Interesting Facts about Comics

[TabulaRasa]

I am in the process of making a 12" Satsu to go with my Season 8 Xander and the person who is doing the Satsu sculpt with me said...In comics blue hair is actually symbolising black hair.

I was thinking, then why don't they just color it black and be done with it?

Is Satsu's blue hair really meant to be black? If so, bummer! And are there any other things like this that maybe we wouldn't know unless we knew comics?

 

[Clem Rocks]

I always thought Satsu's hair was black anyway...

 

[TabulaRasa]

Yes it's black.

But does blue hair in a comic mean black hair?

 

[Blondie Bear]

I think they use the blue as highlights so it's not just flat black on the page.

 

[Amber Benson]

The way I understand it, blue in black hair is used to create a sort of dimension to the hair... So it's not flat, like Blondie Bear said...

In most comics (that I've read anyway) black is used the same in blue hair... It's really up to the artist really...

 

[TabulaRasa]

very interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[Lou]

It's just a shading tool.
Look at your Avatar. The hair is yellow and the deepest shadows black, but in between are shades of brown and more brownish yellow. The same can be done with red hair. Different shades of orange.
But, black hair is MUCH harder. If you just go with black and white, it doesn't have the same "depth". If you add brown to it, it looks like it's just dark brown instead of black. You can add red, but that makes it just look like dark red. And if you go with gray, they look old.
The only REAL way to go is a blueish tint so that it has depth but doesn't look like just a darker shade of red or brown.

 

[Allycat]

For the dollz I make, I try to use the same colours as in the comics, I've found that it can fluctuate between issues. In Wolves at the Gate, Satsu's highlights are done with a light unsaturated brown colour, instead of blue.

 

[The Arcane]

Wasn't the red and blue Spider-Man costume actually meant to be red and black? I recall reading an article at CBR where it was mentioned that the red and blue costume was never actually meant to exist. The "blue" was always meant to be black but for the sake of the artwork it was given a dark blue tint. Then over the years as more and more Spidey merchandise was created with the red and blue costume it was just accepted that the costume was that colour.

Not to mention the fact that the Hulk wuld never have been green if not for the fact the original "grey" version didn't look great on paper, at least back in the 60s.