A few weeks ago Peter wrote about how when he was a child “reading American comics from Marvel (mostly) and DC, I took colour for granted”. Scott also noted how colour was the default for comics “colour is a subject that was rarely explored or even acknowledged in comics in their earliest days – colour was simply a given, with a palette of four colours used in various lackluster combinations as a standard.” David questioned what this default option meant when it was removed “It’s an odd juxtaposition that for comics – and a lot of other things – a lack of colour makes what is often thought of as a disposable commodity into Art. The thing about colour is that it makes comics cheap and mainstream. A lack of colour on the other hand, makes comics “underground,” “independent,” “adult,” “intellectual,” and all the other superlatives that we toss around when we want to call comics an artform.”
What is interesting about these observations is how much they are a North American perspective on comics. Growing up here in the UK, comics were black and white, and printed on the cheapest of cheap newsprint. The covers, which would often be the only source of colour, were printed on the same paper, no glossy covering to protect the fragile insides like the comics from the US that Peter, David and Scott grew up with in Canada. I was also intrigued by Peter’s reaction to discovering some UK editions of Marvel comics when he was a teenager in the 1970s.
Colour cover of Hulk Comic #1 (Mar. 7, 1979). © Marvel UK.
“Then, when I was about 15 (1977 maybe), I picked up some Marvel comics on a family trip to the UK. I was stunned to discover that they were not only in a different format – short and wide – but also that they were in black and white. In The Avengers, it was strange to see Captain America, not in his red, white, and blue, but in mere outline. At the time I was disconcerted, I couldn’t figure out whether I had been ripped off, or whether it was kind of neat to have comics presented to me in this new (to me) form.”
Marvel UK had the job of reformatting these US strips for the British market who expected black and white as a default, at least in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Here in the UK four colour printing was kept for the cover and centre page spread. Dennis the Menace and the Bash Street Kids were colour but Beryl the Peril and Little Plum were monochrome or sometimes two colour (usually red). Incidentally Dundee Council have just named a street Bash Street and it now has the UK’s only street sign with cartoon characters, at least deliberately!
Bash Street sign. © D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
I vividly remember the Marvel UK Hulk Comic, which I must have picked up because I was a huge fan of the Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno starring TV show. To me it wasn’t strange that these comics were devoid of colour, that’s what comics looked like! I actually read Tintin and Asterix (in full colour) as well, often sitting in the library for hours poring over them, but they were different from the weekly comics I read, they were proper books! The back up strips in these Marvel UK comics were created by British talent and they sometimes used these lack-of-colour limitations very well. The pages that stick in my head were of Night Raven drawn by David Lloyd. I remember the atmospheric artwork with its thick blacks which was made to printed in monochrome. Lloyd later drew V for Vendetta, another work with strong use of chiaroscuro which was eventually coloured (some would say ruined) for the American market. For more info on Marvel UK see Dez Skinn’s website.
Night Raven advert © Marvel UK
As a teenager I read 2000AD which was printed in black and white like any other comic, apart from the cover and centre spread usually reserved for their star character Judge Dredd. In the 1980s printing technology had advanced to make colour printing more affordable and 2000AD slowly transformed into the glossy full colour magazine that it is today, although I flicked through a copy last week and they still print some strips in black and white.
In the late 1980s 2000AD creators Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins put out Deadline, a black and white ‘comics and lifestyle’ magazine that covered the indie music scene as well comics. There was a crossover too, William Potter was the bass player in CUD and produced the strip Nommo in Deadline. Many of the creators were from the burgeoning small press scene such as Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. Their strip Tank Girl would soon become a worldwide sensation. Initially attracted by the pizzazz of Tank Girl I soon came to prefer the less sensational strips such as Hugo Tate by Nick Abadzis. Initially the story of a stick man, the story gradually fleshed him out into a realistic person. It has recently been reissued by Blank Slate and is highly recommended.
Hugo Tate © Nick Abadzis
Another Deadline strip crying out for a reissue is Phillip Bond’s Wired World. The strip was often likened to Jaime Hernandez’ Locas strips in Love & Rockets as it had two multicultural female lead characters Pippa and Elizabeth, a rarity in comics at the time (still?). It also had a surreal edge similar to early L&R stories, such as in the first issue when Malcolm McLaren wants to make them popstars but they discover he (and several clones of him) are actually unfashionable aliens out to steal their clothes. Please somebody reissue this!
Wired World © Phillip Bond
Unlike readers raised on US comics, these black and white strips have been my default and have no doubt influenced my comics reading throughout my whole life. I’m not against colour but unlike Eddie Campbell I wasn’t captivated by ‘strange and wonderful’ American comics, and unlike David I don’t necessarily see colour ‘as a metaphor for the establishment’. In the UK the establishment was black and white (and read all over).
Wee Eddie Campbell discovers American comics © Eddie Campbell