Is the font used here still based on Jack Morelli's lettering? There seems to be a little more padding than there used to be, which I think looks great :)
It also reminds me that I never used to pay attention to the lettering much back in the day, until seeing Tom Orzechowski's work in X-Men, and John Workman's on Thor, both of which made me aware as a kid that there can be an art to EVERYTHING in a comic ...
Funny thing about lettering. It should really be “invisible”. If we start to notice what the letterer is doing, it can pull us out of the flow of the story.
During my first few years of comic book reading, I had associated Tom Orzechowski's lettering with Claremont's dialogue so much that I almost thought that Tom provided the script as well, or at least had more of a hand in it, since he really gelled with CC's verbal 'ticks'. Louise Simonson took over NEW MUTANTS from Chris and Tom remained as letterer for a bit. It was very disconcerting for me to be reading Simonson dialogue via Orzechowski lettering!
During my first few years of comic book reading, I had associated Tom Orzechowski's lettering with Claremont's dialogue so much that I almost thought that Tom provided the script as well, or at least had more of a hand in it, since he really gelled with CC's verbal 'ticks'.
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There was a moment in STARLORD when someone says “Starlord, you talk too much!” In the margin (outside the printed area) Tom jotted “letterer’s lament!”
"... it can pull us out of the flow of the story."
No chance! :)
Probably just a result of getting to spend every weekday morning before work (a great way to start the day!) ogling this story one page at a time instead of reading it all at once, you notice more.
I chose the font used at present because I found it unobtrusive. A far cry from the days when Marvel discovered computer lettering, and suddenly the characters had individualized lettering. The Torch was “flaming”, the Thing “rocky”.
Never before had there been such a grotesque example of the lettering yelling LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
The font that they've given to Thor and the rest of the Asgardians is especially ridiculous, distracting, and damn-near unreadable. Made me think that they all sounded like the Swedish Chef if you had to actually hear them.
Deadpool was given either a bolded or yellow word balloon in the comics, which at first bugged me......but somehow Ryan Reynolds *just about* justified it in the movies.
Though it does beg the question (wait, why are we talking about lettering when there is gorgeous action going on???) when in the history of lettering where it was decided that all caps would be the standard instead of mixed case fore legibility. I can't think of anywhere else, including most children's books, where this is the case.
Legibility is the key. With the poor printing of early newspaper comics—the direct ancestors of comic books—the decision was made to letter in all caps to get the most legible read. Also to avoid letters like g, q, p or j descending too deep into the next line.
Marvel experimented with mixed case lettering, and the best comment I saw was from someone who said the characters all looked like they were whispering.*
What works, works!
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* Bill Jemas had dictated the change, declaring “They don’t use all-caps in the New York Times!” As I said at the time, they also don’t have COMICS in the New York Times!
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