X-FACTOR ANNUAL 9 (1994) COVER Hand-Colored Original Color Guide by Marvel Comics colorist MARIE JAVINS. Featuring Guido (StongGuy) vs Professor Power. This lot is for the COVER hand-colored color guides. PLEASE NOTE: even though the images say it is Annual 3, the cover was actually used later for X-Factor Annual 9. This particular hand-colored guide is bright, sharp, and the colors pop off the page. An excellent example of comic book colorist artwork as Marie Javins is a Marvel stalwart who has worked on most of Marvel’s major titles. This guide is on 8.5 x 11 pages and the art coloration area varies slightly depending on the page but is about 6.25 x 9.5 or so. There is a transparent acetate overlay which has the actual color codes on them (see the photos as the first photo is the color guide underneath, the second is with the acetate overlay which has all the coding on it) which means the hand coloring underneath is not cluttered with codes. That makes this piece very suitable for framing or display. X-Factor is one of the key Marvel mutant spin-off titles. What Are Color Guides? Prior to the digital era, color guides were used to inform the printer on how to accurately print the colors of the comic book. These are ONE OF A KIND pieces of the production process of each comic book. Although they vary in size, most color guides are normal note-book paper sized photocopies of the comic book’s original art, that were provided to the staff colorist, who would hand-color, water-color, or paint the color guides. The work was pain-staking and required a high level of attention to detail, as well as consistency! Often times a coding system of numbers and/or letters was used to indicate specific colors, shades, and information that was vital to ensuring the printer accurately printed the comic’s coloration. These are sometimes drawn right onto the color guides themselves, and in some instances the colorists would mark them up on an acetate or rice paper overlay. Color guides are a unique, one-of-a-kind collectible aspect of the production of a comic book, and as such they have historic value, because they provide insight into the studio and artist’s vision of how the comic book should appear in print. Often times the color guide colors are more vibrant and richer than the actual printed comic book, since colors often degraded when printed onto the cheap newsprint paper that comics were traditionally printed on. In addition, some of the nuances of shading and color gradation were sometimes more complex than the print house was able to recreate (or cared to take the time and effort to recreate) and so the color guides often have a truer sense of what the comic should look like, than the actual comic book itself. In today’s digital age, color guides are no longer used, and therefore, vintage color guides are garnering more interest from collectors who are looking for a unique piece of a particular comic book’s history and production process to own. The item “X-FACTOR ANNUAL 9 (1994) Original COVER Color Guide Art Marie Javins” is in sale since Thursday, November 12, 2020. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Comic Books & Memorabilia\Original Comic Art”. The seller is “rhino_comics” and is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Brazil, France, Australia, Russian federation, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Thailand, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, El salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Antigua and barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint kitts and nevis, Saint lucia, Montserrat, Turks and caicos islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Viet nam, Uruguay.
- Issue Number: 1
- Country of Manufacture: United States
- ITEM: OFFICIAL MARVEL COLORIST’S COLOR GUIDE ART PAGE
- Brand: MARVEL COMICS
- Grade: Ungraded
- Character: X-FACTOR
- Year of Production: 1994
- Publication Date: November 1997