Topic: HOW TO: Lettering

If I had to pick a discipline in comics that's most often overlooked or halfassed, it's lettering. It makes no sense really, if you think about it. Letters being the only way someone actually READS your comic, you would think the creators would want them perfect! And yet horrible balloons, tails pointing every which way, and overbearing effects that pull you completely out of a book are common in small press books where creators are more focused on getting the product out, or making the art look perfect. I'll let you in on a little secret. If the letters suck, so does the book, no matter how cool the art looks. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say "Wow, great art, but I can't even read this!" about an Indy book…I'd have an even faster car than I have.

So what makes good letters or bad? Attention to detail for one. Misspelling can cripple the best looking lettering job in the world. Seeing a word misspelled is the fastest way to pull a reader out of a book and just ruin the whole experience. Good, proper lettering should actually be virtually invisible to the reader. You don't want them seeing something you've done and saying "Wow. Interesting choice there." You want easy to read, consistent, and under the radar dialog with properly spaced balloons, and you want that through the whole book. If you can do that, you raise the bar for your book immeasurably, and in the process dispel the myth that Indy books can't hold their own with the mass produced stuff coming out of the big four or five.

It's not like anyone is reinventing the wheel here. The difference lies in the user. Fact is, we use the same techniques, technology, and software that they use. If we use the same SKILL, we're looking just as good as they do. If we don't…then we've failed.

Tomorrow, when I've had some rest, I'll show some examples, post a tutorial, and we'll go from there. Meanwhile, if anyone has questions, fire away. If I don't know the answer, I'll do my best to find it and get it to you.

Cary - click the HOW TO link on the left. Tell me what powers you see you have to add content there.

That section is going to be built like a WIKI, but I haven't had time to get into it much yet….

I can point you to documentation on the ins and outs of how it can be set up if you're interested in digging into it.

I know some of my staff could benefit from a lettering class!

GJ

as could i,
it's my weakest point.
i don't have illustrator, so i'm forced to do my lettering in photoshop.
i have lots of cool comic fonts,
but i suck at word balloons.
help me obi wan, your my only hope!!

AIPman1 said

Cary - click the HOW TO link on the left. Tell me what powers you see you have to add content there.

That section is going to be built like a WIKI, but I haven't had time to get into it much yet….

I can point you to documentation on the ins and outs of how it can be set up if you're interested in digging into it.

I'm already diggin! I have a Lettering category page set up and I'm adding content! woo hoo! Me Like!

Ok, I've got the modified intro I wrote in this thread up, and the first post of the ongoing series! click HOW TO and then you should see "Lettering" there. Let me know what you guys thing and we'll go from there!

Oh and Tomm, I expect some inking HOW TO from you shortly mister!

the HOW TO will become a VERY interesting section I think.......

You can see the lettering section now, right? I'm not sure how much I see that other can't is why I ask…

yeah, see it, but we'll have to work on the general presentation there. got a lot to learn, it's very versatile and powerful…but I simply don't know enough about it to really structure it right yet, lol.

I gotcha. At least it's viewable right now, which is what I was going for. We can snaz up the look of it as we go.

Cary: I figured out some back end stuff for it, and I'm going to look to teach people to post in the section correctly so we get the desired results. You will see some small changes to it, but there is more needed done to make it work the way that we're going to want it to, that will be most usefull to the most people ever.

AIPman1 said

Cary: I figured out some back end stuff for it, and I'm going to look to teach people to post in the section correctly so we get the desired results. You will see some small changes to it, but there is more needed done to make it work the way that we're going to want it to, that will be most usefull to the most people ever.

Sounds good to me man! Can't wait to see the changes!