Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Inkers & Colorists in the Modern Era of Comics - what do they do?

I know quite well what inkers & colorists roles were in comic books in the days of yore (basically from the Golden Age up until the mid-90's and even later for some companies). The traditional inker would embellish and add to the pencils. The colorist would do exactly what the name implies.

In recent years though, its obvious the colorist does quite more than they used to do. A lot of that I'm sure is being able to create colors that gradually change, like skylines that grow darker away from the sun, etc. But could someone get more specific and technical about it?

Also, I note that while there are some comics that still have the traditional 'penciler' and 'inker' categories (which has always been my preference as part of the fun is seeing what an inker brings to the table), there are many that just have 'artist'. What does this mean? Does it mean the penciler is also doing the inks? Or does the colorist step-in and do the inks as well?

I know a lot of inking these days is done with computer programs. When that happens, is that a colorist doing it? Or are here inkers who do it the traditional way and also inkers who only use computer programs?

Curious minds are dying to know!

me too, i'm curious how these studios do the coloring for titles like x-men (seems like they paint everything digitally to get that realistic airbrushed coloring)

i love it but, it makes me appreciate the old school way. i think even comics that look like the old way even use computers now to color.

i suspect guys on computers do the majority beyond pencilling nowadays.

soem inkers are killer, like alan davis always look better with paul neary. and how good are al gordon and art thibert! i'm afraid there's an art that's going to be lost if inking and coloring transform to all digital.

I believe this is a relatively new technology in which the pencils are scanned directly onto a computer (or something) without them ever being inked. This is beneficial for artists who do very detailed pencils and don't need shading, backgrounds or detail added by an inker. It gives the effect of being painted. I think the first time I ever saw this done was on Cary Nord's work on Dark Horse's Conan series. A more recent example is francis Manapul's work on Superboy and Flash. There are many others doing this as well.

Obviously, there are many examples of this being done to gorgeous effect. However, if the detail isn't in the original pencils, the effect is lost. And if you see it too often there's kind of a sameness and uniformity in the overall look that could get old if it eventually replaces traditional pencilling and inking.

If you want to ask questions about a colorist, here's the DA profile of the girl who did the Dawnstar cover for Legion of 3 Worlds. My dear friend, Nei Ruffino.

http://bakanekonei.deviantart.com/

Officer Taylor is correct in his speculation.

"Direct from pencils" is done for a few reasons. In some cases, the pencils are just so lush and beautiful (Cary Nord, Doug Wheatley), an inker couldn't really do them justice.

Sometimes it's a simple matter of speed or economy.

And occasionally, pencillers just hate inking! Scott Wegener of Atomic Robo stopped inking his work with the last volume, though I don't think you can tell. In this case, it's a combination of the two of us creating the inked effect. He pencils very cleanly to start, then I tidy up and darken the scans.

There was a trend toward "digital inking" for a while, which just involved trying to make pencils look like inks via Photoshop, but it's difficult to do really well. You lose a lot of subtleties, like line weight, and I'm not sure how many artists/companies are still trying it.

As a colorist, I could go on and on about what I contribute, but if any one has any specific questions, I'll do my best to try and answer them.

I had the very disheartening experience of attending the Shuster Awards recently, and realizing the presenter (and one of the judges) for Best Colorist had no clue as to what she was talking about.

Here is a link to an interview I gave a while back, along with a couple of other colorists, including superstar Alex Sinclair.

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/p/detail/worship-at-the-cmyk-altar

You're most definitely a rock star to US, Ronda!

Yay, I was hoping Ronda would comment!

I know colorists do so much more these days than perhaps they did 50 years ago (er, at least, I hope that's an accurate assumption and not disrespectful to colorists 50 years ago). I also felt like colorists do the lion's share of inking in several cases.

Looking forward to getting a few minutes to myself and reading that interview.