Joan Boixs artwork dissected

April 26th, 2007

Joan Boixs artwork dissected

Joan original in colour

Joan original in colour

As mentioned in my post last week about my new Phantom comics from Norway I said I will dissect Joan Boixs artwork more closely after seeing his work in colour rather than normally in B&W with Frew.

So this post will be about is the dissection and look at Joans work in both colour and black and white. To do this right, it will have to be the same picture. As I do not have many Egmont and not all my Frews at my disposal (some being stored at Fiances house) I have choosen Egmont 4 - 2005 (Frew 1409) “Annihilate all Singh”.

Joans work turned in black and white

Joans work turned in black and white

Right is the original colour version of a page which is the Phantom fighting Sandal Singhs bodyguard Belim and so looking at it, he has some nice colours which compliments the thin lines and with some of his work, it does indeed look very nice. However look at the black and white version on the left and it looks robotic and simplistic.

I remember reading about an artist (name escapes me) and he made mention that it is realitivly easy to make the artwork look nice in colour as it can hide your lack but in B&W it will not hide but rather show your lack. In design at University they always said to get the design/ website etc to work in B&W before you add colour.

In looking at the two pages I would say that although many like Joan Boixs artwork in the Scandinavian countries that see his work in colour I would say he will never get the same credit in Australia due to the majority of us only seeing it in B&W. I have noticed that Graham Nolan (old Sunday artist) and Paul Ryan (Egmont and newspaper artist) have subtly changed their style and drawing styles to suit what their artwork looks like in Frew. Paul Ryan in his last Egmont story actually used zip tone and along with Graham Nolan have made comments how they were surprised on what it looked like when de-coloured by Frew. I would suggest Jon Boix to do the same. What do you think?

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Hi

I have always been a fan of Boix, and can’t understand the critics he have been given.

Anyway, I can understand your consern avout the lack of colors, and I also agree that zip-tone in a story published both in colors and bw is a smart move. If you had a chance to see the older Semic stories (bw back then) now in colors you would agree with me.

Comment by IpComics — April 26th, 2007 @ 3:12 pm

@Ivan - Yeah Ive noticed that Joan has quite a few fans but I just do not seem to get into his drawings like others.

Now that would be an interesting scenario having the old black and white turned into colour. Do they do the same with the old strips as well?

Comment by GermWorks — April 26th, 2007 @ 6:46 pm

Hi

>Do they do the same with the old strips as well?

Yes and no! I leberately awoided to send you nay of the books containing “old” strips in colors, because I did not think they would interest you!

Anyway, last fall Egmont published Moore “Singh Brotherhood” in complete unedited form, and they DID NOT color it, thanks for that.

What they have been doing, and still are, is reprinting Falk/Barry daily strips in color (edited version for comic books) and in some cases unedited strips. This have been going on for some years now, and a bit more than we like last year.

I can’t remember seing an older story than Barry in colors.

Why, well i am sure your guess is just as good as mine!!

Ivan

Comment by IpComics — April 26th, 2007 @ 6:56 pm

@Ivan: So how does it look with art drawn for B&W and then turned into colour? Just as bad as the old Semic stories? btw just for the record I think the old B&W Semic stories look the best, at least for us Frew readers

In one of the books you sent me, it had a Barry story in colour (do not know if originally in colour though) that had some enlarged panels. The only other time I have seen this was in the landscape books printed by an Australian company (Budget books).

Comment by GermWorks — April 26th, 2007 @ 7:04 pm

Hi

Well that should be easy to find out. If it is a Sunday-story it was orignally in colors.

I did misread you a bit first. But let me say that the zip tone looks good, both in bw and colors.

If the colors are added careful, an old Semic made for bw looks good when published in colors.

Ivan

Comment by IpComics — April 26th, 2007 @ 7:10 pm

But let me say that the zip tone looks good, both in bw and colors.

Well I doubt many Phantom artists will read this but in case you do, please do us Frew readers a favour and use zip tone.

If the colors are added careful, an old Semic made for bw looks good when published in colors.

I guess that backs up my point in my original post that if the artwork works in B&W it will work in colour.

Thanks for your comments and answering my questions Ivan. I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts…

Comment by GermWorks — April 27th, 2007 @ 3:28 pm

[…] Boix is not my favourite artist (artwork dissected) but his work hear is quite nice. He uses a good balance of black shading for us Frew readers and […]

Pingback by Frew 1504: The Great Deception pt1 — March 25th, 2008 @ 1:19 pm

Eh! not criticism to Boix, is a great drawing! my favourite

Comment by Marvel — May 5th, 2008 @ 1:54 am

@Marvel - Thanks for your comment and opinion of Joan Boix.
My comments are more of a dissection and while his colour work is beautiful, it being turned into black and white leaves me empty…

Comment by GermWorks — May 5th, 2008 @ 8:47 am

Boix is a great artist! very virtousity…

Comment by Wolverine — May 14th, 2008 @ 1:02 am

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Joan Boixs artwork dissected