To me, comic coloring is a paradox with good intentions. While it is a true and independent art form, the colors need the line art to be.

It’s like a virus, that is not really dead or alive. It needs to get in their host’s cells, merge with them and be like one to fully function and survive. And by “survive” I mean be a beautiful work of collaborative art.

There are countless ways to work with a black and white and page, and like a good parasite, the only thing colors shouldn’t do is completely destroy its host.

The way I see it, it’s impossible not to “damage” the line art due to the very nature of coloring, but choosing how to do it is the key. And it’s a matter of taste and experience.

To me, the purpose of coloring is expand, while reinforcing, the message of the story. Because color can go to places where black ink simply cannot, ever. But I’m order to go to those places, colors will require their price, and the line art is the one who has to pay it.

So the colorist is the one to consider how much it’s gonna cost and how it’s gonna be paid. The penciller/inker can establish a limit, of course, but only the colorist handle the coins.

For example, you want heavily modeled figures with lots of visual fx? Say goodbye to the weight of your lines and your chiaroscuro composition. Or do you want to have your lines perceived as close to the original as possible? Say goodbye to three-dimensionality of color values.

That’s why both line and color artist must be in the same page. They are trying to reach the same goal, but the relationship of black and white and color can vary so much that they must share some kind of ground to get there.

There’s no right or wrong. That’s only taste and intention. And a place to go.

And I may have sound a little dramatic back there, with the “price to pay” and “damage” talk, but most of the time that price is small and the rewards can be gigantic, like wonderful colored comics, with gorgeous inks, working together and making each other better.

Anyway, to wrap it up: in the end, I believe color it’s a beautiful, incredible versatile tool that can add so much to comics in its own, irreplaceable, way. All we have to do is figure out how.