Is posting "fan-colored" UY pages permitted?

[Jet_Jaguar]

Just for fun, I'm thinking of scanning a couple of UY pages (I haven't decided which ones yet, maybe a few from Grasscutter) and coloring them with Photoshop (well, actually GIMP since it's free, but I call it "Photoshop" because I hate the name GIMP!) to see if I can come anywhere near Tom Luth's work on the UY Color Specials (Not that I'm auditioning to become the new UY colorist or anthing like that!). I have a feeling that the answer is probably "no," but I think it would still be fun to try (Of course, it seems like there's not really much to coloring Usagi other than coloring his robe and his swords a couple of other things). If my attempts at "fan-coloring" a few UY pages aren't too hideous, I might consider posting them here. Would this be permitted, or would it violate any copyright laws? It seems like the kind of thing that would fall under the category of "fair use," but I don't really know much about these things, and I thought it would be best to stay on the safe side.

UPDATE: I looked a little more closely at previous postings, and I noticed that someone has actually submitted a couple of fan-colored pages , but I want to make sure that posting multiple colored pages from an UY issue wouldn't border on violating copyright. Funnily enough, I also considered trying to color the two page spread with all the monsters from issue #30 (#31?), but I couldn't think of a way to get a good scan of it. Also, mine probably wouldn't be as good as Becky-chan's.

http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1541

How many other people have attempted "fan-colorings" of UY or other B&W comics? After coloring a couple of UY pages, I might try coloring a few manga pages by Osamu Tezuka or someone else (other than occasional color pages by Masamune Shirow, Katsuhiro Otomo, and a few other people, there's very little manga in color).

As great as Stan's B&W artwork is, I'd love to see some more color specials. I have a pet theory that color comics stimulate somewhat different pleasure centers in the brain than B&W comics. I seem to frequently go back and forth between reading lots of color comic books and then reading several B&W issues of UY or some manga or something else after I get my "color fix."

Question for Stan if he's reading this: When you draw an issue that's going to be a color special, do you draw it somewhat differently than a regular B&W issue or do you draw it pretty much the same?

[Stan Sakai]

Question for Stan if he's reading this: When you draw an issue that's going to be a color special, do you draw it somewhat differently than a regular B&W issue or do you draw it pretty much the same?

I approach drawing a color issue much differently than a regular b/w story. There is less texturing that has to be done. That is why I had to go over all the color Mirage pages when they were reprinted in the b/w trades.

[Steve Hubbell]

How many other people have attempted "fan-colorings" of UY or other B&W comics?

Have you checked around on the deviant art web-site? I remember seeing a number of Usagi pages which were colored by various deviant artist there.

Here are a couple of them:
http://ashleyvp.deviantart.com/art/Usag ... s-65082237
http://colorzoo.deviantart.com/art/usag ... -1-5988064
http://rustox.deviantart.com/art/Samura ... bo-4140658

There is also a Usagi fan club over at Deviant Art which is worth checking out for some of the great fan art which they link together.

http://usagi-yojimbo-club.deviantart.com/

And since it has been a while since I broused the Deviant Art, I thought I'd post some of the newer Usagi artwork which has been displayed over there......

http://chrischua.deviantart.com/art/



http://speedball0o.deviantart.com/art/



http://merlkir.deviantart.com/art/

[Todd Shogun]

We've got fan-colored Usagi art all over this website. Here's one of my faves:



Also check the UY Downloads section for a bunch of fan-produced desktop themes, screen savers, wallpaper, etc....

http://usagiyojimbo.com/downloads.html

So yes, I'd say it's allowed.