Black or Blue

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

JACOB WALLROTH, 16 FEBRUARY 2000:

> What colour has Donalds sailor-suit got? Black or blue? 
> In some comics it`s black, in some it`s blue! Which is right???

The general rule seems to be that his suit is black in the comic book
stories, while it's blue on the covers. 

I don't know the reason for the suit being black in the comics. Maybe 
because Al Talliaferro set the standard? His newspaper strips where 
generally black and white, though a comic generally contains colours. 
So, even though the comic could use a blue suit, maybe it was still kept
black to give more contrast to the panels, especially in the days in 
which comics had a limited use of colours? 

On the comic book covers, his suit seems to be blue because on the comic
book stands it attracts more attention than black. Somewhere in the Carl
Barks Library in Color albums there's an article explaining that on the 
1940s comics Donald had a variety of head-gears in different colours and 
shapes to attract attention, so I guess the same reason could count for 
the general use of a blue colour for his suit.


Greetings,

--- Daniel
http://www.acciom.se/barks/index.html