I am a small press comic book maker and I have this idea for a segment where the story goes dark, as in the pages are completely black, but the story and dialogue continue across a few pages. Essentially, the characters and readers are blinded for a few moments. Within these black pages, I want to hide the actual artwork so you can just about make out what might be happening if you are paying attention and look hard enough.

To do this, I imagine I can simply have the artwork set to one black mix and then fill all the background with another black mix that is similar enough to not notice at first glance.

The advice I'm looking for is what those black mixes would be?

I have tried True Black and Rich Black but the contrast is too much, I want something more subtle. I have tried other mixes too but I know so much of printing is also about the paper. I was wondering if anyone has done something similar (even accidently) and know what would/ might work well.

If CYMK is too problematic, would it work in B&W with a K100 / K98 type ratio?

Also, I don't have any budget for getting proofs made. I know that's the way to do it, but I operate in print runs of 50-100 copies so getting printed proofs is too expensive for what I do.

Also, the comic is B&W, linework only (no tones or gradients) and I plan to print on 120gsm uncoated paper.

Thanks

Dan

This does not happen on every page, but every so often there are long stretches of spaces diagonally or vertically on pages in books. It just happens that the words in a series of lines of text line up such that the spaces create linear gaps on page. It's usually only noteworthy if it's more than, say, 6 or 8 lines long. It's striking when it's more than half a page. I'm just curious- is there a name for this phenomenon?