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Supergraphic: Good vs Evil


BrandMooreArt

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thought this was a cool graphic that shows how Marvel uses color to express personality/mood/character traits in their comic heroes. they use primary colors for the good guys to express their good nature and secondarys (especially bright greens) for bad guys and their "evil nature and polluted intentions"

link: http://www.wired.com...-book-universe/

ff_supergraphics_goodevil_2f.jpg

ff_supergraphics_goodevil_f.jpg

 

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BEHANCE  /  MEDIUM  /  DRIBBBLE

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Ridiculously obvious omission - Batman, anyone?

I'm guessing this graphic is purposely restricting itself to Red, Blue & Yellow for heroes? Otherwise this list is junk without Batman. Same for Hulk and the Green Lantern as lancealot pointed out.

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Ridiculously obvious omission - Batman, anyone?

I'm guessing this graphic is purposely restricting itself to Red, Blue & Yellow for heroes? Otherwise this list is junk without Batman. Same for Hulk and the Green Lantern as lancealot pointed out.

yea, it just shows a wide use of the same palette, but Batman also at one time wore blue and yellow. the modern black version has specific color connotations of night, vigilante, and mystery. just a bit of a personality change in character, but the color meanings are just as strong

 

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BEHANCE  /  MEDIUM  /  DRIBBBLE

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

Not at all. Color is a powerful communicater but is also subjective, chaning meaning and connotation with application and culture. Black can either represent authority (police officer) or rebellion ( rock/metal bands). And where red represents love, passion, fire in north america it is a color of mourning in other countries ( i want to say China but not sure) its all about context

 

GRAPHIC ARTIST

BEHANCE  /  MEDIUM  /  DRIBBBLE

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

Not at all. Color is a powerful communicater but is also subjective, chaning meaning and connotation with application and culture. Black can either represent authority (police officer) or rebellion ( rock/metal bands). And where red represents love, passion, fire in north america it is a color of mourning in other countries ( i want to say China but not sure) its all about context

You are just a little backwards; white is the color of mourning in China, red is good luck. Therefore red as a color of mourning is a big insult in China. Similarly white as a wedding color would be seen as an odd statement about your relationship.

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

More directly, isn't their point about "color meaning" undermined when they purposely omit evidence that contradicts it?

Big Barda, but not Mister Miracle? I wonder why?

mrmiracle_barda.jpg

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

Not at all. Color is a powerful communicater but is also subjective, chaning meaning and connotation with application and culture. Black can either represent authority (police officer) or rebellion ( rock/metal bands). And where red represents love, passion, fire in north america it is a color of mourning in other countries ( i want to say China but not sure) its all about context

But you're talking about cultures across the world from each other. These are the products of two companies both coming from American culture. The meaning of color is pretty darn consistent within a culture. Yes, they wear white for mourning in China, but dark mourning colors are extremely uniform in Western culture and have been for hundreds of years (Shakespeare: "Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off"). You could say that black represents opposing forces rebellion and authority, or you could say that dark colors represent strength and both are wearing them for the same reason... similar to how (seemingly) every sports team that changed went through a "darker, faster, stronger" color change in the late 90's/2000's.

So yes, color can have different meaning in different cultures, but it is pretty consistent within a culture and within a specific application... if there is a specific meaning. These are all comic book characters from the same culture created in a relatively short period of time. So yeah, I think they've cherry-picked examples when you leave out heroes like Hulk, the Lanterns, and the Phantom, but include heroes like Big Barda and only include primary colors for Wolverine when he has spent just as much time in black or brown with his yellow.

I think at least as much of a factor for this color trend is that once you have heroes who end up in the primary colors for various reasons, you want villains who contrast with the heroes when drawn next to them on the page.

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That was brought up in the podcast i was listening to but i think the point here is to focus on these color palettes, not show every hero together. They're trying to make a point about color meaning, not pull a some sort of narrative trick

I dunno... still seems cherry-picked to me. Isn't "color meaning" only a "meaning" if it always or almost always means the same thing?

Not at all. Color is a powerful communicater but is also subjective, chaning meaning and connotation with application and culture. Black can either represent authority (police officer) or rebellion ( rock/metal bands). And where red represents love, passion, fire in north america it is a color of mourning in other countries ( i want to say China but not sure) its all about context

But you're talking about cultures across the world from each other. These are the products of two companies both coming from American culture. The meaning of color is pretty darn consistent within a culture. Yes, they wear white for mourning in China, but dark mourning colors are extremely uniform in Western culture and have been for hundreds of years (Shakespeare: "Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off"). You could say that black represents opposing forces rebellion and authority, or you could say that dark colors represent strength and both are wearing them for the same reason... similar to how (seemingly) every sports team that changed went through a "darker, faster, stronger" color change in the late 90's/2000's.

So yes, color can have different meaning in different cultures, but it is pretty consistent within a culture and within a specific application... if there is a specific meaning. These are all comic book characters from the same culture created in a relatively short period of time. So yeah, I think they've cherry-picked examples when you leave out heroes like Hulk, the Lanterns, and the Phantom, but include heroes like Big Barda and only include primary colors for Wolverine when he has spent just as much time in black or brown with his yellow.

I think at least as much of a factor for this color trend is that once you have heroes who end up in the primary colors for various reasons, you want villains who contrast with the heroes when drawn next to them on the page.

yea "strength" is a good connotation for black that would tie those two sides together, but i dont think the other opposing things it can represent are wrong. i think there are a few reasons why sports teams changed to dark colors, which could be another lengthy but good discussion.

focusing on this context/culture of these superheroes, i still dont see why becuse there are some left out or a few exceptions that it devalues the design decisions made for a large number of characters. its still art, not an exact science. i suppose it would be strange to have the GREEN Lantern in any other color, and green seems appropriate for a monster (Frankenstien-ish) like the Hulk. in those 2 examples i think its best to be a bit literal with their physical appearance rather than communicating a personality trait through color.

i totally agree, choosing colors that contrast with your heroes is key for the villain. but you have to start somewhere, there is a reason why the colors were chosen in the first place. primaries are used in childrens toys so often because of similar "friendly" meanings and connotations. but that also works out to support these original choices in the graphic, because if primaries = "good", then of course whats left over, the secondaries, is "evil".

 

GRAPHIC ARTIST

BEHANCE  /  MEDIUM  /  DRIBBBLE

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Bane

2479370-8_bane_zps4764a211.jpeg

The Manadarin

20100219003747Mandarin_zps0305f6c2.jpg

Carnage

Carnage-marvel-comics-14652076-1944-2408_zps9c53ca66.jpg

Magneto

Magneto_Erik_Lensherr_zpsd11d75de.jpg

Mr. Freeze

wpid-mr-freeze-artwork-121_zps22ceb23c.jpg

Captain Cold

character_bio_576_captaincold1_zpsff02a08d.jpg

Of these villains most are rocking primary colours, and the one who isn't is still staying clear of the purple/green/orange scheme. The graphic is lacking because it cherry-picks evidence to support its conclusion rather then arriving at its conclusion based on the evidence.

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Ice, i think i adressed that well in my previous post. but why do you regard the 18 they chose as untrue, just because there are a few exceptions? the point is this is one way to do it, and one that worked a lot. at least 18 times. the deeper topic here is WHY you choose color. for Freeze and Capt Cold, its obvious, blue represents the character's traits the best. also see Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat. Carnage? red/black is a common combination to represent evil (Sith Lords from Star Wars being one) and im not up to date on my Spirderman comics but isnt he an evolution of Venom? related: back in the WCW days the NWO Wolfpack did the same color trick

 

GRAPHIC ARTIST

BEHANCE  /  MEDIUM  /  DRIBBBLE

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Ice, i think i adressed that well in my previous post. but why do you regard the 18 they chose as untrue, just because there are a few exceptions?

Untrue? Well those villains obviously wear those colours, so I don't regard them as "untrue." I'm just saying that those 18 villains don't a trend. Just like those 18 heroes don't represent a trend.Batman, the Green Lantern, the Hulk, Thor, Aquaman, they all buck the "hero" trend the graphic is trying to say exists.

You bring up very good points about why the villains I posted wear what they do, but it's irrelevant when it comes to the discussion of the chart you provided. Whatever the reasons are for Mr. Freeze to wear blue he still wears blue. Which is enough to cast the chart's premise into doubt.

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bad writing on my part, but i dont think they were saying this was a trend (although 18 in both cases, and how color in heroes/villains have changed over time is enough for me to consider it so) in comics, but using it as an example of the communication of color, and giving a short explanation of why those colors work for those characters. every artist makes decisions when choosing elements and principles to work with, the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions, or the difference between a circle and spiral can express different ideas and moods. color is one of the most powerful/expressive elements used in art, and i see this showing a glimpse of why those decisions were, or could have been, made.

 

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