Lettering critique

[dancj]

Jeez Augie you're harsh. I don't think a single one of your criticism's of that panel is something that would have bothered me in the slightest.

My only complaint - and it's a hard one to get around would be that the stark black and white balloons didn't fit with the painted artwork, though I'm not sure what could be done to get around that. I liked the translucent balloons in the Bone spin-off, Rose.

The only thing that really ever bothers me is when the order of the balloons isn't immediately obvious and that wasn't a problem here.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Hey Dan --

You need to hang out with lettering geeks more often. We're vicious. And the fact that none of those things bother you bothers me. But, then, I'm a geek.

Translucent balloons bother me. Todd Klein has adopted a method of lettering over painted artwork where he makes the balloons slightly more yellowish. You can see it in 1602, among other places.

-Augie

[dancj]

I don't think I'd like translucent balloons too much, but there were a nice novelty in Rose.

I'll dig out 1602 tonight and have a look at the lettering in that.

[mgs]

Augie, general question.

Do you (or any other Pipeliners out there) know of any regular, current comic books where someone letters by hand? More specifically, perhaps, paints or uses calligraphy to letter?

Thanks, mgs :)

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Last I heard, John Workman still letters everything by hand, though he often letters, scans those letters, and sends the scans into the publisher. That might have changed. I'd have to take a close look at 1985 to see if he still does that.

It looks like Jeff Lemire hand lettered the first ESSEX COUNTY OGN, but then used a computer on the second and probably third.

But at DC and Marvel, everything is computerized now, with rare exceptions for notable people.

Erik Larsen has never used computer lettering in THE SAVAGE DRAGON's feature story. Ever. Tom Beland hand-letters TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD. Keith Knight hand-letters his stuff, though there's no comic for that. . .

-Augie

[dancj]

Translucent balloons bother me. Todd Klein has adopted a method of lettering over painted artwork where he makes the balloons slightly more yellowish. You can see it in 1602, among other places.

I had a look at my 1602 TPB last night and it just looked like black + white to me. That said, it didn't clash too badly. I think the mixed case lettering helped.

(ducks plate thrown by Augie)

[mgs]

Last I heard

Thank You for the rapid response! :)

I will look up those comics and authors in the coming weeks!

[TomBelandofTSSTG]

Erik Larsen has never used computer lettering in THE SAVAGE DRAGON's feature story. Ever. Tom Beland hand-letters TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD. Keith Knight hand-letters his stuff, though there's no comic for that. . .

-Augie

Yeah, I hand-lettering all my books, but my ability to do it has deteriorated over time and it's been tougher to read. So, once I get my drawing hand tremors under control (if), I've decided to switch to computer lettering, with a font taken from my own lettering from earlier, more legible issues.

Does it bother me? Well, yeah, to some degree. I've gone from making beautiful pages, where you can see everything there, to computer lettering and now the tremors have killed my line.

Bone was actually lettered on computer, but pasted onto the page.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Yikes! Sorry to hear that, Tom. Thankfully, the computer can help you out with this part of the work. It might not be perfect, but it's definitely good enough to get the job done without being distracting from your art work.

Didn't Jeff Smith base his font for BONE on Walt Kelly's POGO work?

-Augie

[TomBelandofTSSTG]

Yikes! Sorry to hear that, Tom. Thankfully, the computer can help you out with this part of the work. It might not be perfect, but it's definitely good enough to get the job done without being distracting from your art work.

Didn't Jeff Smith base his font for BONE on Walt Kelly's POGO work?

-Augie

I was told that he did the lettering on computer, but then pasted it onto the page. I never thought it took me away from the page. I actually thought he hand-lettered everything.

I will say this. I have such a huge respect for anyone who can hand-letter. It's quite possibly the most under-appreciated job in comics. It's brutal work. Go back and look at Tom Orzechowski's lettering work on the classic Claremont/Byrne X-Men run... it's simply gorgeous work. Really. He took all that dialogue and worked it so it never impeded the flow of the story.

I'm dealing with a tremor in my drawing hand, so I not only miss lettering, but the entire page process itself.

[mgs]

Yeah, thanks for the info, but sorry about the hand problems...And on this:He took all that dialogue and worked it so it never impeded the flow of the story.
</p>
Does hand lettering get one 'involved' more in the story somehow, or make the writing more important in any way, making the story a more integral part of the book than if one just reads and looks at the art?

Again, thanks. :)

[TomBelandofTSSTG]

Yeah, thanks for the info, but sorry about the hand problems...And on this:</p>
Does hand lettering get one 'involved' more in the story somehow, or make the writing more important in any way, making the story a more integral part of the book than if one just reads and looks at the art?

Again, thanks. :)

To me, not really. Not anymore. Because sometimes it's difficult for me to tell what's been computerized and what is hand-written, since fonts can be made from the artist's own lettering... as in my case.

What it does, for me, is give me a greater admiration for the old-school letterers. Those guys were truly underrated and it's a shame they're not hyped more. And what bothers me about going to computerized lettering is the fact that I really love to see a page of original art, with everything on it. Pencils, inking and lettering. There's less magic to me when one of those elements is missing.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

The coolest lettering thing I saw this week came from Todd Klein:

http://kleinletters.com/Blog/

Scroll down a bit and see the pages upon pages of Gaspar Saladino lettering samples. Unbelievably beautiful stuff. I'll be linking to it in Pipeline soon, I'm sure.

-Augie

[torippu]

The coolest lettering thing I saw this week came from Todd Klein:

http://kleinletters.com/Blog/

Scroll down a bit and see the pages upon pages of Gaspar Saladino lettering samples. Unbelievably beautiful stuff. I'll be linking to it in Pipeline soon, I'm sure.

-Augie

I've probably mentioned this before but I really loved the lettering from Gaspar Saladino in those early issues of the Johns/Kolins Flash run. It really stood out as something entirely different from what was on the stands at the time and the book started to look like everything else once the conversion was made to computer lettering.

[Chris Eliopoulos]

Erik Larsen has never used computer lettering in THE SAVAGE DRAGON's feature story. Ever.
-Augie

I don't believe that's true. I think I computer lettered a couple issues for him.

[torippu]

I don't believe that's true. I think I computer lettered a couple issues for him.

Uh oh! If this is true, can Augie still be considered the world's biggest lettering nerd? :tongue:

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Yeah, but that was after the schedule went to crap and I stopped keeping track of niggling little details. ;-)

OK, I stand corrected.

How about, "Up until Erik realized his own hand lettering was utter pants, he never used computer lettering in the main feature"? I went British there for you.

-Augie