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If you've been reading new Marvel Comics series recently, you may have noticed a small but mighty change in how creative teams are credited. Traditionally, those who color comics have been referred to and credited as the "colorist." But Marvel Comics executive editor Tom Brevoort has made it a point to shake that up. 

On Facebook, Brevoort was asked, "Does anyone here know why Marvel now credits people as being the color artist rather than colorist? I flipped through some other recent trades and it seems it's just them." Here is an example of what the original poster, Thomas Bigford, was referring to (as seen in 2024's Uncanny X-Men #1):

Brevoort answered Bigford's question. "This started with me. A whole bunch of years ago, it wasn't atypical to credit the penciler as ARTIST and the inker as INKER. A few inkers rightly complained that this underrepresented what they were bringing to the table, which was a very good point, and so ever since that time, I've made it a point to credit as PENCILER/INKER. The only time somebody gets a credit as ARTIST in one of my titles is if they do both jobs. As Gregory Wright said, these days the color artist does a lot more and is responsible for a lot more of the look of the finished pages than was the case in years past. And so, it quickly became apparent that crediting a line artist as ARTIST and the color artist as COLORIST was similarly dismissive to their efforts. So I started listing them as COLOR ARTIST whenever the line artist credit was ARTIST."

Brevoort continued, "On occasions where the job is still divided up between a separate PENCILER and INKER the color artist is credited as COLORIST. And I've been consistent enough and vocal enough about this, both to my junior editors and to the staff at large, that we've become relatively consistent at doing it throughout the line. Somebody will still mess this up from time to time, but by and large this is how [our] credits tend to break down in the modern era."

So there you have it, folks. The next time you pick up new Marvel Comics books from our local comic shop, take a gander at the credits page to see if there is a "colorist" or a "color artist" listed. 

Get ready for what's next with our list to upcoming comics and how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to all the free comics you can get with this year's Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Day.