The General Purpose Lettering Thread

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Comments

  • Something I've been turning over in my head is how to handle the dialog fonts for JAQrabbit Tales.  I have several finished stories, done by a few different artists, with more artists planned, and I've considered selecting a different font for each one, trying to match the style of the art, or to match the tone of the story.  Or instead picking a single font for the whole series, to unify them as a collective work.
  • edited September 2012
    Personally, I'd pick something clean and neutral and stick to it across all the artists -- I think there's a merit to unifying the look with something like that. I'm damned if I can find the article now, but I read a very perceptive piece about Sandman that observed that it was Todd Klein who gave visual consistency to a monthly ongoing book that had no regular artist.

    Edited to add: Off the top of my head, I'd recommend Blambot's SilverAge, which has served that exact purpose very nicely over the top of Zenescope's ever-changing roster of artists on Charmed.
  • That's how I've handled having multiple artists in the same book in the past. 

    I've had some friction with guys who want to do their own lettering, but usually they're okay to let me do it as long as they get to have their say about the balloon placements. 
  • I can see an artist being tetchy about that. Its a matter of trust (well, and demonstrated competence) all around.
  • edited September 2012
    I'd suggested to Rick Worley that he letter the story he illustrated, since he hand-letters his own strips, and I didn't want to cramp his style.  He suggested that I do it instead, using a compatible font.  Not that he has any reason to trust my competence... he just did. 

    I used Blambot's new Tough As Nails because it has some similarity to Rick's lettering (mainly the slight back-slant, and some of the personality).  Previously I've been using Digital Strip, mainly for its "clean and neutral" character (and its price), but I'm falling out of love with it over the way some letter pairs run together ("Clint Flicker" syndrome).  The fact that Tough As Nails has some personality (and isn't already being used by everybody else)... appeals to me.
  • The fact that Tough As Nails has some personality (and isn't already being used by everybody else)... appeals to me.
    Tough As Nails is nice. I've just tried it out on a small press strip I lettered as a favour:

    image

    I'm quite fond of CCHedgebackwards similarly because I almost never see anyone else using it.

    Cheers

    Jim
  • edited October 2012
    For you letterers out there ... or writers/artists who are picky about lettering ... what do you do when you see a project that has awesome writing and art but the lettering needs a lot of work? Do you tell them?
  • For you letterers out there ... or writers/artists who are picky about lettering ... what do you do when you see a project that has awesome writing and art but the lettering needs a lot of work? Do you tell them?
    Pretty much every time. I only became a letterer because I got tired of seeing really fantastic small press strips ruined by incompetent lettering. I really don't get it -- if you were a shit inker, you'd get somebody competent at inking to do the job for you, and yet people seem to think that it's OK to letter their strips in Comic Sans using ComicLife or MSPaint when the first frickin' hit on Google for "free comic lettering fonts" is Blambot.
  • What @JimCampbell said. I know people aren't born with the technical or aesthetic skills needed for good design, but it amazes me how little thought most amateurs put into lettering, like it's an afterthought, as opposed to the glue that ties together your words and pictures.
  • @SteveHorton Yup, tell them. Even though some people might believe it has no effect on the story the actual impact is really pretty significant. Poor balloon placement, shaping, tangents, or failure to adhere to the general guidelines of good lettering lead to absurdly difficult reads - if the reader has to think about what they're doing when they're reading the story then they're not in the story. 
  • The good news is, the artist (who was lettering the book) didn't overreact when I pointed out the specific things that were wrong, and hopefully he'll fix them in future installments.
  • Well, I can only apologize for the shameful neglect of my blog and offer the insane amount of work I've been doing (c100 pages of lettering a week most weeks) as some form of inadequate defence!

    Trying to rebalance the ratio of stuff-I-have-to-do : stuff-I-want-to-do at the moment and make more time for drawing, and blogging. So, in light of that, please find a short, but hopefully informative, new post about giving your SFX a dashed outline for extra emphasis and a bit of an old-school vibe… :-)

    http://clintflickerlettering.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/dashing-sfx-old-school-look.html
  • So I just received a page from my letterer, and he decided to put some text for some characters in the background of the page. It's humorous and I don't mind the change, but he put the text as white against a dark colored background instead of putting it in a balloon.

    I find it difficult to read, personally, and have asked him to put it in a balloon. However, this sparks an interesting question: are balloons always necessary in comics?

    I know several stories in the RWP anthology did not always use balloons, and I wouldn't say the stories were weaker for it. However, I've also seen this used on comic pages that desperately needed balloons.

    What are your guys thoughts on when it's appropriate to not use a balloon (if ever)?
  • It's easy to forget just how difficult people who aren't intimately familiar with the medium can find reading comics to be. I've found myself having to explain burst balloons and radio balloons to people, so I think you mess with the conventions at your peril.

    If it's not in a balloon, it's a sound effect. People seem to be able to grasp that without too much difficulty and I'd be loathe to blur the lines of convention any more than strictly necessary…
  • Necropost!

    I really am going to try to get more content on my blog this year… starting with a new post using a classic scene from Swamp Thing to show lettering decisions can directly affect the flow and pace of the story.


    I've also changed the title of the thread, so that it's more obviously open to general lettering queries and discussions, rather than something specifically for me.
  • Welcome back in any case!



    Thanks, Dwight! Honestly, I've never been away — I check in every couple of days at the outside, but if there's nothing for me to say, I've (unusually for the internet) opted to say nothing…
  • I am book marking your website because I know that it will come in handy...very shortly. :)
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