Lettering! The part of comics (almost) nobody cares about but is sooo important. The problem with lettering is that the reader doesn’t notice it when it’s done well. It’s like sound in a movie, it’s taken for granted but if you’ve ever watched an old film where the sync is slightly off and doesn’t quite line up with the actor’s lips, it can make the most amazing movie unwatchable.
Regrettably, there are a fair amount of kids’ comics where the lettering is… what’s a polite way to say this? Atrocious. The problem is usually because it’s the artist that is also doing the lettering. And honestly, I don’t really blame the artist. Unfortunately, it is one more thing they need to be competent at.
I do blame the book publishers though. For the past 100 years, comics have been published by comic book companies. And each step of the process was often done by a different person. Writing, penciling, inking, coloring, and lettering. While this was mostly done so books could be created quicker, it also evolved into standardizing certain aspects and creating best practices, including lettering.
Over the last decade, kids’ comics have blown up thanks to traditional book publishers. While these book publishers have done a lot of good for kid’s comics, they’ve shouldered the creators with most of the responsibilities that previously were for an entire team. These publishers have changed the model and have yet to standardize and figure out best practices. It’s the wild west.
To the publishers, you need to educate yourselves and set guidelines for your books. To the artists, if you are responsible for lettering your own book, you need to develop that skill set. Or as part of your contract, have the publisher pay for a professional letterer. Their rates are generally pretty reasonable.
One last tip, regardless of whether it’s you or someone else that is lettering your book. When you’re doing your page layouts, include approximations of each word balloon that is going to be in that panel. That way nothing important in the art will be covered up later by the balloons. And you can place your characters in a way that balloons can be read easily without crazy balloon tails crisscrossing the panel.
Resources! Nate Piekos of Blambot has done the work for you. He has a whole section on his website of tips including balloon placement, tail width, word space inside the balloon, and loads more. If you have even the slightest interest in understanding and improving your lettering, these tips are a must-read!
If you want more than just those basic tips, Nate wrote The Essential Guide to Lettering Comic Books, an in-depth book on everything you need to know. Highly recommended if you are lettering your own book.
Make your own font. If you are interested in turning your handwriting into a font, I created a tutorial on how to do that.
Other Stuff
I am about halfway through lettering the first Woodland Hills book. Yes, that was the inspiration for this month’s article. Traditionally, lettering is the last step in the production process but I like to see exactly how much space I have when creating the art.
I thumbnail everything including where the balloons will likely go. Next, I’ll create the panel borders. Then I letter it. I leave off the tails at this stage. Once I’ve drawn it, I’ll go back, adjust the balloons if needed then add the tails so they’re properly placed.
The page below is page 61 from the thumbnail above.
Josh Fonts For Sale!
Keeping with today’s theme of lettering, I have launched a store on Payhip selling a couple of my fonts, Biggity Bam and Blockhead. Great for your comic and design needs. Only 10 bucks each! Get ‘em while they last. Okay, they’re digital files so there’s no scarcity. But you should still definitely get them. They’re pretty great 🙂
Family Stuff
We had been wanting to go to Hawaii for quite some time. Neither of us had been, so we planned one last big trip before baby number 2 put us out of commission for the foreseeable future. It was a disaster.
Sophia and I got pneumonia. It was brutal. Thankfully, River didn’t get it. There was one day we felt okay and went on a hike to a waterfall, which was nice, and then a tour of the Dole plantation, which was a complete dud. Pretty much the rest of our time was spent on death’s door in the AirBnB. We canceled the 2nd week of our trip and came home.
Anyway, the little bit of Hawaii (aside from Dole) that we saw really was lovely. The weather was amazing. And River quite liked the roosters and chickens that were everywhere. We’ll get back someday.
Thanks for reading. See you next month!
-Josh
Did you enjoy reading? Subscribe to my newsletter and get articles like this directly in your inbox the first Wednesday of the month.
