RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books WTF - ra's al Ghul is coming back?

And it shows off Robin's DNA better...

No, not really. I admit I wasn't as clear as I could have been.

What I was saying was that someone, either the penciller or inker (depending on the art team) had to decide how to portray the shading on Batman's cape and figure out how to make it stand out to the reader from the (typically dark) background.

There are two ways to do this. The preferable way (IMHO) from an artistic standpoint is to take the time to design and render the panel so that the artwork allows you to place Batman in a nighttime setting but still render the cape in primarily black. That can be more challenging, however. The page has to be composed so that, for example, you don't have the black cape blending into the black sky, or the shadows in the batcave or any of the dozens of other night scenes that make up the setting of a typical Batman comic book.

The other way is to do what comic book artists (pencillers and/or inkers) have done for decades with "black" objects in comic books: leave out most of the black and have the colorist color it blue. The blue stands out better to the reader from the dark background better, making it easier to compose the panel.

i get what you're saying, g-man.

the "blue stands out better" theory might be applicable to the laziest of extremely lazy artists, as two similarly black colors may present themselves inseparable to the reader's eye. but even in today's "he's teh lAzIEsT aRTisT evar!!1!" internet critic viewpoint, that at best encapsulates only half of the artistic population.

and, even more damning to that theory, there is no legal binding stating that the "blue" has to be the cape. artists of that laze-factor could simply feature a black cape in the foreground, with a simplistic blue sky, or brick red building filling the background.

plus, even above and beyond all that, it would almost never be a black cape in front of a black sky or alley. rather, it would be a dark gray cape in front of a dark blue sky -- even in a pallette of 64 crayola colors, there is enough contrast. though, in the wolrd of digital computer coloring that we so readily embrace today in our comics, this would ideally be portrayed as a deep charcoal gray cape, illuminated with the ambient glow of a green neon light in front of a rolling, cloudy, crimson sky.

I'm rollin' wit Rob.

Does DK know?

And I thought you rolled the OTHER way, Oosh...

Actually that makes him sound vaguely like Paddington Bear working in the garden.

The best version of Batman's costume is still Midnighter's, although this one is still good too:

good one dave...

Batman 670 was pretty depressing.

In the latest we learn that The Sensei is Ra's Al Ghul's father!





SPOILERS!