KID KLASSICS: THE POWER OF COLOUR - PARTS ONE & TWO...



Art by Walter Simonson.  Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

What a difference colour makes.  Not convinced?  Take a look at these
basic, flat-coloured examples of JACK KIRBY & VINCE COLLETTA
THOR stories from the TALES Of ASGARD 1984 Special (Vol. 2, No.1).
Alongside are the newly coloured, multi-hued MATT MILLA pages from the
hard-cover edition of the same tales.  (First available as a 6-part mini-series.)
The pages are given a whole new dimension, enabling them to go toe-to-toe
with many contemporary offerings available in comics shops today.

Not wishing to labour the comparison, but the difference is similar
to that of an old POPEYE or BETTY BOOP cartoon compared to the
almost 3D effect of the animation in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?
Last year, I bought the computer-coloured reprint of MARVEL COMICS
#1 and the effect was the same.  The pages seem to have become imbued
with a vitality lacking in their original printing and don't appear quite as
dated in contrast to more modern presentations.

A while ago, the U.K. mag AVENGERS UNITED reprinted the Tales of

Asgard series in its original form, and it was generally met with an indifferent,

sometimes even hostile reaction.  It seems that kids of today have been spoiled

by the photo-realistic, more complex colour-art in contemporary stories, and

couldn't quite take to the four-coloured classics of yesterday.  I'm pretty sure

that, had MARVEL/PANINI been able to present the Matt Milla versions

(which hadn't yet been done), the reaction would have been more positive.

I think it can only be a matter of time before Marvel start colouring all

their stories from yesteryear in this same fashion and then re-presenting them

as 'definitive versions'  in deluxe, hardcovered volumes.  As I said, it certainly

gives them a whole new dimension and might help them to appeal to younger

readers not yet steeped in the company's glorious history who seem to have

an aversion to older material.  (Hard as it is to believe.)



ISBN # 9780-7851-3921-8

The Complete TALES Of ASGARD is available now from all good

comic shops (and has been for some time).  And here, for completists,

is the cover to the original 1968 TOA Special.  (Vol. 1, No. 1.)

Art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia

******

Pencils by Jack Kirby

Following on from the previous post, here are a few more examples
of the difference that colour (or, to be more precise, choice of colour)
can make to a printed page.  The first example, above, is how the cover
of JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #83 would've looked (more or less)
back in 1962.  Compare it against the much brighter, recoloured version
from the first printing of MARVEL MASTERWORKS Vol. 18, 1991/
'92.  (Note:  A superior version, more faithful to the original, appears
in the recent softcover edition of THOR MASTERWORKS.)

Inks by Joe Sinnott



Now compare both of them to TOM CHU's version (below), repro-
duced in the TALES Of ASGARD hardcover volume, which also re-
prints J.I.M. #83's origin.  (Unfortunately, despite the superb colour-
ing, the art has been retouched in places, having been restored from the
reprint in THOR #158.  For a more faithful reprint of this classic story,
see the softcover MASTERWORKS edition, referred to above.)

Colours by Tom Chu

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