Lettering

I may have mentioned this before, but I may not have, but anyway, here it is: I've been teaching myself how to letter comics. It’s been an interesting process, as well as a challenge, both technically and artistically. It’s a funny thing. In most cases, a reader should not really notice the lettering. It should simply convey the words of the writer in a straightforward manner, as well as stay out of the way of the art. Seems like a simple enough proposition. However, I have found that it is actually challenging, finicky work that requires a great deal of patience and skill to do well.

On the technical side of things, I have had to teach myself how to use Inkscape, a vector graphics editor. It is (purportedly) analogous to Adobe Illustrator, which I am too cheap to by. For my purposes it works great. In any event, a vector graphics program seems to be the way to go when lettering comics. The program does a lot. Far more, in fact, than I know how to do. There’s a steep learning curve to it, but I've found that once you get the hang of it, it’s actually pretty straight forward.

A related issue is getting the page finalized for print/publication/whatever - all of that seems pretty technical, and I don’t really understand it, since I’ve only ever lettered practice pages that I've found on the internet. I hope that when I get a chance to letter something for real (The Anywhere Man #2, perhaps), I will learn a bit more about the final process.

On the artistic end, I think that learning how to letter has made me a better writer. It has given a much deeper understanding of the interplay between words and art, what works and what doesn’t, and how important space and placement of the text is to the readability of a comic. I also find it to be very enjoyable work. I feel that I can contribute something more to the projects I work on than just the writing. I can jump in and get my hands dirty alongside the artists and help actually make comics.

To end with, here’s a page that I lettered from a Judge Dredd comic. Obviously, it’s not my story, artwork, or anything like that - it is simply an example of my lettering work.

 

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