José Villarrubia perspective on comic book colouring

José Villarrubia, from his wikipedia entry

Mid 2000s, Paul Pope's Batman Year 100 popped into my life. And in turn, so did José Villarrubia work. José is a fantastic colourist and whenever I see a comic with his name attached I pay attention. José has the rare and under-appreciated ability to take a black and white drawing, apply a mixture of colours that enhance, compliment, and ultimately understand the emotion behind the piece.

Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope and coloured by José Villarrubia.
(Photo taken by my mobile phone on a overcast day). 

Adam Strange issue 5 (Wednesday Comics) by Paul Pope and coloured by José Villarrubia

Recently, due to the work-home orders affecting my home town, I have been diving back into my comic collection and watching the plethora of YouTube videos on comics. A video by Comic Tropes references José Villarrubia work and this in turn focused my attention on his Facebook page (From a colorist's perspective) where José posts the art of coloring and how modern reprints are destroying original comics artistic appeal and intention. (Images from José Villarrubia Facebook page - go visit!)

I've written on comic colouring before, (but I don't remember exactly when, given I last really wrote for this blog 10 years ago!), about how I detested the modern comic reprints of Red Sonja. I dislike the addition of new shading to create a 3d rendered drawing, the eye sore popping of too bright colours, and just...well it's hard to put the full feeling into words. Luckily I hunted down the original prints of Red Sonja by Frank Thorne.

Reprint on left, with digital shading added, day glow colours added.
On the right, original printing of Red Sonja #10, printed 1978
(photo taken by my mobile phone on a overcast day). 

José Villarrubia post many Conan images and points out the failings of modern colouring, the erasure of women artists work, and how to properly re-colour a comic book. Can I say it enough, check his Facebook page (sign-in first)!

I love this re-coloured image by José Villarrubia, showcasing his talent on how to properly colour an old issue for re-printing. Wicked!

On left is the original colouring. On the right is José Villarrubia's re-colouring.

And lastly I love this image of Batman on the bat-bike. Kick ass!

Batman Year 100, issue #3, by Paul Pope and coloured by José Villarrubia.
(Photo taken by my mobile phone on a overcast day).