The Private Eye: Colour & World Building

Issue one of any comic usually involves some form of world-building. This is the process by which the author establishes their in comic universe and draws the reader's interest. World building can be made all the more effective by a strategic application of colour. Issue one of The Private Eye is a great example of colouring used to enhance world-building.

Here we have a zoomed out shot of the city in which The Private Eye takes place in. The colour scheme is first of all, absolutely gorgeous, the city is really made to look distinct in its variety of colours. No building is made to look the same as another since the colour breaks up any sort of monotony that would form from a generic grey overtone. The colour helps provide the picture with details: the green rooftops, the tall buildings against the purple skyline, and even the individual windows are all brought to life with this colouring.

Here is a second image depicting a close up of The Private Eye's city life. The end of a chase scene between the main protagonist and the local authorities leads to the former hiding out among a crowd of colourful individuals. This plot hook is actually another strategic way this comic uses colour to world build, first by surprising the reading with a large and colourful image and second by inviting the reader to take their time to scan the image to see if they can find our scoundrel of a hero in an almost where's Waldo esque hunt.

While the strange outfits contributes to the reader's intrigue and interest in this image and by extension world it is the colour that really gives both this image and the prior its life. This only serves to illustrate the importance of colour. To illustrate my point I have transformed the previous images into black and white renditions. While the images are still certainly lovely they don't pop quite as much as opposed to when they are coloured.

Hopefully I've established the importance of colour in world building. There are many more examples in this issue, but I've been instructed to keep these blog posts short.

Until next time Everyone!

-Blake