David Hornung

A bit of a mixed bag. The first story, The Tarantula, is really excellent - Guy Davis's style is kind of unusual compared to other comics I've read (it reminds me more of the cartoons you'd see in The New Yorker or something), but it fits the story really well. Matt Wagner's switching between the perspective of Dian, The Sandman, and Dodds (who really feel like two different characters despite being the same person) works really well.

The later stories are a bit of a mixed bag. The Face has a great concept for a villain, but sticks him in a plot about Chinatown gang wars that's not very interesting and often feels like it's walking the line between a period piece and another yellow peril story. The Brute just turns up the dials on all the worst parts of The Face, and that's all I'll say about it. An interesting start based on the strength of the first story alone, but there's a lot of room for improvement.… (altro)

I think it is quite amazing how dated this book has become because of the growth of computers and screens in graphic arts. However, it really is a very thorough introduction to the basic principles of colour ...especially for designers. Maybe less so for artists. It has a great set of samples of the various colour relationships with varying hue, value, saturation. (Or in other words (my words): colour, grey tone, brightness).
He explores the psychological impact of juxtaposed colours and optical illusions, harmony and even has a section on colour on the computer.
However, one of the things I noticed was the current availability of Apps which can analyse a photo in terms of colours and produce instant palettes that complement these basic colours etc. And these are not mentioned in this book which was published in 2005. However, a good hint is given on p143 about printing your own colour chart to get an idea of how your colours are likely to look when printed.
Quite an impressive work overall. I give it 4 stars.… (altro)