The infamous EC Comics have had a rather sporadic publishing history. From their initial demise due to the implementation of the Comics Code Authority in the 50’s, through the black and white Russ Cochran hardcovers to my favourites, the regular-sized Gemstone publications of the early 90’s. Now it appears that the complete EC library will finally be reprinted in colour for the first time ever. Unfortunately, as great as this news is, there is a catch or two.

Previous collected editions of the classic EC Comics line reproduced the stories in black-and-white which, although showcasing the beautiful line art rendered by such EC greats as Graham “Ghastly” Ingels and Wally Wood, did not preserve the wonderful coloring expertly applied by EC and Marvel Comics veteran, Marie Severin. The EC Archives editions will present these stories with all-new colors based on the originals, but utilizing new methods of shading and texture to enhance and improve each story’s impact.

If Marie Severin’s colouring was “expertly applied” then why do they feel the need to “enhance and improve” her work with “all-new colors”? This is insane. I’ve seen this kind of recolouring process botched before. I nearly picked up the Red Sonja reprint until I realized that new shading had seemingly been added by an office intern who had just discovered the burn option in Photoshop. And even if the rumours are true and Marie Severin is overseeing the recolouring process herself, why not just do a retouch instead of adding shading and texture. Samples of the recolouring can be found here.

Bill K. of Egon has posted his thoughts on the recolouring job in a post on The Comics Journal message board and they echo my own.

I think what is not being understood here is that these artists drew these comics with the knowledge that flat color would be mechanically applied to their linework (as did just about every artist working in mass-market American comic books until recently). The burden of “texture and shading” fell on the linework and the artists developed their styles accordingly. Imposing modelled color over the linework threatens to create the effect of two different solutions at odds with one another. The gradient effects and “airbrushed” highlights in this preview — while more restrained than they could have been — still stick out like a sore thumb to my eyes.

And as if that isn’t enough, if the promotional covers circulating are any indication of their design sense, the names of the people writing the introductions are going to be covering all that gorgeous recolored artowork anyway.

What a fucking disgrace. I think I’m going to hold onto my old newsprint issues, thanks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.