Ninjak #1 Spotlight: Coloring

 

Ninjak #1 Cover B by Caspar Wijngaard

Before Ninjak #3 arrives, I thought I'd take a step back in time, and take another look at the series' debut.

In his Ninjak series, artist Javier Pulido employs a limited color scheme. In this opening scene from Ninjak #1, he's using variations on the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow.

Ordinarily, I think of signs alerting you to danger being red. The yellow in stoplights indicates slow down, or approach with caution.

"What's that?" you ask. "Yellow doesn't mean go faster?"

Javier Pulido uses reds to represent the yellow and brown colors of the woodwork in the public house. He also uses it for clothing and the pictures in the background.

Under this limited color scheme, the beer also ends up looking more flesh-colored. A suggestion that Brits love their beer?

As a non-drinking, teetotaling American, I think of British public houses as meeting places. Those who regularly frequent their local pub are thus making the statement that they wish to participate in the local community. As to whether most Brits would agree with this view, or whether it informs Javier Pulido's color choice, I cannot say.

Up to this point, blue has been reserved Neville's eyes, and two pieces of clothing. Now we get an expanse of blue: the sky outside as seen through the door. We also see more yellow: the overhead lights, and the hair of the brother and sister who enter the pub.

As will soon become clear, the two belong to an organization called Daylight. 

When the sister reads the MI-6 agents' minds, their faces--along with the memories and thoughts the reveal--become blue. The top half of their heads--where the brain resides, become green.

You get green, remember, by mixing the two primary colors of blue and yellow.

So why do the men's faces and their thoughts become blue? Could it be because the lady psiot perceives their inmost thoughts as easily as she can see the sky?

 

Yellow is used for Mr. Darbin's scream, to highlight a bullet that will kill someone, and for the wording on a sign we would ordinarily think of as colored red. Of course, yellow is also used for the psiot's eyes. 

Yellow = caution.

Yellow = light. 

Yellow = all shadows dispersed and all secrets revealed. 

I wonder. Why do you think Javier Pulido used yellow to color the whites of Ninjak's eyes?

Dragon Dave