Superman Blue … Archie Orange, by Mike Gold
In the comments section of my column of two weeks ago, I told Van Jensen that today’s broad spectrum of color could not be printed on the cheap toilet paper employed in the days of yore. That stuff would soak up ink like a spirit gets sucked into Harold Ramis’s ghost trap. Back in those days just after the invention of papyrus, color artists were limited to a palette of three values each of red, blue and yellow, plus black. Not a lot to work with.
Still, as Van implies, the end result was fine. It didn’t bother us, just as riding a horse to work didn’t bother us. Except… except … it bothered me.
To be specific, blue hair bothered me.
I understand why hair was blue: if it were black, it’d just look like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne had a big blob of India ink atop their brainpans. You couldn’t make it look like hair, and not everybody could have brown, red, or blonde hair. The blue stuff was supposed to suggest highlights, but with a few dozen colors to choose from, what can you do?
I just suggested “red” as a hair option. Not true; in comics, redheads were orange. Jimmy Olsen… orange. Archie Andrews had orange hair, and he still has orange hair. Some day, this is going to cause him problems at some point in his dating ritual.
Well, no, not Archie Andrews. I’m sure that’ll never be his problem. But Jughead Jones has blue hair; nobody bitches about it because his name is Jughead.
I never met anybody with blue hair. Well except for one guy who, conveniently enough, just happens to be president and publisher of DC Comics. I’ll just assume this photo represents Paul Levitz’s natural hair color, although perhaps he dyed it either out of respect for the corporate family jewels or so he can be easily spotted at the San Diego Comic Con.
But even when it comes to hair dye, Paul… you know, they’ve expanded the palette.
Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.
Didn't get much sleep during the convention, did you, Mike? :)
Nahh… I wrote this before the show. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that my daughter has blue hair. Well, black with blue streaks and stuff. And when she removes her glasses…
…men make passes?
hardly!nor do I exhibit any super-powers… I just don't see so good…
heh
Actually, JO and Archie's hair colour is vcloser to most of the "redheads" i know -0 including my granddaughters.
In the fantastic (and under-known) novel Super-Folks, the main character actually HAS blue hair, as a tip of the hat to the old comic coloring trick. And on SNL once, Damon Wayans played Farrakhan, saying he wanted "a woman so black, she's blue."Supposedly, it's the whole "blue for black" thing that Miller is hinging his color change for the Spirit movie on, claiming the limitations of the printing process precluded the proper color of the suit being printed. And that'd almost work if it weren't for the number of times they specifically MENTIONED the color of the suit in the strip.
From what I've heard from the NYCC and saw from the triptych poster slathering up Manhattan, I fear for this movie.
I saw that giant three-panel poster. I loved the red tie, but I couldn't tell from the poster if The Spirit is a sequel to Sin City or 300.
I get a bonus for inspiring a column, right? ;) Just to further this topic (because it really interests me), did the quality of paper change much from say 1960 to 1990? I started reading comics in the late '80s when I was still a young'un, and when I say I miss the old paper, I'm referring to that pre-90s boom era. Aside from some faded old issues picked up here and there, I don't have much experience with original printings of older comics.By the way – my hair is invisible colored. At least that's what I tell people.
Yep, the quality of paper improved somewhat — a slightly heavier, vaguely whiter paper named "Mando" was introduced in the early 80s. A better grade still was used on some up-priced mainstream comics a few years later that was heavier and had greater opacity. Sadly, slightly before the time Mando was introduced (as I recall) the principal printer started employing plates that, as far as I could tell, were made out of Silly Putty. Thinner lines started boogying up (to quote Len Wein) and it started to look as though stories were being inked by crack fiends.Yes, I use a similar shade of "Just For Men" — I think it's called Medium Skullcap.
Well, yeah, except redheaded people's hair usually ISN'T red; at least, I've only ever seen people with orange hair.And, c'mon, Sin City I could maybe see, but 300? They look nothing alike, stylistically or plotwise (obviously).