Question for a comic expert...

[enyawd72]

Does anybody here know what happened around 1985-86 when the coloring drastically changed in all of Marvel's comics? It's like they started using a different paper or ink or something?

The colors suddenly got much brighter, but the color palette was more limited and it somehow didn't look as good as before.

[madmarva]

Just a guess, but around that time companies began to upgrade paper stock. That doesn't jibe with a reduced color palette, though.

[johnnystorm]

They changed to a different paper , as did DC (mando, was that right?). It allowed new color tints, without the old dot pattern blending, but yeah, they then went overboard using the new colors. In particular the garish purple and yellows. It's when they started experimenting with comic shop only books and the first waves of independent titles like Sable & American Flagg. It also seemed to coincide with the explosion of X- titles and the downgrade in art quality.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I think that may have been during the short flirtation with the Flexographic printing process. DC and Marvel went to it and it looked AWFUL. DC used it on their two big 50th anniversary comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Who's Who, and it really marred the early issues. They quickly abandoned it on those titles, and soon gave up on it all together.

Chris

[cockyhoskins]

In 1984, Worldcolor was bought by a major investment firm, who infused considerable capital into the company. I'm guessing this coincides with the new technology and experiments with new methods. At the time, Worldcolor printed virtually all comic books, to the point they got sued for anti-competitive practices.

[samurainoir]

yeah, Chris is right, I remember reading the editorials of the time pointing out the wonders of the new Flexographic system. It did produce garishly bright, eye-poppling colour at the expense of clarity and line-seperation of the art. I remember it was still on the newsprint stock.

according to this link, it was an innovation of Spartan(?) printing of illinois? I would guess this was prior to the industry wide move to full colour, higher quality paper that Neal Adams claims, was a result of his daughter's initial contracting of Quebecor in canada for their (Continuity studios) books? (which in turn led to most comics being printed in Canada).

http://www.westfieldcomics.com/blog/interviews-and-columns/too-much-cool-stuff-not-enough-august-‘09/

Many of the early bugs with the Flexograph had to do with the fact that they stopped printing with traditional metal plates and replaced them with a more flexible plastic printing plate, which tended to not hold its shape (or details) under the heat of high-speed presses

interesting article dated 1996...

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-10-10/business/9610100284_1_printing-plant-printing-presses-bindery-supervisor

although it doesn't look like they ever recovered from World Color Press closing in 1992

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/sparta-has-storied-history/article_67e64777-e456-5ef0-816b-729942f5d354.html

not that Quebecor hasn't had their own problems...

http://comicsbeat.com/quebecors-woes-continue/

[Earth 2 Chris]

^The worst examples were the Marvel digests. At least the early issues of the Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers digests had Flexographic printing, and with the tiny artwork, non-reworked lettering, and the god-awful color, they were nigh illegible.

Chris

[enyawd72]

Yep, the Flexographic printing is what I'm talking about. Marvel used it in all their STAR comics also...and yes, it looked terrible. I also remember the Continuity books...they looked great. I used to read Samuree and Toyboy...and one other one that I can't remember. Thanks guys.