Sep 11, 2018

Halo Jones in colour

Halo Jones: Alan Moore (writer), Ian Gibson (artist), Barbara Nosenzo (colorist).
Excerpt from an article published in 2000 AD site, here.

2018 sees a 2000 AD classic remastered and in colour for the very first time.

[...] Originally published in black and white, the re-releases will feature extensively remastered artwork and, for the very first time, will be published in colour. Italian newcomer Barbara Nosenzo is responsible for bringing colour to the world of Halo Jones. [...] 

Barbara Nosenzo: Halo is a perfect example of black & white balance, and I constantly felt the responsibility of adding colours where there was no need for them!
[...] While reading the books for the first time, I started imagining atmospheres and details, and tried to put those on paper. I used some covers as reference, and then I worked on my own palette to bring Halo's world to life. I focused on creating colors for atmosphere, and I decided with my editor (Matt Smith) to choose different background tones for each book, to help define the three different stages of Halo's life (the Hoop, the Clara Pandy and the War).

Book one has a green, dirty background color to give you a feeling of uselessness and deterioration, that perfectly matches life on Hoop. Book two has a pale yellow tone, because its Clara Pandy time, apparently an age of luxury surrounding Halo. And finally, red tones for book three because it's all about the war. To obtain these effects, I used background layers, with a wrinkled paper texture turned in three different colours, each one for the specific book I was working on.

I think that colour is like soundtrack in a movie: it should enhance the feelings and underline particular moments. That's how I tried to use my palette, often using weird colours to define feelings (blue for sadness, green or purple for fear.)

The complete article is available here.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Those colors look so perfect. I'm eagerly waiting a collected hardcover of all three books to come out.