The DC Comics Guide to COLORING and LETTERING Comics by Mark Chiarello and Todd Klein.

So I finished reading the first half of this book, which basically concentrates on the colouring of comic books. Mark Chiarello starts off by telling how it was done historically, and what the computer has done to elevate the art found in comic books to the next level in the past 15 years or so.

My first experience of computer colouring (and in fact most of the industry as well) was from Malibu, which was bought by Marvel Comics and done away with. Image come crashing through with cutting edge computer colouring, but now I guess I follow individual colourists. Not enough people give these incredibly talented people enough credit. I believe that the colouring in many ways can made or break a comic book, at least in terms of how it looks. How is reads is another issue completely.

The techniques showcased here are nothing ground breaking, but it’s nice to know what the deal is in the comic book industry. What the standard practices are. I read an article a while back in Computer Arts, they’d gotten Ben Templesmith to talk about his techniques since they’re mired in computer generation, and while a lot of what he said made sense, there were a couple of gray areas that I wished they’d given more thought to and fleshed out further. This book seems to hit that on the head.

My only real issue with this book is that there wasn’t enough concise techniques highlighted. What I mean by that is step by step guide that dealt with the actual colours and techniques used for simulating metal or plastic. There are several ways of accomplishing this, however there is a very