” it, I think we’d all be locked in a continual loop of revision and never produce anything new.

And what of poor John Higgins? It’s kind of a shame that his work on the book (which I liked) has been erased.

by: Robert Morales

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:51:35 +0000

Does Han shoot first?

by: Christopher Moonlight

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:51:25 +0000

“Late deadlines are probably the main reason, but in general this “cgi-stylee” look takes real skill to carry out, and time.”

I agree, but when it is done well you get some of the best coloring comics have ever seen. I still get tears of joy when I flip though my Dark Tower trade. Really, what you’re getting is a digital painter.

by: Ralph Mathieu

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:37:46 +0000

I’m in the camp that loves the new coloring. Bolland, in his liner notes also says that he re-touched something on the art on almost every page - I haven’t done a side by side comparison yet though.