Absolute Killing Joke - new colours

[deathfromabove]

looks pretty good...

i always thought the juxtaposition of the grim art and storyline with the bright garish colors worked really well, especially the scenes in the fun house. the og is iconic for that very reason. but the new colors look equally fantastic. i dont understand why he removed the oval though. bolland drew the circle in the first place so its kinda hard to argue he intended for it to be absent. and the black and white flashbacks are kinda iffy. oh, its black and white now! must be a flashback! but i will still be picking this up for sure.

its kinda funny that the killing joke figures are based on the old colors though. i wonder if they will sell a variant with the new colors as well?

 

[Ender Durden]

gaaa, the carnival scene is now so blaaaahh

the saturated red and yellow fitted the craziness of the situation so much better.

 

[DarkJester]

So I'd never read The Killing Joke before. I stumbled into my local comic book store and asked for a copy. They didn't have one, but he said he could order it for me. I got the call a week later, though he said it wasn't a reprint, but rather a new Deluxe Edition. Seeing as I prefer hardbacks anyway, I told him to hold onto it for me.

These new colors are my first viewing of TKJ, and upon seeing the scans from the old version, I must say I'm standing by the new colors. The old ones seem way too busy and just irritating to the eye.

 

[Cobblepot]

I liked the old colors best, had something psychedelic going on. This is just your average looking colouring. If only they used the original pallet a bit more to maintain that psych. look.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

I definitly like the old colors alot more!

 

[Ibn]

This new **** is bland as ****.

 

[The Joker]

My comic book store sold out of the deluxe Killing Joke since yesterday. Less than a day, and they had loads of copies when I went in yesterday.

 

[Figs]

Just got the email yesterday from Amazon saying my Hardback copy shipped.

The original colors are on the right, right? I prefer the originals, while it may have been an overload of color...the reprint looks too bland.

 

[Axtech]

Just got the email yesterday from Amazon saying my Hardback copy shipped.

The original colors are on the right, right? I prefer the originals, while it may have been an overload of color...the reprint looks too bland.

While I agree that the new ones look a bit bland - they've lost some of the insanity in the colours of the original - I have to say I like the new ones better. While the harsh bright colours worked in pages like the one shown above, with Gordon's view of Joker and the freaks, I think it was far too jarring for many other parts (such as, off the top of my head, the bar scene flash back where he takes on the job as Red Hood).

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

Just got the email yesterday from Amazon saying my Hardback copy shipped.

The original colors are on the right, right? I prefer the originals, while it may have been an overload of color...the reprint looks too bland.

i think its a good balance...you have to take in account that those are SCANS...so it looses a bit of the colors' vibrance...the actual book looks a bit more colorful than that...

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

and p.s...with MUCH reverance to the original...the bright, busy colors remind me of Schumaker...and that just makes me want to kill....

 

[Figs]

i think its a good balance...you have to take in account that those are SCANS...so it looses a bit of the colors' vibrance...the actual book looks a bit more colorful than that...

Forgot about that factor...can't wait to get my copy delivered.

 

[Yurka]

I like the original colors because its the Joker's story, and it should look insane. The new colors make it look too normal IMO.

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

in case anyone wants...i did a wallpaper of a scan on the new "bloody joker"...with MUCH reverance to bolland...made the colors just a shade more vibrant...

Spoiler

 

[JokerJr.]

i perfer the new colors, i mean i already get high i dont need normal stuff making me feel like im on a bad trip. but thats not the only reason, i just cant explain why i like the absolute more, its like the calm colors contradict to all the craziness and violence

 

[CrimsonMist]

Yes, they removed the yellow oval...thank god. I hate that damn thing.

I get what you're saying, but without the oval, the bat logo looks small and wimpy. The oval is supposed to be there in that specific book. Without the oval, it just looks...meh. If it's just going to be the bat, it should be bigger and imposing. I thought getting rid of the oval for this was just unnecessary.

 

[Doctor Baywatch]

the hate for the oval because the oval is not teh dark.

 

[CrimsonMist]

the hate for the oval because the oval is not teh dark.

i actually like the oval and the single bat

I just don't get why the oval was removed for this book.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

I just bought the book and I love it I noticed it's slightly larger than the original one, in the afterword by Brian Bolland he mentions that he redrew a face here and there.

Now I have the old copy of mine tucked away in boxes so I'm kind of lazy to look for it but I think Bolland redrew Batman's shocked face when the Joker pulls the gun on him and out pops the little flag with CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

 

[Cobblepot]

Went ahead and bought it anyway, while I liked the original colors a lot. I must say it's nice to see what Bolland had intended with it. I love it!

 

[Dirt Like Me]

I think the new colors look pretty good--especially in the flashbacks. The old coloring overwhelmed the art in some places, so I can see why Bolland would want to tone things down a little bit. If I had never read The Killing Joke until this week, I'd probably prefer the new colors.

That said, I'm a little bit conflicted about the whole idea of revisiting creative works like art or movies twenty years later. It's kind of like George Lucas adding digital effects to the first (i.e. 'real') Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, I guess that GCI let him fully realize his vision, but at the same time the movies were pretty damn good without us seeing Han step on Jabba's tail; and besides, that's what I grew up watching. (South Park had a funny episode on this topic, too).

Either way, I still hate the fact that the Joker comes across as a sympathetic character.

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

I like the old coloring...the new one is just ok

 

[Joker]

I think the new colors look pretty good--especially in the flashbacks. The old coloring overwhelmed the art in some places, so I can see why Bolland would want to tone things down a little bit. If I had never read The Killing Joke until this week, I'd probably prefer the new colors.

That said, I'm a little bit conflicted about the whole idea of revisiting creative works like art or movies twenty years later. It's kind of like George Lucas adding digital effects to the first (i.e. 'real') Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, I guess that GCI let him fully realize his vision, but at the same time the movies were pretty damn good without us seeing Han step on Jabba's tail; and besides, that's what I grew up watching. (South Park had a funny episode on this topic, too).

Either way, I still hate the fact that the Joker comes across as a sympathetic character.

The difference between the special editions of Star Wars and this is this:

Imagine if in Star Wars, George Lucas didnt do any of the visual effects. He shot the movie, but then someone else came in and did all the visual effects, and it was nothing at all like Lucas had originally intended them. But he had no control over it at the time.

That's what happened here. Bolland didnt have the time to do the coloring himself, as he usually does, and wasnt able to. So when he got the chance to do it, he did. This is his original vision of it, not a revised vision he had later. It's what he would have done in the beginning if he had the chance.

 

[Cobblepot]

Maybe he ment the extra art, Bolland added. The backup story (from Black and White is great to).

Oh man, makes me want a complete collection book of Bolland's covers!!!

 

[Mladen]

The difference between the special editions of Star Wars and this is this:

Imagine if in Star Wars, George Lucas didnt do any of the visual effects. He shot the movie, but then someone else came in and did all the visual effects, and it was nothing at all like Lucas had originally intended them. But he had no control over it at the time.

That's what happened here. Bolland didnt have the time to do the coloring himself, as he usually does, and wasnt able to. So when he got the chance to do it, he did. This is his original vision of it, not a revised vision he had later. It's what he would have done in the beginning if he had the chance.

that would make sense if either project was a solo work. But we're not talking a painter here.

The original Star Wars films were excellent largely due to the fact that George Lucas' ability to make a story and produce a film ARE NOT equalled by his abilities in Directing or Script Writing. He recognised that his skills did not lie in those areas, and wisely handed the responsibilities over to better trained and more talented individuals. Film is a group process. There's too much a trend now to credit a film's excellence (or its 'awfulness') to its Director or its script-writer alone, which is both misleading to the actual process of film, and harshly dismissive of the creative team (including production designers, editors, actors, etc). When a director begins to think that HE was the ONLY reason the original films rocked, the new films cease to become a coming together of talented and widely experienced individuals, and becomes one 'master-director' overestimating his own abilities and ignoring the 'small parts', to the detriment of the end product (the new star wars trilogy). George DIDN'T write the scripts for Empire Strikes back or ROTJ, because he KNEW others could do a BETTER job than him but still retain the spirit of his concept (the same with the Indiana Jones films). Obviously the director/and/or/producer determines the final product, but he/she should never assume to be the expert at everything, or the 'master' creator.

..But I'm not saying this is whats happening in the TKJ recolour (though I'll admit the new colours are not at all to my taste). Bolland could never have done these particular colours in 1988 anyway (the printing process wasn't as it is today, and the obvious that its digitally coloured). What he means is, "If I made TKJ today, I'd color it this way.", which is silly since Bolland today is not the same artist as he was in 1988 (in terms of taste, style, skill, and other artistic choices). Coloring is a pretty superficial element to the comic overall. You might as well have Alan Moore write an entirely new script (he's pretty critical of it today anyway) and Brian Bolland re-illustrate from scratch (Like a TKJ version 2... Like how Evil Dead 2 is actually a remake of Evil Dead, but with more money and more skill). The notion of this comic's 'director's cut' is that TKJ was PERFECT except for the colours, which I doubt either Moore or Bolland with agree with. This kind of superficial edit is the equivalent of "Blade Runner: Set-Designer's Extended Edition"