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While I don't object to a fresh coloring, I do object to color artists that change the appearance of the art dramatically -- and usually for the worse. I don't think the old masters lend themselves well to a lot of rendering in the coloring. I'm okay with gradient fills and non-traditional colors - but when the colorists starts to add facial contours and all of that sort of rendering - its adding more art - not coloring. Just because a line isn't black doesn't mean its not a line. So when these guys go in and give Kirby characters blushed apple cheeks, thanks but no thanks. The old artists drew for flat colors - they knew what the finished product would look like - so when guys go in now and add nuance, its often redundant and gilding the lily.

Who says anyone likes modern coloring anyway? As far as I can tell, sales of comics have steadily fallen in lock step with "advances" in coloring techniques. I know, I know - TV, video games and the Internet all have diverted kids away from comics - but anyone who knows anything about statistics would look seriously at two things that go together so strongly. I think it entirely possible that the new coloring has chased off parents familiar with old comics who might have introduced their children to comics had they not been shocked by what they found inside a modern comic.

I'm not saying I have all the answers, but it seems curious that content and coloring have all gone a certain direction - and readers have gone the other. Maybe recoloring JIM #83 will get existing fans to buy a Masterwork, but the package its in could very well be chasing away many prospective readers.

Until Marvel and DC run focus groups on this issue, their editors will largely be making comics they like, instead of comics that will attract a broader audience. If you go and look at the shelf these day, the product seems more and more targeted to the 18-35 crowd - even books targeted at cartoon watching audiences (at leas Marvel's Adventures titles) don't seem a whole lot different that the regular offerings.