Conceived,
written, drawn, inked and colored entirely by BWS, Weapon X represented
a quantum step forward in the development of the artist’s graphic
storytelling craft. The innovative and distinctive pacing and carefully
considered placement of word balloons and captions introduced a rhythmic,
naturalistic style of writing which had not been seen in comics before,
and which has been widely imitated since.
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Above:
The original BWS color guide for a sequence
of three
panels featuring The Professor from chapter 11
of Weapon X.
These panels offer an
excellent example of the complexity
of Windsor-Smith's
comics coloring process. Subtle shades
and shapes of color are
indicated by a combination of painted watercolors, alphanumeric notations
of specific color
blends, and black line delineations of the
boundaries
of colored areas. The black lines between
adjacent color zones
served to aid the workers doing the hand color separation step of
the pre computer age printing,
and were not intended to appear on the final printed
work. Using techniques like this, BWS refined the coloring of comics
to a new level of sophistication within the limitations of the technologically
antiquated process available at the time.
(Click the art above to see
the final printed version)
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