As a child of the 1980's being born in 1977 and living in the UK most of the comics from my youth were mainly in black and white with only a few pages per issue in colour.
It was not till the mid 1980's that I got hold of my first full colour Marvel comic but to be honest it wasn't a massive improvement to my comic book reading experience.
Don't get me wrong I don't hate all colour comic books I have read and collected thousands over the years but the ones I return to over and over again all seam to be mainly black and white?
The first comics I can remember is a big mixed stack of Warlord,Victor,Battle,Eagle and the odd Marvel UK complete Fantastic Four and Rampage.
I am not sure what it is about the artwork in these old comics but it seems to be more detailed somehow then the colour Marvel and DC's of the time. some stories are made darker by the fact it is done as a black and white strip.
Check out the images bellow.
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This is a panel from Charley's War it portrays Charley's platoon in the middle of the battle of the Somme you get a real sense of how terrifying it would have been how chaotic but you still get a great amount of detail in the images.
The picture above is of another panel from the same story it shows Charley and an unnamed officer talking over the freshly dug grave of Charley's best friend it is a grim image with the rain pouring down and the solemn faces it strikes a very grim tone.
Some of the later reprints where done in colour but to me they lack the impact that the original black and white ones have.
If you look at the above image the panels are still great but for some reason it loses its girt and drama when they are in colour.
I know that British comics were mainly printed in black and white to cut down on cost but for me it made them far more interesting then other comics printed mainly in colour.
Don't get me wrong there are some comics that were printed in black and white that were terrible.
These were mainly the British re-prints of Marvel comics for some reason they just did not transfer well to being printed in black and white The Invaders is a good case but sadly I can not find any images of these re-prints on the web and my copies are long gone but trust me they were a mess.
Sadly one by one British comics folded and the ones that lasted became more and more colour printed and the black and white comic all but died of in the mid 1990's apart from the Commando
These comics started in the mid 1960's and contain one full war story within it 64 pages always printed in black and white.
The commando comes in a smaller format then the standard comic book size and usually has only two panels per page. These comics mainly contain war stories from the first or second world war.
The art in some of them is very good full of detail for the small size they come in.
Up until a few years ago there were not many very good back and white comics about until the release of the now legend Walking Dead.
This comic brings back so many memories of my early 80's British comics. The Art is great if not a bit gory the story got me gripped straight the way and think this was down to the fact that the black and white art complimented the story line really well and it reminds me of many of the great stories from the Eagle and 2000AD of the early 1980's.
I would love to see more comic books try and do stories in black and white for a change and try and let the story line and detailed art work sell the comic rather then some glossy ad filled comic that we find in the shops today.
