Comicon’s Best Colorists Of 2024
by Erik Amaya
Welcome to Comicon.com’s Best of the Year Awards, gathering the best comics and comics talent of the strange year that was 2021. This year we will be awarding in the following categories: Best Comic Series, Best Original Graphic Novels and Collected Editions, Best Single Comic Issues, Best Writers, Best Artists, Best Cover Artists, Best Colorists, Best Letterers, Best Digital/Webcomics, and Most Progressive Comics..
Contributors to Comicon’s Best of the Year Awards this year include: Rachel Bellwoar, Richard Bruton, Scott Redmond, Tito James, Tom Smithyman, and Tony Thornley.
The following are Comicon’s Best Colorists of 2024.
5. Jean-Francrois Beauleu
Few colorists breathe life into the comic page as much as Jean-Francois Beaulieu. His work on Ain’t No Grave is like the visual equivalent to a western movie soundtrack. Each scene comes alive with atmosphere so that the reader can feel the searing heat or foreboding dread of the surreal desert. Beaulieu’s work on I Hate Fairyland captures the candy-colored craziness of Gert’s world while never becoming overpowering. Beaulieu’s vibrant colors add character, clarity, and appeal to every comic he touches.
— Tito James
4. Arif Prianto
Poison Ivy has been a series running since 2022, successful beyond any wildest dreams. A team of four creators, with some others jumping in here or there, have been behind that successful run. One of those is Prianto, who has brought the coloring magic time and time again. Meeting the eco-horror vibe of the line are beat for beat, bringing the dark shadows and natural toned-down rough colors to match. That is the case for whatever artist happens to be handling the issue, shifting the coloring work to match what they bring to the page. Yet, keeping the distinct unique quality natural to his own work. Making sure it all feels authentic as ‘real’ spaces peppered with the vibrancy needed for these fantastical worlds.
— Scott Redmond
3. Marte Gracia
Gracia exploded as a color artist in 2019’s House of X/Powers of X, and continued to prove himself as one of the best in the business ever since. He made this year’s massive Marvel event, Blood Hunt, feel like the horror epic that it deserved to be. Even better though, he’s grown as an artist, adapting his style to enhance any artist’s style, acting as a clear sign of quality any time his name appears in the credits.
— Tony Thornely
2. Lee Loughridge
Smooth and dynamic. Rough yet fluid, breaching watercolor like quality. While it might shift depending on the type of artist on the page, the coloring of Loughridge always dazzles. Reading Star Trek each month means getting to see this coloring at work time and time again. Loughridge is part of the glue that holds that series together and brings these color qualities to numerous other books out there. Really helping elevate the emotional values of the issue, shifting colors to give spaces their own specific flavors of lighting (or filters). Knowing when more standard palette styles are called for over the wilder or far more vibrant/darker palettes.
— Scott Redmond
1. Tamra Bonvillain
How does a publisher make one of the best line artists in comics better? Pair him with a color artist that understands him inside and out. Not only is Bonvillain able to step into any issue ably, she’s able to complement her line artists perfectly, especially Dan Mora. She’s one of the best color artists in the industry to storytelling with color — using color theory to set mood, give characters depth and create a world.
— Tony Thornley
