Along the right side of this page you'll see a number of color tables all representing a range of colors along a CMYK based color model used by Marvel Comics according to their latest "The New Official Marvel Try-Out Book". Pronounced as separate letters, CMYK is the standard color model used in offset-printing for 4-color output. It stands for "Cyan Magenta Yellow Black". For more on CMYK, go here (http://www.vom.com/svcg/andy5.htm).

In regards to how documents are considered when color is going to be used, different companies have different practices. Marvel defines their different coloring styles in these categories:

• Bronze: Printed on low-quality newsprint with flat colors
• Silver: Printed on higher-grade newsprint with gradations and assorted special effects
• Gold: Printed on high-end newsprint or glossy paper, having numerous gradations, textures, millions of colors, and special effects.

This process of coloring can involve any number of people, from the person laying out the color guides that determine the schemes, colors, and moods in a page, to the person that handles the way it all comes together technically (the color separator). The separator is nearer to the actual process a book goes through when sent off to be printed. These days, due to the ease and growing popularity of coloring on the computer, the color separating may be done by the same individual or group that does the printing for the project.

Depending the practices of the company producing the comic, different methods for comic coloring can be used. Traditionally, adding color to a comic has involved an arcane complicated process of cutting out tints that were the shapes of the color spaces to be added into a given page and placing them on pieces of film. These days, however, most coloring would fall under Marvel's "Gold" style, as it is done on the computer using sophisticated programs like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

There are many other resources around in your local library or book store that detail traditional and current printing processes and it couldn't hurt to read up on them if comic coloring is something you really want to do.

• The New Official Marvel Try-out Book
• How to Self-Publish your Own Comic Books - Tony C. Caputo
• How to Draw and Sell Comic Strips - Alan McKenzie
• The Art of Making Comic Books (hardcover/paperback) - Michael Pellowski and Howard Bender
• The Business of Comics - Lurene Haines

CMYK Color Chart

Download the palette described in Marvel's Try-out Book in Adobe Photoshop format.

PC / MAC

What's this file I just downloaded?
Read here about file compression formats.