Kyle Baker draws completely with a computer, I believe. A lot of artists just send in their files digitally these days.
DC to REBOOT???
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Kyle Baker draws completely with a computer, I believe. A lot of artists just send in their files digitally these days.
Neat. Sounds like a lot of work.
Let me use an example to see if I understand it right that. Say, for example, you want to color Mon-El's cape blue; so what you do is mark the cape on the photocopy, and then the separator makes a plate (a metal or plastic plate with holes in it, I guess?) that will physically print the ink onto the page?
I'm a little fuzzier on the separation/printing stages of the process, since we never really went beyond the color guides and coding at the Kubert School, but yes, that was basically it.
DC Comics published a guide to coloring & lettering comics a few years back. You might want to check it out if you're really interested in this subject. The emphasis is on how they do it today, of course, but they do spend a few pages explaining the original process. Looking at my copy, they say that there was a team of old ladies making minimum wage who would apply dark brown paint to acetate copies of the art for each of the four colors to make camera-ready film.
Oh, and something I should've been a bit clearer on: set colors would have set codes for them. For instance, Batman's cape might be just "B" for blue, but his flesh tone would be "Y2R2" or something like that.
Of course, you would still get variances due to the separation & printing processes. In the 80s, DC experimented with a "Flexographic" printing process, which used substantially whiter paper than the newsprint they'd used up to that point. This made the colors much brighter and gaudier than they used to be, and the colorists had to learn to adjust their codes & color guides to compensate. Flexographic printing also used plastic printing plates instead of metal ones, which did not stand up to the heat of the printing process as well. This resulted in a lot of spotty printing on DC's books at the time. The first issues of WHO'S WHO and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS were both victims of printing mishaps like these. They look much better in reprints than they did in the original printings.
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Here's a color guide from a John Byrne issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. This should give you an idea of what the coded pages looked like:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XEQ2LqsUTgQ/TESHX-d9gAI/AAAAAAAAAic/e--B1_DWovI/s1600/Fantastic+Four+237+-+%281%29_Color_Guide-718687.jpg
This is rather obsolete in the age of computer coloring, of course. Now, what you see is lot closer to what you get, but things can still look VERY different on a computer file than they do on the printed copy.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XEQ2LqsUTgQ/TESHX-d9gAI/AAAAAAAAAic/e--B1_DWovI/s1600/Fantastic+Four+237+-+%281%29_Color_Guide-718687.jpg
This is rather obsolete in the age of computer coloring, of course. Now, what you see is lot closer to what you get, but things can still look VERY different on a computer file than they do on the printed copy.
Paul Levitz goes into a bit of depth describing the intention behind "Secret Origin". From what I read this sounds more intriguing than I originally gave it credit for. It looks like we're going to see the lead in and back story to the 31st Century and the politics and event that lead to the Legion being formed. Something that we've never really been shown I don't think.
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-levitz-legion-secret-origin-110716.html
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-levitz-legion-secret-origin-110716.html
Groovy stuff. I might have to pick up that book... in part because I'm pretty sure I do about six thousand things wrong.
That sounds really cool. As long as Levitz is still writing the Legion, DC will be doing at least one thing right.
Action Comics #1 alternate cover. Looks like the costume we saw earlier is a proto-costume and this is the first confirmation that we're getting Morrison's proposed "Superman Year One". Don't like the costume but am excited for the book.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bird_plane_superdude_jlvtSBaBiVw7cCUANvajFL
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bird_plane_superdude_jlvtSBaBiVw7cCUANvajFL
"Effectively nullified by the relaunch" can be translated realistically as "effectively nullified by not bringing it up again," the customary and sensible approach to retiring storylines that they don't want to follow up on.
Really nice image, BTW.
Really nice image, BTW.
Well, to be fair, a lot of people we offended by that and swore off Superman, if the media are to be believed, so I guess it's a tick in favor of DC if it wins some readers back.
Love the fact they point out the $1.5M value of Action Comics #1. Action Comics 2.0 #1 will still be selling for 50 cents in rummage sale bins in 20 years.
I normally don't care about costume changes because they're always temporary (i.e. the "new" Wonder Woman) but the T-shirt looks stupid. End of story. Is this Superman or Superboy?
Alex
And I love these kind of predictions, always moving the goalposts way off into the future as a hedge against the current success of something.
Now, if you could pick an issue of a current comic that you're sure will be worth more than the cost of the paper in twenty years, that would be an interesting and daring prediction.
Of course, there's no reason to think that anything published now will be, including everything praised by fans as masterful.
All that matters is how this is received in September. "Legacy" is its own peculiar kind of fiction.
I'm so glad that's not his permanent costume. Even as a "temporary" costume it's...not so great looking IMO. Perhaps if he were wearing a long sleeved shirt and the cape was a bit longer.
It looks perfect as a first costume for the character - it looks improvised by someone who's got more important things on his mind and has never seen a "superhero costume."
In fact it's slyly delightful that Supes makes up the same kind of costume that kids do when they decide to play superhero. Let's just be glad he's not rocking a bath towel tied around his neck.
In fact it's slyly delightful that Supes makes up the same kind of costume that kids do when they decide to play superhero. Let's just be glad he's not rocking a bath towel tied around his neck.
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I would imagine that most of the people that "swore off" Superman weren't reading the books in the first place. Sales have dropped because of JMS's crappy stroyline where Superman Forrest Gumps his way across the country.
The cape is Supes' naive idea, maybe based on the urban legends about "the Batman" - you can imagine a lot of the Silver Age heroes who follow him looking at his outfit and saying "yeah...I dig the icon on the shirt but I'm not sure what's going on with the cape. Let's lose that."
Lots of spoilers about the new Superman status quo:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-superman-lois-lane-break-up-110718.html
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-superman-lois-lane-break-up-110718.html
What I find amusing about that is that the same dorks who want their American Jesus back ought to be pleased that our illegal alien friend from Krypton is no longer attempting to pretend to be a citizen.
Based on that DC is doing everything in its power to make me NOT read Superman.
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