Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

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Ryan
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Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

I'm interested in the original VH1 coloring process. Sonicdan has a great page on his site that explains a lot https://sonicdan.com/VALIANT/colorart.html

However the question I still have is what size were the inks printed out on? Same size as the original art (around 10" x 15"), comic book print size (6.875” x 10.438”) or something in-between?

Thanks

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nycjadie
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by nycjadie »

They vary widely in size. I am not sure what the thought process is with that. Some are large and some are small (or the size of the comic).

Janet Jackson could likely shed some light on this.

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Ryan
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

nycjadie wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 1:32:43 pm They vary widely in size. I am not sure what the thought process is with that. Some are large and some are small (or the size of the comic).

Janet Jackson could likely shed some light on this.
Interesting. Is it a matter of pre-Unity vs post-Unity? My understanding is Jayjay oversaw it during pre-Unity but then they kept using that process more or less until Birthquake.

One difference I notice in pre-Unity just by looking is there seems to be more use of colored pencils and airbrush, later it seems like mostly straight watercolor.

Also the use of post-ups (real photograph backgrounds) is a lot more prevalent in pre-Unity.

Printing at a smaller size would also be faster, so it might also just be a deadline thing.

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nycjadie
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by nycjadie »

My color pages are currently buried, but I have probably a few hundred. I recall some of the larger ones are often the first page with paste ups of story title, credits, etc. So, your thoughts seem consistent with what I've noticed anecdotally.

I also have noticed that the splash pages tend to be larger. This could be due to the prominence of the artwork, or artist preference - it might be more fun to have more space.

I have two color pages from Harbinger 0. They are huge. So is my color cover for Rai 1. Huge, huge, huge. Not sure if those are anomalies.

I haven't seen any with photographs or photocopies incorporated.

I love questions like this as they pique my academic curiosity. The colors are what attracted me to purchase Solar 1 off the stand, so many decades ago. That and BWS art. I've been hooked since.

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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by AnthonyF »

I have two color interior pages from Harbinger 1, the colors are small, like the regular comic size. I didn’t realize that some colors were large size!

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Ryan
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

nycjadie wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 3:27:19 pm My color pages are currently buried, but I have probably a few hundred. I recall some of the larger ones are often the first page with paste ups of story title, credits, etc. So, your thoughts seem consistent with what I've noticed anecdotally.

I also have noticed that the splash pages tend to be larger. This could be due to the prominence of the artwork, or artist preference - it might be more fun to have more space.

I have two color pages from Harbinger 0. They are huge. So is my color cover for Rai 1. Huge, huge, huge. Not sure if those are anomalies.

I haven't seen any with photographs or photocopies incorporated.

I love questions like this as they pique my academic curiosity. The colors are what attracted me to purchase Solar 1 off the stand, so many decades ago. That and BWS art. I've been hooked since.
That makes sense, get more detail into the covers and splash pages. You're right paste ups is the term not post ups.

Agree, as I've gotten older I've grown to dislike most digital coloring and all the gradients used. Early VALIANT hits that sweet spot with a lot of things, the heavy black inks with the bright watercolors really make things pop.

I think using photos for backgrounds was more of a Shooter or Jayjay thing, they did it a lot at Broadway too. Can't remember if Defiant used them much.

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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

AnthonyF wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 4:32:07 pm I have two color interior pages from Harbinger 1, the colors are small, like the regular comic size. I didn’t realize that some colors were large size!
Nice, that was my guess, that they were comic sized. Surprised that there were different sizes, makes sense though.

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magnusr
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by magnusr »

nycjadie wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 3:27:19 pm the larger ones are often the first page with paste ups of story title, credits, etc.
Yes. And the vast majority is comic sized. One weird exception is the Unity card set, those originals were card sized.

/Magnus

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Ryan
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

magnusr wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 12:49:54 am
nycjadie wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 3:27:19 pm the larger ones are often the first page with paste ups of story title, credits, etc.
Yes. And the vast majority is comic sized. One weird exception is the Unity card set, those originals were card sized.

/Magnus
Great info, thanks :thumb:

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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by ckb »

When Janet explained the process to me she said the artists original inks needed to be transferred to a different medium that accepted the watercolors. This was done with a photocopy process and the size of the art was reduced to "clarify" the inks. You get sharper lines and less area to color. If there was very detailed line work I could see the shrink factor being smaller on those pages.

I prepared a page for Janet to color once a long time ago and I had a local copy shop follow the process to prepare the page for her from the original inks I owned at the time.

Side note - not all of the card art was card sized. I have had color pages about the same size as normal valiant color art that were identified as card colors...but that was not card art for the Unity set...it was for VE1.

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Ryan
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Re: Question for people who own original VH1 color pages

Post by Ryan »

ckb wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 2:18:23 pm When Janet explained the process to me she said the artists original inks needed to be transferred to a different medium that accepted the watercolors. This was done with a photocopy process and the size of the art was reduced to "clarify" the inks. You get sharper lines and less area to color. If there was very detailed line work I could see the shrink factor being smaller on those pages.

I prepared a page for Janet to color once a long time ago and I had a local copy shop follow the process to prepare the page for her from the original inks I owned at the time.

Side note - not all of the card art was card sized. I have had color pages about the same size as normal valiant color art that were identified as card colors...but that was not card art for the Unity set...it was for VE1.
Thank you ckb. Very helpful


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