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Unleashing The Letterers At The #MakeComics Art of Lettering Panel At NJ Comic Expo

By Hannah Means-Shannon

The #MakeComics Art of Lettering Panel at New Jersey Comic Expo on Saturday, November 19th was wide ranging and really proved that letterers are generally friendly, creative people who will not usually maim you. Really.

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Yissel Ayala, co-founder of Geek Girl Brunch hosted the panel.

The panel featured Erica Schultz (Red Sonja, Vampirella and much, much more), Joe Caramagna (Amazing Spider-Man, Poe Dameron and much, much more), and Taylor Esposito (New Suicide Squad, Constantine, Fresh Romance, and much, much more).

Initially, a discussion of the Comic Sans font induced some extreme reactions. Thankfully, there were no fatalities.

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Kicking off the panel, Erica Schultz explained that she became a letterer by necessity, and then started teaching herself more. She worked at an ad agency as an art director, and the studio she was working with at the time was doing a Dark Horse book and the creator asked if it could be lettered in-house.

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Asked if multi-tasking is part of their development, Joe Caramagna said he loves writing and lettering since he can work with a rougher script, knowing he can change the lettering later. It's harder when other writers expect him to be so fluid, though.

Schultz says that she can be a bitch when she receives letters on her own comics from others and thinks the lettering isn't scaled right. That can include color choices on font or boxes. She has been told she's being "difficult" before, and reminds that "compromises need to be made" sometimes.

Asked how important it is for a comics person to wear many hats, Schultz who self-publishes, said it's not always a matter of just making enough income, but she thinks that anyone in comics should be aware "of all the moving parts". She's been an inker, editor, and worked on production, but even people who are just pursuing one area needs to have a knowledge of the other jobs to help manage the schedule and know what to expect in terms of time commitments from other team members. It enriches her "as a professional", she feels.

Caramagna agreed, since he's done every aspect of comics except penciling, and when writing for letterers, he feels he's an easy writer to letter. He has minimal corrections for letterers. As a letterer for Marvel, he can tell when they hire someone as writer who is from outside the industry, it's going to result in many corrections. They aren't used to the comics medium, so it's bound to happen.

Schultz gave a related example of working with a person who normally writes for television, and he said "There aren't enough words", meaning there wasn't enough dialogue. She added more. When they got the lettering pass, the art was totally covered. It was a case of not trusting the person who actually knew the medium.

Caramagna said that people who are used to writing prose can really stack the page with text and don't always understand the need for the page turn. Often the scripts get cut way down eventually or the book gets cancelled.

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Taylor Esposito was in Production at Marvel, which is actually where he learned to letter. He saw schedules, time tables, and how people reacted to the pace. He knew that he could become a production manager based on that, and uses the same expectations when it comes to lettering projects. He sometimes asks writers to test letter a page so they understand his own processes and challenges.

Asked what common mistakes are for newbie letterers, Esposito said that many people think sound effects should just be "a bunch of letters together". They don't understand how SFX works and represent sound. The writer should write the SFX, but Esposito often talks to himself trying to figure out what the sound actually is and sounds like before settling on a font and may suggest changes.

Design choices can pose many problems—Schultz feels that red, particularly for a panel background, is a nightmare.

Asked who they would want to letter their work if they couldn't letter their own work, the panelists deferred by saying it would depend on the book itself. Different styles suit different books, Schultz said. There have been situations where the panelists definitely wanted to letter books that they had written, but have been asked to let someone else do it, which can be frustrating to "let go". They have sometimes had questionable results and would like to personally make sure the outcome would be good. Their own really specific aesthetics can come into play.

Esposito opined that of the subjective areas of comic art, lettering seems like the least subjective on aesthetics. Schultz disagreed a little, citing some choices that might have to be a judgment call, like moving speech to different panels if needed despite the script calling for a certain layout. She said that "99 times out of a hundred" the changes that she makes are pleasing to the writer. Esposito said he's done so as well, and without being question, though the times he has been questioned, he simply explains the needs that led to the decision.

Regarding size and kerning, these letterers all seemed to have personal guidelines, which they use to make sure the comic looks their best.

When I asked about what financial commitments are needed for materials in order to work as a letterer, Schultz said that anyone who wants to work in lettering needs a certain degree of software subscriptions. Many are in Adobe Creative Cloud with a subscription base where you can pick certain aspects based on financial ability. Having computers is a base need, but some letterers also use equipment like a mouse, trackpad, or a small wacom tablet. Buying used equipment online can help manage the cost. Necessity can drive what tools you use.

Esposito said some investment is necessary no matter what. You don't necessarily need to buy fonts, but it can get pricey if you do. Blambot and Comicraft were discussed. Comicraft has a sale on New Year's Day every year that's really compelling. Blambot also has a sale in early December that's good to check out, he added.

In a follow up discussion after the panel with some of the panelists, when we talked about what they might wish employers would "stop doing" that gets in the way of good lettering, the consensus seemed to be to simply leave the lettering decisions to professionals and let them get on with their job rather than micromanaging or questioning decisions too frequently.

We also talked about the fact that there are many types of lettering professionals who may have different goals—some would like to purely devote their time to lettering while others have picked up skills over time and have become good at lettering, so make use of that talent, but don't pursue lettering as their main focus in life. Allowing for that range of difference will avoid making unhelpful assumptions in the comics community at large.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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