Batman #54 Colouring Controversy

[Lvenger]

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/08...ing-batman-54/

Hey gang…sad to say, I’ve got some distasteful news to share. As previously announced here, I recently signed on to provide the art for an upcoming issue of the monthly BATMAN title for DC Comics (#54) from a script by Eisner Award-winning writer, Tom King.

Brennan Wagner was, of course, enlisted to color as well. I finished work on the issue several weeks ago and Brennan was nearing completion on his end of things, producing his typically beautiful, thoughtful and evocative color renderings over top of my B&W art.

But just yesterday I received word from Batman group editor Jamie S. Rich that the DC “powers that be” found Brennan’s coloring to be too different from their regular fare (because, y’know…different is bad) and so have decided to pull him off the book and have the entire issue re-colored by one of their in-house colorists—at this point, I don’t even know who that will be.

Even though Jamie went to bat for us, claiming that both he and Tom King loved the way things looked…he was over-ruled from the higher-ups.

Tom’s script is a heartfelt look at a father-and-son relationship and, rather than capitalize on the fact that they had a celebrated father-and-son art team on board for this issue…DC instead elected to fire the artist’s colorist/son for producing distinctive work.

Needless to say, I thought Brennan was doing a fantastic job and think this is a terribly shoddy way to treat not only him—this would’ve been his first full-length job for them—but also me, one of their longtime and supposedly respected creators. Regrettably, I’m now sorry I ever agreed to this gig in the first place…because this is just (redacted for swearing)

Thoughts on this? It certainly doesn't look good for DC that they're willing to antagonise a popular and talented artist over a trivial matter like colouring.

[Restingvoice]

My first thought was they're gonna recolor Robin's legs to give him pants since the cover shows him wearing the classic pantsless costume

I don't have a second thought just yet. There's not enough information except that it's a dick move

[KurtW95]

Weird that this is the type of thing editors would focus on when Janin blatantly traced for a panel in Batman #42 and the colorist for Superman #2 colored Barry’s hair red, making him the spitting image of Pre-Flashpoint Wally.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

Probably didn't match that pale look they seem to be going for.

[JasonTodd428]

Regardless it was a dick move. A better one might have been to ask the colorist if they were willing to recolor it themselves before kicking them to the curb and getting someone else. That's not the best of moves either mind you but its still better than what they apparently did here.

[MajorHoy]

Thoughts on this? It certainly doesn't look good for DC that they're willing to antagonise a popular and talented artist over a trivial matter like colouring.

Well, DC does own the property, and it is their right to do asinine things like this.
The fact that DC sounds like they made the change after Brennan Wagner had already begun his part of the work is what really is troubling. Sounds like somebody higher up (and normally not involved in these decisions) stepped in and made a last-minute change after agreements had already gone through on a lower level, which is a bad omen sounding like the past ridiculous micro-management decisions that previously alienated many other talented former writers and artists. (Or did Tom King maybe have another hissy-fit?)

[millernumber1]

This just seems like a completely unnecessary bad PR move on DC's part. Did they get pushback on the cover coloring from fans? Cause at this point, since Wagner has said that he's finished the coloring job, the only thing I can see that would make this LESS bad (not make it good) would be say "we screwed up, we'll publish the work as is."

Maybe because I just don't like Tomeu Morey's coloring very much (they always make Tony Daniel's stuff feel way too plastic and shiny, and I realized that they did the coloring on Alvaro Martinez's work for Lonely Place of Living, and I can really tell the difference - in a negative way - from the normal colorist for the Martinez art team, Brad Anderson), but I can't see how it would be bad to go with the stuff that's already done, unless it just looks completely bad.

[Confuzzled]

Yeah, weird move on DC's part. If people are willing to stay on despite the Bat-Wedding trolling, doubt anyone would be put off by "coloring inconsistencies".

[MajorHoy]

Or maybe it's a problem with DC making paper stock changes and how that affected the color job?