ARGH! #5 Teaser

I finished coloring my 4-page comic for ARGH! over the weekend. Spurred by DB Dowd's request, I've decided to share a page with everyone. It's my favorite of the bunch and doesn't give away too much of the story. I also thought it would be a good chance to demonstrate how I use color and line.

Here's the inked version of page 2 of the comic. On it's own, it kind of works, but I would never design a comic to look like this if it were to live solely in black and white. I use line, knowing that color is on the way to punch up the visual impact. Which for me amounts to tone, design, and a contrast in value that this linework doesn't fully achieve.


The comic artists who work on ARGH! all share a common color palette. In previous issues, we've used black and one color, which amounts to a two-color print process. This time around, Félix decided to go with two true colors (no black). For those of you who speak Pantone: 294C (a dark blue) and 021C (a deep red orange). I have to say, it's a weird way of coloring in Photoshop—you have to paint in spot color channels with grayscale sliders. Especially when you have to mix the two colors in combination. He sent along this color grid to show us the possible variations you could achieve. For instance, 100% of each color essentially gives you a black, half of each gets you in purple-gray territory.


And here's the final product. I wrote the comic around color, knowing I wanted to use the full spectrum. So, it takes place in a blue serene forest that is being ravaged by a two-headed fire dragon. The last panel is the one I posted previously, featuring Drip.


What's also great about a two-color process is that it forces you to work in a limitted palette, which is generally how I prefer to handle color. That's all for now...look for the full comic this fall. The issue is due to come out in September, I believe.