Before It Leaves Your Hands: Lettering Part 1

Lettering should be just as big a part of the creative process as any other in comic book production. I say "should be" because some of what passes for lettering these days is just an afterthought, at best it's a guy typing with horribly awkward fonts inside of a circle.

Currently, I'm lettering a more "mature" comic entitled Las Locas for an up and coming comic company Badcog Studio, which is a publishing partner of Angel Comics. The book is great fun with bounty hunter femme fatales beating the crud out of bad guys who MORE than deserve it. With 10 page stories featuring a variety of artists, it really gives you a good amount of creative bang for your buck.

Now, the fact that I do MORE than just letter can be a double-edged sword. George Perez told me years ago that you do what you can to a page before it leaves your hands, so that you don't assume the next guy will fix it. But, I think I might have the same penchant artist Kevin Nowlan has. For those who don't know, Kevin often "inks" others work by redrawing the art completely. It looks amazing and beautiful, but I bet he ticks certain artists off, and I'm afraid I may do the same. I sure hope not.
A note on this project; I was given the task of making the word balloons non-traditional, more European with shapes that are different from the norm. Also, this book is in "widescreen" or landscape format.

EXAMPLE 1) One thing I do sometimes that others might not, is RE-letter areas of artwork that that have words incorporated into them already. For example: I designed the Las Locas logo AFTER the first issue was drawn and inked. Each artist drew their own version (a) of what that might be on the side of the motorcycles, while I went back in and inserted the final version (b) into all the artwork. Not necessary, but there you go.

• a)
  

• b)
  
  

EXAMPLE 2) Another example of this is seen where a city sign was already lettered by the artist (c). I, of course had to go in and add my own little touch the street sign (d).

• c)
  

• d)
  
  

Now, while some of these examples in this and the following lettering series might seem irrelevant to the average comic book fan, I think that subconsciously, we all pick up on subtleties in our entertainment whether good or bad. You don't need to be an expert in special effects to know when an effect in a movie looks "wrong". I feel the same with the art of lettering.

Next, I'll tell you who my lettering idles are and give you another look into the mind of a mad artist/letterer!