History of Lettering Comics

March 5, 2024 10:34 AM

The Art and History of Lettering Comics is available free on letterer Todd Klein's blog. Originally planned as a print book, he's posted the whole thing online. From the early 1900s to today, Todd covers the evolution of word balloons, special effects lettering and comic book and newspaper comic letterers known and unknown and much more.
posted by marxchivist (21 comments total)

Previously.
posted by marxchivist at 10:34 AM on March 5

I know without even clicking that I am going to adore this.

click!
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yep. I knew it!
thanks for posting, great stuff
posted by chavenet at 11:23 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

please mention leroy lettering please mention leroy lettering please--YAY
posted by mittens at 11:39 AM on March 5 [3 favorites]

Bookmarked. Thanks, marxchivist!
posted by Eikonaut at 11:55 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

huh, I was looking for Walt Kelly and my-o-my was I pleased
posted by chavenet at 11:56 AM on March 5 [5 favorites]

I would have bought the book.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:40 PM on March 5 [3 favorites]

Surprised he didn't mention Dave Sim's lettering.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:40 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

He discusses Dave Sim's "tour-de-force lettering" in Chapter 12 here.
posted by mediareport at 1:44 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]

And wow, thanks to Todd Klein *and* marxchivist; this is a treasure trove of cool comics analysis.
posted by mediareport at 1:45 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

At the end of the last part of The Rise Of Digital Lettering:

The ease of making lettering changes has also led to letterer abuse. Some writers and publishers now think it’s okay to have a first-draft script lettered, then have it all redone later, sometimes more than once, without paying the letterer for those rewrites.

One thing I see a lot on smaller teams now is the writer also being the letterer. This is pretty neat because it gives the writer an opportunity to do an extra draft on the script once she sees how it works against the final art, without any unpaid back-and-forth. It's murder on the profession of "letterer" of course.

Letterers today are expected to be able to handle all areas of comics production, essentially becoming the conduit for producing print-ready final comics work. Again, this is something often not compensated for financially.

*sighs in solo creator* todd you don't know the half of it, you don't have to wrangle building the web site, advertising the books, getting a print run paid for and into stores, warehousing and shipping printed books, fighting the profit-maximzing algorithms of the social networks to get your work in front of the people who subscribed to it, and and and...

----

The first time I ever noticed the work of a letterer were some sound effects in an early issue of Atari Force, lettered by Bob Lappan who is very much in the "also here were some other people who got into the industry around the same time I did" section. But I was most blown away by Dave Sims' lettering. Fucked-up dude but god his lettering is amazing. I should get a copy of the collection where Cerebus spends like twenty issues sitting alone in a bar talking to himself and Sims' virtuoso lettering (scroll down, you'll know it when you see it) actually makes this immensely tedious idea seem exciting and leave it lying around for inspiration when I can't decide what to do with a sound effect.
posted by egypturnash at 3:14 PM on March 5 [5 favorites]

...apparently I am not the only person who was curious as to whether or not Klein had anything to say about Sim :)
posted by egypturnash at 3:15 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Damn, this is really cool.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:59 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Fabulous post. Thank you.
posted by signal at 5:06 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]

I somehow never really got into comics despite being into a lot of comics adjacent stuff. I do, however, love deep dives into someone's area of expertise, and this is freaking great.
posted by mollweide at 5:52 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

please mention leroy lettering please mention leroy lettering please--YAY

I stumbled on one of Todd’s posts a month ago while trying to figure out what Leroy lettering guides were called!
posted by TangoCharlie at 7:39 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]

He discusses Dave Sim's "tour-de-force lettering" in Chapter 12 here.

My mistake - sorry.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:21 PM on March 5

Truly best of the Web! Thank you for this goldmine.
posted by the sobsister at 10:47 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]

Mod note: This awesome bit of comic's history and tools has been added to the Sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:25 AM on March 7 [2 favorites]

Here’s an entry from his blog about trying to get the book published. I would have bought the hell out of it in print form.
posted by marxchivist at 6:34 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]

Wow, that's a really fucked-up story, and does not reflect well on Charles Kochman, editorial director of Abrams ComicArts, who basically ghosted Klein and stopped apologizing for it, the designer at Abrams who also ghosted him, or anyone else involved with the book at Abrams. Good for Klein for just putting it up on his site. That he even says he'd give back his advance after being treated so shabbily is a testament to his kindness and generosity. I certainly wouldn't do it.

Best case going forward is the attention Klein's wonderful blog presentation is getting will nudge Kochman et al to finish what they asked Klein to start for them. We can hope, I guess, but the whole thing leaves a very sour taste in my mouth with regard to Abrams Books.
posted by mediareport at 9:17 AM on March 7

The team of Walt Kelly, George Ward and Henry Shikuma bewitched me when I started to read POGO on the funny pages. (And later I deployed Leroy Lettering while drafting sewage treatment plants.)

Which is to say this is unspeakably my jam! Thanks so much for introducing me to this wonderful site.
posted by Jesse the K at 5:08 PM on March 17