hey everyone! I was wondering, which do you personally prefer in your webcomics, color or b&w?
I've been toying with the idea of making my comic in color, but then I thought about it a bit and realized I generally prefer b&w comics (Lola or the Magic Flute being some examples of awesome black&whiteitude) and now I'm wondering what the general consensus is. I mean, obviously they both have their positive and negative attributes...
but what do you all think?

(has this already been discussed to death? ^__^' )

didn't we have one of these discussions in the art and literature forum?

I usually skim over b&w comics unless they are highly detailed or have really solid screentone work. Straight b&w line art has a tough time competing for my attention online. Bad coloring is worse than none at all, but I've seen bad coloring jobs morph into good ones as artists gain more experience. But as to which is better, everything depends on the artist and the intended effect.

Misfit Assassins looks good in b&w because all the gray tones keeps things visually interesting.

Yes, you're right, both sides have their own positives and negatives.

In my opinion, I like both styles.
But if I'm doing a comic, I'd want to do it in b&w cus not only that it's easier, but it also makes the few colored pages more special (besides, coloring takes too long to do >.~)

But if you enjoy coloring, then you should color do you comic in color :)

I'm on both sides regarding this.

On the one hand, for me, it's much easier to read colour-comics - I have an easier time picking out forms and characters, as long as the comic is well drawn. (Badly drawn comics just turn me off the whole thing at once, but that's another discussion).

But on the other hand, if I'm the one drawing the comic, then I prefer black and white, or greyscale. It's faster, easier and as long as you make sure to keep the shades far from each other, just as easy to read.

i find that colored comics are more interesting to me than b&W. just cause I color mine and I know how hard it is to do, so I appreciate it more.

I like color better, both in reading and in drawing. Coloring and special effects are my favorite parts of drawing. Lineart isn't as fun for me - expecially now with my mouse going crazy -

There are a few comics I think the artwork looks better in black and white. It's disappointing, though, when I come across a new comic that has a great coloring style that's abandoned color a few pages later for whatever reason.

I personaly can't hardly stand a straight up b/w comic, however, a nice grayscaled comic is super. Of course, good grayscales can take as long as color, at least mine do, so then it is like, why not just make it in color?

Check out any of Tony Moore's b/w work with grayscale works, he is super good at it. He did the first four issues of The Walking Dead. I think he used marker, or at least rpelicated it digitally if he didn't. But bad coloring is the worst, gotta agree with that. I prefer no color to bad color. If you can't color, just use flats. Flats look better than people give credit to. It is like watching a cartoon imo.

Just my two cents. ^_^

I think it depends on what your good at. If you know you can color amazingly then do color. If your not so skilled then do black and white. Or throw that out the window and just do what you feel, it's all good.

I like both, but if someone would put a gun to my head and demanded me to choose I would go for black & white, definatly. Most of the best stuff I've read on paper are black & white and I don't see a reason why those could't be on the web. Still, most of the webcomics I like a colored.

It's mostly so that people find colored comics look more professional. That CAN be the case, but not nessecerily. It just depends on the style. The style of coloring, the style of inking. Sometimes the color kind of hides the fact that the artist isn't a professional, and sometimes it just shows that even more.

It's as simple as that. Some b*w's would suck with color, some color-comics would suck in b&w, for some comics it just doesn't matter and sometimes it IS an improvement but it does change your point of view.

I prefer black and white but my argument for it is personal. I originally wrote, put together and printed a full 125 pages of my strip in color and then realized that if I sold any kind of collected volume, I'd have to charge a price that I myself wouldn't pay for a few hundred pages of copied and pasted images, even in color. Soooooo, I redrew every character "sheet" and then trimmed down some of the less funnier gags and added new ones and I'm redrawing it right now in black and white.

I had to redraw all of the characters because proper black and white work requires a different balance of black to white versus work that's being colored and it's almost like a little game you play if you get used to it, keeping that balance. I guess it just makes the visual aspect to be all mine and I get to play with it more.

In some cases color might be prettier, but for me it is easier to read black and white; the comic flows better (if that makes sense).

I adore straight pen-and-ink comics; I think it takes a lot of skill to shade in black-and-white, and I adore competent crosshatching and attention to negative space.

Plus, I feel as though a lot of artists try to use colour to disguise subpar lineart.

It depends on the artist and the story. I don't think things like Ultimate Spider Man or Hellboy would work in b&w. On the same note I don't think Sin City looks good in full color. Like any medium it really depends on whose doing it and what type of story there doing it for. I found one comic called Boneyard that was nothing but pen-and-ink, no greyscale whatsoever, and I think its one of the best done comics I've ever seen.

I grew up with B&W, learned the trade with B&W, and trained myself in B&W. I can't go to color even if I tried. Besides, color takes way too long. I'm not drawing poster art; I'm trying to tell a story that spans hundreds of pages. If I had 50 clone slaves, maybe I'd try color.

Even when I appreciate the color form, it still ends up being some subset of line art. Basically, I like anime color. And you know anime color is all about the various shade lines/flats intersecting with each other, since there are no gradations.

I don't like gradations. That's why a lot of fancy American comics with their smooth CGI turn me off. I can't appreciate the artistry in CGI gradations; everything has to have a sharp delineation to my artist eye for my mind to appreciate it. That's just me.

Depends completely on the artist's skill, as DRose said. I like comics that are colored well (like Civil War, for example, whose colors are amazing, or on the web No Need for Bushido) but then I also love comics with fantastic B&W artwork like Berserk. I suppose color is a bit more attractive on the computer.

Call me a hypocrite, but I prefer colored comics! I'm attracted to color like a moth to a bright light. Come to that, I once mezmorized myself with a simple lense flare animation. Ah well, it's the simple things in life.

The problem being, of course, that color often takes so much longer to do. Even simple coloring jobs have more considerations than you get with black and white or greyscale.

I don't care I like them both

depends on the mood of the scene.

I have a colored comic and a black and white. Strangly enough, the colored one is easier because I don't have to draw humans in that one haha.

Both have advantages. If you are good at coloring, the comic will look fantastic. If not.. not very good.

Black and white you have to be better at drawing and linework to make it work. Some of my favorite comics are black and white at DD.

(If you're planning on selling a print version of your comic, just to let you know, color comics cost about two to three times more than black and white. You might get sales easier if your comic's black and white.)

In my humble opinion, it all depends on the genre and format. Strips generally don't need color to get the message across, especially humor ones, but adventure stories need it desperately. Superheroes, for example, simply don't work without color. After a quick look at my favorites list, I realize that with the sole exception of Lovemagic, they are all in color. Color is the best way to get people's attention, although in the end it is still an artist's choice.

For me, Black and White, or greyscale or such, would definitely be my preference.

I've always felt that really well-drawn linework can easily set the mood and feeling of a drawing, allowing for a simple, yet effective art style.
But despite this, Colored comics can be almost breathtaking if done well enough, but sometimes a person will overcomplicate the coloring job, adding more than is truly necessary, which ends up taking away from any sense of feeling in the drawing, leaving it devoid of emotion, and hardly stimulating to the reader.

If I dig a story, I could care less, honestly. :)

Black and white allll the way.

if a comic looks good blakc and white - it will always look good in color.
but i don't think thats always true of the reverse.

mishi_hime
if a comic looks good blakc and white - it will always look good in color.
but i don't think thats always true of the reverse.

wut?

subcultured

mishi_hime
if a comic looks good blakc and white - it will always look good in color.
but i don't think thats always true of the reverse.

wut?

Huhbuwhat? lol!

I was thinking the same thing, man.

Mmm.. generally speaking I prefer color, because I am attracted to bright, shiny things, but it really depends on the comic. If the linework is detailed and not drawn in half-faded pencil, I can live with black and white, but nine times out of ten, I think comics look better if they're done in color. Of course, I understand that in the world of webcomics, most people do them as a hobby on the side and don't always have time to sit down and do color, and some comics just don't look as good in color as they do in black and white (Sin City leaps to mind).

So uh. I really have no idea where I was going with tha- ooh, a nickel! -wanders off-

Interesting dicussion.

I do my comic in black and white (er, I'm assuming greytones count) due to the genre and time period. It is supposed to have that "1930's serial movie" feel, which is why I classify it as "Action/Adventure" as opposed to "superhero".

I do feel that it takes a bit more skill in pulling off a black and white, but when it's done right, there's nothing else like it. Sin City for example.

Depends on the level of detail, I think. Simple, illustrative work (eg: PvP Online, Devil's Panties etc.) works nicely in B&W. However more realistic/detailed work is very difficult to do in straight B&W without the art becoming too busy. Greyscale can alleviate some of those difficulties, but ultimately I think colour can be a vital component in terms of bringing clarity to a complicated scene.

My work is in colour simply because I think and dream in colour - converting those thoughts to B&W is too much effort :D

For a stickied thread this discusion moves sloooooooooooooooooowwww...

Colour ALL the way man!!!!

As has been said: if the story is good, nothing else matters. Well that's quite true, but colour gets you in there in the first place, and if the art's good enough (BW or colour), I'll stick with a comic regardless.
It's like a nice pair of breasts on a woman... :)