How does colour impact narrative in comics

James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

This essay will examine existing uses of colour in comics, showcasing exactly how and why the creators made their colour choices. As one of the most important aspects of storytelling, It is important to understand colour in narrative to strengthen one’s own application of it. As Lewis Bond stated in his video essay ‘colour in storytelling’

“ There is no set way to use colour, but understanding its cognitive effects helps” (Channel Criswell, 2015)

Before looking at an example, It Is important to understand the connotations of colour, what and how it evokes emotion in an individual. All visual media relies heavily on this, especially through colour.

Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

(Aaron, 2014)

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

This first example is from southern bastards, and depicts a character returning to his childhood home, recollecting a specific event from his youth. The colour can mostly be described as monochrome, meaning that the individual scenes use varying tones of the one colour, having different palettes for the current time, and for flashbacks. For the current time, colourist Rico Renzi has used autumnal pale browns and creams, whereas the flashbacks are bathed in atmospheric reds. But why does ‘Autumnal’ and ‘Moody’ come in to the descriptions of these palettes. Well for the browns and creams, they come from the connotation of the season autumn. The trees shed their leaves, coating the world in varying shades of orange and browns. Red on the other hand incites strong emotions in viewers. As Patti Belantoni states

“Red is like visual caffeine” conveying feelings of “Aggression, anxiety and compulsion. Red is power.” (Bellantoni, 2005)

Lewis Bond takes this further, by stating two opposing examples for how the colour can be used

“ One may use red to showcase love and passion, others use it for violence and cruelty” (Channel Criswell, 2015). It’s a strong tone, with a great deal of emotional responses depending on how it is applied, hence the atmospheric feeling.

So what do these colors communicate about the scenes? For the current time, you need only cast your mind back to an autumns day, the surrounding world is pretty, the weather is even, a midpoint between the heat of summer and cold of winter. Its calm, but there’s still a little hint of something off, as all the plants around you are clearly dying. That is the feeling expressed by the colors in the scene, calm, but an underlying feeling of melancholy, especially as the scene progress’. The further we get in to the scene, the darker the tones become, Showing that the further the character gets in to his memory, the unhappier he becomes, literally showing the object triggering his memory engulfed in shade.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

As for the flashbacks, there’s a lot more going on than just the conveyance of colour, starting with, why when you see the scene, can you tell instantly that it is a flashback? This actually stems from the colour use, specifically the monochrome. As Adrienne Redd explains,

“Colour can convey subjective states or perception of time” (Adrienne Redd, 2004) Explaining that, because the origins of film and photography started with a monochrome palette, we now perceive this colour use as something from the past, like an old photograph or film.

What else can be gathered from the colour, well its red, so strong emotions are being conveyed, and when paired with the imagery/ memory, the character is remembering his father fending off armed men with a baseball bat. So referring back to Bond, this application leans heavily in to the violence and cruelty connotation. There’s another reason the scene outputs such a powerful emotion of brutality, as Bond also explains

“When there is a new addition of colour to a scene, the mood is unsettled” (Channel Criswell, 2015) Everything is being thrown at us to communicate that this is a horrific, unsettling memory for the protagonist. This paired with the present scenes darkening makes for a truly impactful sequence of events that, for the most part, conveys its ideas through colour, not words.

This is without a doubt an example of how the application colour is more complex that it initially seems. And this is only scratching the surface for its use, as we will find with the next example, Limbo, which throws far more colours in to the equation.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Limbo by Caspar Wijngaard and Dan Waters

(Watters, 2016)

The artist and writer of this comic have stated in an interview for the web show ‘strip panel naked’ that they really wanted to make a fun, weird comic, which insinuates that they were not necessarily trying to reach the reader on an emotional level like Southern Bastards. The example is fun, and isn’t trying to reach you on an emotional level. Even though artist Casper Wijngaard is playful with the colour, using vibrant contrasting hues that pop, it still has a job to do, it has to both grab the reader’s eye, and help to convey the scene. The scene has the protagonist trapped in television, running through tv channels in search of an escape. This time the colour is a vibrant neon palette, with Wijngaard stating that he

“Wanted the book to look visually different, capturing an aesthetic found in cult 80s films such as big trouble in little china” (Strip Panel Naked, 2017)

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Having the comic look like its scenes are bathed in artificial light, this offers somewhat of a time period that the comic is in or more accurately based on. Meaning that everything from the channels to the character needed to seem as though they existed in the 80’s.

Take this scene from Wijngaard’s reference “Big Trouble In Little China” utilising the popular neon light usage of the 80’s.

(Big trouble in little china, 1986)

Looking at the channels, connotation needs to be addressed again, as each focuses on a specific genre, using both image and colour to communicate what they are. We will look at three specific panels.

One showing a western film, one showing Japanese animation, or anime as it is properly referred to, and the last referencing a specific 80’s show/ character, max headroom.

The western scene draws some comparisons to the southern bastards pages, using a monochrome palette to convey an idea of an old film, and also has the blue character running through, which as Bond explained, the new addition to the scene unsettles the mood. He clearly doesn’t belong and effectively pops to the eye because of its contrast against the orange backdrop. Relating to this colour usage, with the less dominant colour popping, Joshua Reynolds (artist, 1770) stated that the colour red will always appear to come forward and blue will appear to recede. Upon hearing this Thomas Gainsborough painted the blue boy in response that quite nicely acts against that statement, showcasing both the subjective opinions that can be gathered on colour, but also the variety of applications also.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

(Thomas Gainsborough ‘Blue Boy’ 1770)

Outside of these comparisons, and coming back to Southern Bastards example, the use of orange helps to convey dryness to the scene, the open desert ablaze with the sun’s heat. This is why we see a western film in this panel.

Moving to the Anime channel panel, it’s a completely different story, with a range of colours splashed, showcasing the vibrant colour palette that was brought to the west for children during the 80’s. These cartoons were vibrant, colourful and entirely eccentric to the British/ American audience. This array of colours plays on the readers possible nostalgia, using characters that aren’t actually featured in any shows, but feature colours that spark the memory of said characters.

Finally, the max headroom panel really plays on nostalgia, using a modified version of an existing character, Max headroom, the colours really work their magic here in the backdrop, being a one to one replication of the shows set. This is another reference to the 80’s use of neon for lighting, and another reason for this decision of colour palette. Just like monochrome meaning a scene is from the past, neon has an inherent connotation of the 80’s as a time period, being the time that it was invented, and subsequently had its heaviest use.

So this scene showcases how colour plays heavily on nostalgia and past memories to gain its connotations and meanings. This is how

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

colour has generated its own vocabulary, become its own language.

So what if we strip that vocabulary away by looking at a black and white comic, Frank Millers Sin city.

Sin City by Mark Miller

(Miller, 2005)

The scene has the protagonist imprisoned, lamenting his loneliness, when suddenly, he realises that he is not alone, there is someone else in the cell with him. This scene isn’t just black and white, yellow is introduced, but this is the first application of any colour in the comic. Up till these pages, there is no colour, just black and white, resulting in a dark tone to the imagery and comic, its serious, gritty stuff. The colour then being introduced after that, really packs a visual punch. This single shade of yellow brings the world presented to the reader crumbling down, and snaps them to attention. Again, a new addition to a scene means the mood is unsettled. The sombre mood of the protagonist is swept away as the unease, shock and caution oozing from the yellow character

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

takes over. This sudden introduction of colour also causes the viewer to consider the reasons for this colour use themselves. Its an ingenious method of getting a reader to truly consider the story, world, and messages being communicated to them. A similar method was applied at the birth of technicolour film, with the creation of ‘Wizard Of Oz’. As production designer Robert Stromberg stated,

Wizard of Oz used this amazing three-strip Technicolor. People’s eyes were blown out because they’d never seen colour like it, so going (from black-and-white) to really vivid colour jars the senses.

(Robert Stromberg, 2015)

So what does the character communicate, what does yellow add to him? Firstly, the character is off, he feels wrong and not just because he doesn’t fit with the thematic consistency that the book has maintained up to this point. It’s the colour yellow, as Patti Bellantoni points out

“Yellow is bright, and tends to take over the visual field”(Bellantoni, 2005), explaining why its such a shock to the system to see this character. She also reminds us of yellows place in nature, found on “venomous creatures, being the reason we use the colour for caution signs.” Meaning we know that the character is dangerous, and to be wary of him. There’s also more being communicated with the colour, as a text box in the scene states “ this guy smells awful”, a little unnecessary addition, considering what yellow means when thinking of it on a biological level, bodily fluids would be the first thing to come to many minds. A person glowing in a colour with this connotation, is going to seem filthy, unwashed, and gives yet another reason to not trust this character or want to be near him.

The biggest lesson to be learnt from these pages, is that restricting the palette and waiting on the colour makes its use far more impactful and meaningful, causing the reader to consider and actually understand why and what the colour is telling them, unlike a fully coloured comic where it is easier to overlook and under thing the colour use. Black and white is serious.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Visual investigation/ conclusion

Alongside this essay, a visual element has been maintained with a sketchbook, further experimenting with colour, and emphasizing the importance of colour in comics.

Split between two halves, the first part experiments with the fundamentals of colour and it’s usage. Essentially starting with the basics and building upon them, examining the connotations that are required for a person to form an emotive response to specific tones.

A selection of examples from the first part of the sketchbook, exploring the use of colour

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

The second half puts these lessons to practice, taking the knowledge of colour and connotation, then applying it within an actual comic called ‘The Doberman’. These principles were previously discussed, with Southern Bastards; the scene was bathed in red to portray violence, with the Doberman, violent scenes are also bathed in red. Building upon these examples and applying different colors and combinations has enabled a much more in- depth exploration and evaluation of the question. The practical element has strengthened the understanding and conclusions generated throughout the essay.

A selection of examples from the second part of the sketchbook, exploring the application of colour in sequential narrative

These examples have made one thing very clear, there is no set way to use colour. Each of the comic examples approach the use of colour in different ways, in some instances, using the same colors to convey entirely separate meanings. It is up to the creator to set the parameters of the colour usage, whilst creating and communicating the meaning behind the colours, in order to properly utilise them. For this it is necessary to consider where the connotations for colour associations originate and why they occur.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Applied within the visual element, new conclusions were gathered, separate to the comic examples. It’s a challenge but as Roger Deacon stated “It is easier to make colour look good, but harder to make it service the story.” (colour in storytelling, 2015) There is an importance in considering colour, and why its being used, for this will result in stronger imagery and narratives that will speak to the viewer without them even knowing it.

Coming back to the question this essay intends to answer, ‘How does colour impact narrative in comics?’ The conclusion and answer, as a result of the discussed evidence, is that colour acts as a key element in the conveyance of emotion and context within comics. Utilised by the right person, colour can tell a completely separate story to the imagery, sometimes actually telling the story entirely.

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Bibliography

2000 (1997) Criticism.Com: Chroma cinema: Use of color in films. Available at: http://criticism.com/md/film2.html (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

Aaron, J. (2014) Southern bastards: Volume 1: Here was a man. United States: Image Comics.

Bellantoni, P. (2005) If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die: The power of color in visual storytelling for film. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.

Channel Criswell (2015) Colour in storytelling. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgFcNUWqX0&ab_channel=ChannelCriswell (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

De Sausmarez, J. (2008). Basic colour. London: Herbert Press/A. & C. Black.

Faulkner, R., Director, M. and Datadial (2016) How Colour in your animation conveys meaning?

Available at: https://www.spielcreative.com/blog/how-colour-in-your-animation-conveysmeaning/ (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

McCloud, S. (1994) Understanding comics [the invisible art]. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks.

Miller, F. (2005) Sin city, volume 1: The hard goodbye. 2nd edn. New York, NY, United States: Dark Horse Comics,U.S. Strip Panel Naked (2016) Limbo creators edition Pt.1 | Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard | strip panel naked. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDqNn8p47I&ab_channel=StripPanelNaked (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

Strip Panel Naked (2017) Limbo creators edition Pt.2 | Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard | strip panel naked. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrNEmponY8&t=20s&ab_channel=StripPanelNaked (Acce ssed: 29 January 2017).

The use of black and white segments within modern colour films (no date) Available at: http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/zenobw.htm (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

Watters, D. (2016) Limbo. United States: Image Comics.

Citations, Quotes & Annotations 2000 (1997) Criticism.Com: Chroma cinema: Use of color in films. Available at: http://criticism.com/md/film2.html (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

(2000, 1997) --Aaron, J. (2014) Southern bastards: Volume 1: Here was a man. United States: Image Comics.

(Aaron, 2014) --Bellantoni, P. (2005) If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die: The power of color in visual storytelling for film. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.

(Bellantoni, 2005) ---

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James Moore How does colour impact narrative in comics OUIL 501

Channel Criswell (2015) Colour in storytelling. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgFcNUWqX0&ab_channel=ChannelCriswell (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

(Channel Criswell, 2015) --Faulkner, R., Director, M. and Datadial (2016) How Colour in your animation conveys meaning?

Available at: https://www.spielcreative.com/blog/how-colour-in-your-animation-conveysmeaning/ (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

(Faulkner, Director, and Datadial, 2016) --McCloud, S. (1994) Understanding comics [the invisible art]. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks.

(McCloud, 1994) --Miller, F. (2005) Sin city, volume 1: The hard goodbye. 2nd edn. New York, NY, United States: Dark Horse Comics,U.S. (Miller, 2005) --Strip Panel Naked (2016) Limbo creators edition Pt.1 | Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard | strip panel naked. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDqNn8p47I&ab_channel=StripPanelNaked (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

(Strip Panel Naked, 2016) --Strip Panel Naked (2017) Limbo creators edition Pt.2 | Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard | strip panel naked. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrNEmponY8&t=20s&ab_channel=StripPanelNaked (Acce ssed: 29 January 2017).

(Strip Panel Naked, 2017) --The use of black and white segments within modern colour films (no date) Available at: http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/zenobw.htm (Accessed: 29 January 2017).

(The use of black and white segments within modern colour films, no date) --Watters, D. (2016) Limbo. United States: Image Comics.

(Watters, 2016) ---

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