Tim Sale was one of the greatest artists to ever publish comic books. A key reason behind the popularity of Sale in the early 1990s was him working for both Marvel and DC Comics. Regardless, many aren’t aware of the fact that Sale was colorblind.
Despite having a minor disability, Sale never let it have an effect on his work. The late legend worked on an impressive array of comics featuring some iconic characters, such as Superman, Batman, Captain America, and The Hulk.
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Tim Sale Believed Color Was Irrelevant to the Quality of Comic Books
Comic Books have been around for decades, and a vital factor in the popularity of a certain comic is the quality of art. Evidently, many simply love a comic book due to its color scheme. But Tim Sale was never a fan of this theory.
In fact, in a 2008 interview with The Comics Journal, Sale went as far as saying that the color scheme of a comic book seemed irrelevant to him.
It just seems irrelevant. Maybe it was easier to seem irrelevant to me because of my color blindness. I don’t know. That may be just too hard for me to say objectively. I know that I feel it strongly that the point of comics is not the color.
As Tim Sale pointed out, since he was colorblind, he could never relate to the general mass that felt more connected with a comic that had a great color scheme. He also pointed out in the interview that many comic book artists are actually colorblind.
Considering comic books are one of the biggest sources of color-based entertainment, it is certainly a surprising fact. However, at the end of the day, colors in comic books play a crucial role.
For example, darker colors are usually used to symbolize evil. On the other hand, brighter colors are used to depict superheroes in most comic books.
Either way, if the artist behind a comic is ultimately talented, it will work regardless of the fact it has colors or is published simply in black and white panels.
Tim Sale Had No Clue What Four Colors For a Dime Meant
The term four colors for a dime is used to refer to the four basic colors in printed comic books. Considering the terms became popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, at the time, these colors were cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
However, legendary comic book artist Tim Sale had no clue about the terminology. Sale explained in the same interview with TCJ.
I do know what you mean when they talk about “four colors for a dime” and that sort of thing. It was not a concern of my friends either, my friends who were not colorblind. But I do know that as I got more into comics, I discovered at some point the Warren black-and-white comics.
Sale mentioned that he fell in love with Warren publishing comic books, particularly because of their black and white designs.
At the end of the day, both colored and black-and-white comic books have an audience today. After all, not every comic book fan in the world has the same taste.
