Reasons to Debate Black & White

One of the more interesting debates for the artist is whether you will go full color or black and white. There are a lot of different options when it comes down to it; you nonetheless need to make a decision down which road you will go. It should be noted that these are just the two most basic decisions you can make; these choices assume that you are debating the most basic of choices. After all, you could do your comic using watercolors, oil paints, or even colored chalk; the options are pretty much limitless. However, for those looking at the most basic of options, here are some basic considerations when you're attempting to make the choice.

[Obvious Caveat: I debated making this fair and balanced with every option showing the pluses and minuses of each, and to try to show that the two are equivalent. The reality is that each has its advantages, and a balanced approach is pretty much a lost cause. In general, black and white is the better option if you're looking to do this as cheaply as possible, while color allows you options that the other can't touch; either option is great for those looking for an artistic flair. As such, just go with what works for your project and you'll be fine.]

Simpler And Complicated

When it comes to the actual process, you can decide on how many steps you want to add to the process. With a black-and-white comic, you only need to worry about the line art; even the shading is just part of that. With color, you need to add a number of steps to the process in order to make it work; not only do you need the line art done, but you also need to color every panel as well. The more complicated the coloring, the more steps you need to add to the process.

Cost to Print

All other things being equal, black and white will always be cheaper to print. Depending on the process used, the printer will either be using more ink to produce the color or colored film to create the color and sometimes both; regardless, color costs more to produce and as such will always be more expensive. However, there are options that color gives you that black and white doesn't.

Keep in mind that if you use even a single dot of color, the entire project is priced as if every page is in color, or at least the most current book, leading to the question if you charge more for the individual book for the color, or accept less profit on the specific book. But that's a business decision that you should debate when you do it.

Cost and Speed to Create

The cost of the artist needs to be considered when you are looking at the cost of the book. In some cases, you may need several artists in order to create the book. For our purposes, we're not looking at the line art by itself (if you use multiple artists for that then you should split the total cost based on the number of pages done), but the colorist, or the person who adds in the color. The comic will also take more time to create. This is another reason that black and white comics are cheaper; the person who does the color needs to be paid for it, and that needs to be allowed for in the cost of creating the comic.

[An obvious point: The more the comic costs, the higher the price needs to be for you to make a profit from it. While there are ways to drop the price, and you can always minimize the profit, be aware that these costs are a reason that color comics are more expensive than black and white comics. When you are debating a printer and then a selling point, keep this in mind.]

Getting Lost in the Details

This is where things get a little weird. B&W comics are better at general detail; because they lack color, the details that are there tend to stand out a little more. It's harder to hide Easter eggs, callbacks, and clues in B&W art because people tend to look for the details. Conversely, while it is easier to hide little details, color allows you to get some details more correct than B&W: It allows you to paint your world in colors. It means that while you can use shading to differentiate two colors, using actual colors allows you to ignore that situation. This means you can have a little more fun.

Consider the trivial detail of a character with heterochromatic eyes: One eye is green and the other is blue. In a B&W comic, you would need to shade them differently for them to look differently, but a reader would never be sure if they were actually different colors or if the shading difference was due to a perspective issue, or even a mistake. In a color comic, they would be 100% sure, and you would be able to use the difference more effectively from a story viewpoint, such as a way to tell two otherwise identical twins apart.

As such, color can be actually be used to help tell the story, such as using color to differentiate two groups that you would otherwise have to use other details to tell the two apart, such as different clothes or hairstyles. This would make it harder to do double agents; you couldn't just let a character be seen using the color of his true team (you would need to use an actual picture of the character as his true allegiance). In short, while B&W is great for details you want caught, color is better for those looking to use the art as part of the story.

Manga Versus Comics

Some people want to emulate the feel of Japanese comics while others want to emulate American or European comics. Part of this is that the former is almost always B&W while the latter tends to use color; as such, the comics to be emulated determine the use (or lack) of color. Obviously, there are plenty of exceptions; there are a lot of independent B&W American or European comics, for example. You also have a lot of people who want to emulate the four-color comics; again, color is part of that. In essence, the use (or lack) of color can help define which genre of comics you want readers to identify you as, making your marketing a little easier.

Better Thumbnails Or Lusher Art

This is probably an interesting marketing consideration: Color allows you to have fun with art, making it lusher, more realistic, and just brighter. However, when you make thumbnails of the art it gets really muddy really quickly; the smaller the image the more likely the colors are to blend into each other, at least to eyeballs. On the other hand, black & white art tends to keep its details until it gets really, really small. Thus, if you are worried about whether or not readers can identify your comic through a thumbnail, it means you either need to do the thumbnail in B&W, use the line art version, or use part of the cover shrunk down.

It's just easier if the art is in B&W to begin with.

Emphasizing the Line Art or the General Feel

Another major difference between the two is that B&W artwork tends to emphasize tends to emphasize the line art while colors can be used to establish a general feel. It's just easier to show off the sunrise or sunset, how hot it is, or even that someone is in danger using warmer colors, or make it night, show how cold it is, or even that someone is safe using cooler colors. Just by making a subtle change to the colors, you can shift the sort of emotion coming through the artwork.

On the other hand, if you are trying to emphasize relationships, combat, or most situations where following the action is important, using straight line art can be more effective. Sometimes you just need the starkness of the line art; it can be a lot more effective when it comes to expressing action than colored artwork can be. In short, if you're more worried about the emotion of the comic, color is your friend, but if the action is more important, B&W may be better.

Flat Art Versus A Diorama

Some people like a flatter style while others like a more fleshed-out style. With B&W artwork, you need to use more tricks in order to make the point that two figures in the same picture are not the same distance from the camera; smaller figures, less detail, and other tricks come into play, and the further from the camera the objects are the more difficult it gets. Conversely, by using color you can more easily help the reader tell how far two figures are from each other; just by using gradients of cooler colors you can make things seem really far off.

The key here is that with B&W art, everything just feels like they are the same distance away from the camera, while color can be used to better put some distance between objects.

Shades Versus Color

Let's get cinematic: One of the more interesting ways to set your mood is by making a choice to go B&W. When you watch a lot of the old B&W movies, especially the better ones, you quickly note that they use light, and the absences thereof, to set the mood in a rather definitive way. By manipulating how light enters the scene and how it falls on different objects, the interplay between light and darkness is better able to help set the mood and can even help tell the story.

Obviously, you can use the same basic techniques in a full-color comic, and by shifting the brightness you can even exaggerate those effects to a great degree. You can also access a greater number of effects simply by adding a glow effect, something that seems to always come off as artificial in black & white. Nonetheless, because of the lack of color, the lighting effects seem to come off as a little more impressive, giving B&W a slight edge for those looking for something a little more "artsy" to play with.

Art Versus Writing

One of the neat effects of the starkness of black & white is that readers tend to concentrate more on the story than they do on the art. This is not to say that the art is not important, just that the reader tends to follow the story a little more intensely because the line art and shading don't involve the reader as much as color does; in a weird way, the lack of color removes a distraction to the story. On the flip side, color tends the highlight the art itself, allowing the art to fully engage the reader. This makes color great for when you need larger-than-life characters and when the art is part of the experience while B&W is better when there is going to be a lot of story, dialogue, or other textual elements.

Both. Both Are Good.

So…by now I bet you think that you need one or the other, right? This is where we complicate things. You don't need to limit yourself to just one or the other. You can have an otherwise black and comic occasionally use splashes of color (the obvious cliché is when vampire books go B&W for the noirish feel while using huge swathes of red for when the blood runs). By the same measure, you can switch to a mostly B&W palette when your story goes into gritty mode, or you need to focus on the exposition for a little bit. Thus, while you may not enjoy the savings using just black and white may have brought you, you can otherwise have the best of both worlds.

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Black and white versus color may be a simple debate for some, but for others it is just one more consideration when it comes to making decisions. Keep in mind that not all decisions are business decisions; sometimes there is something that you may want to try and now is the time to try it. You may have always wanted to try a moody black-and-white comic or wanted to do a glorious four-color comic; you will never how it would end up until you actually do it. The bottom line is that you should do whatever works for you, be it a business decision or an artistic one; whichever you feel in your heart should be the way to go.