Shades of Death and Daisho books.

[JoeK]

In the long past, I had the colour comics of these tales. Whilst I thought Tom's colouring was pretty much perfect for the thing, I do prefer Usagi as a black and white strip.

Just out of interest Stan, did you really lose the colour negatives? Or did you just decide that for continuity's sake, you'd make them b&w?

[Stan Sakai]

Just out of interest Stan, did you really lose the colour negatives? Or did you just decide that for continuity's sake, you'd make them b&w?

When Mirage ceased publication, they transferred the ownership of the negatives to me. The printer assured us that they could keep it inhouse, no trouble at all, they do it all the time. Since we're talking about a stack of negatives about three feet high, weighing several hundred pounds, I took them up on their offer.

In fact, one of the selling point in going over to Dark Horse was that they could reprint the stories in color with very little investment on their part, the most expensive steps in the color printing process having already been done.

However, when it came time to reprinting those stories, the negs were nowhere to be found. Actually, I think it worked out for the best, as I really prefer the stories in black and white.

[miyamoto musashi]

i also prefer black and white, it allows the imagination to color things in.

[JoeK]

Just out of interest Stan, did you really lose the colour negatives? Or did you just decide that for continuity's sake, you'd make them b&w?

When Mirage ceased publication, they transferred the ownership of the negatives to me. The printer assured us that they could keep it inhouse, no trouble at all, they do it all the time. Since we're talking about a stack of negatives about three feet high, weighing several hundred pounds, I took them up on their offer.

In fact, one of the selling point in going over to Dark Horse was that they could reprint the stories in color with very little investment on their part, the most expensive steps in the color printing process having already been done.

However, when it came time to reprinting those stories, the negs were nowhere to be found. Actually, I think it worked out for the best, as I really prefer the stories in black and white.

Wow, I'm amazed it's so much (I'm presuming the colour process on the Mirage books must be something similar to cartooning, in that you add colour one at a time?)!

Did you have to rework much detail back into the strips, to make them 'work again' (for want of a phrase...) in black and white?

[Stan Sakai]

Wow, I'm amazed it's so much (I'm presuming the colour process on the Mirage books must be something similar to cartooning, in that you add colour one at a time?)!

Did you have to rework much detail back into the strips, to make them 'work again' (for want of a phrase...) in black and white?

Each page required four sheets of film--one for each color (yellow, cyan, magenta, and black)--and film tends to be a lot heavier than paper.

Each page had to be retouched for black & white printing. I showed an example of a before and after page in Radio Comix' Art of UY comic.

[Indiana Usagi]

This is fascinating...I'v never been able to find out...who does the painted covers for the TPBs? Is that you, or Tom Luth in his computative wizardry?

[Stan Sakai]

This is fascinating...I'v never been able to find out...who does the painted covers for the TPBs? Is that you, or Tom Luth in his computative wizardry?

I did all the painted covers for the trades, with the exception of UY Book 2 which Tom colored.

Most of my paintings were done with Artist Colors, but a few were done with acrylics or oil paints. For a brief look at how my coloring is done, pick up the current issue of Anime Play magazine. It contains a DVD with a short interview with me and a segment of me drawing and coloring.

[Indiana Usagi]

Very nice! This is fun stuff...