Why are letterers the bastard step-children of comics?
(Settle in, go visit the little blogger's room before you get started. I feel a rant coming on...)
Seriously, why is it so few people bother to hire GOOD letters? Some people claim they can't see the difference and that the only reason I see certain things is because I AM a letterer. But that's not true, poor lettering used to distract me before I ever learned how to do it. Funky balloon tails, poorly done sound effects, poor font choices, unbalanced blocks of text, haphazard balloon/box placement...all that stuff can take the slickest looking book and make it look like an amateur production.
Case in point...Virgin Comics #O. You know VIRGIN, as in Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Books, Virgin MEGAstores, etc. Uber rich guy Richard Branson's "stuff." So, tell me why you'd start a comic publisher with the highly recognizable VIRGIN logo on it and not put out the absolute BEST product?!?!
I picked up the #O issue at the shop last time I was in and just now sat down and read through it. Virgin Comics will have three branches...or "imprints"...the first two books will be out of the imprint based on Indian mythology. Brilliant tactic for a lot of reasons! First, it's a mythology that not as many Westerners are familiar with but as with most mythologies I assume it will feel familiar and new all at once, so a great hook and potential for stories. Second, I have to assume they are going to be targeting the Indian market. With the size of the population, if the books take off you're easily talking about creating a market much like Japan or Korea.
This preview book had preludes to two different titles, Devi and Ramayan Reborn. The artwork on both is fantastic, though story-wise Devi is more appealing to me. Sort of goddess as sci-fi superhero is the vibe I get from the nine pages here. The dialogue is fairly solid in both, if a bit too "comic booky" for my taste here and there. Overall I'd definitely encourage people to go find this Zero Issue and check it out...
...BUT...
...for me it's all knocked down about 25% because of the amateur lettering. I sincerely do not mean any disrespect to Ravikiran B. S. who letters both story installments in this preview book and who is guilty of just about everyone of the lettering "sins" listed in the first paragraph up above. Everyone has to start somewhere, but when you're not ready for the big game, someone should be telling you to get back on the bench. This is far from the worst lettering I've ever seen in a published book and I don't claim to be the ultimate expert...and God knows that I look back on some of my own lettering work and cringe. But my early stuff wasn't published by some huge corporation...the comic arm of the company may be new and unproven but the company overall is huge and successful, shouldn't "do it right" be part of the business plan? I also don't mean to single out the "new kid" I see the same thing on books here and there from just about every publisher lower on the foodchain than Marvel and DC (heck even the big two have a clunker lettering job now and then), it just seemed to me that someone in the position of having Virgin money behind them wouldn't cut corners on quality.
I'd love to get my hands on some unlettered Devi pages so I could reletter it my way and post a comparison. That way you could all tell me if I'm full of it or not. :D If anyone knows Richard Branson drop him a line for me. On second thought, maybe not. I don't need the folks at Virgin Comics mad at me...they might sic Devi on me. Then again, she's hot so it might be a good way to go.
Seriously, why is it so few people bother to hire GOOD letters? Some people claim they can't see the difference and that the only reason I see certain things is because I AM a letterer. But that's not true, poor lettering used to distract me before I ever learned how to do it. Funky balloon tails, poorly done sound effects, poor font choices, unbalanced blocks of text, haphazard balloon/box placement...all that stuff can take the slickest looking book and make it look like an amateur production.
Case in point...Virgin Comics #O. You know VIRGIN, as in Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Books, Virgin MEGAstores, etc. Uber rich guy Richard Branson's "stuff." So, tell me why you'd start a comic publisher with the highly recognizable VIRGIN logo on it and not put out the absolute BEST product?!?!I picked up the #O issue at the shop last time I was in and just now sat down and read through it. Virgin Comics will have three branches...or "imprints"...the first two books will be out of the imprint based on Indian mythology. Brilliant tactic for a lot of reasons! First, it's a mythology that not as many Westerners are familiar with but as with most mythologies I assume it will feel familiar and new all at once, so a great hook and potential for stories. Second, I have to assume they are going to be targeting the Indian market. With the size of the population, if the books take off you're easily talking about creating a market much like Japan or Korea.
This preview book had preludes to two different titles, Devi and Ramayan Reborn. The artwork on both is fantastic, though story-wise Devi is more appealing to me. Sort of goddess as sci-fi superhero is the vibe I get from the nine pages here. The dialogue is fairly solid in both, if a bit too "comic booky" for my taste here and there. Overall I'd definitely encourage people to go find this Zero Issue and check it out...
...BUT...
...for me it's all knocked down about 25% because of the amateur lettering. I sincerely do not mean any disrespect to Ravikiran B. S. who letters both story installments in this preview book and who is guilty of just about everyone of the lettering "sins" listed in the first paragraph up above. Everyone has to start somewhere, but when you're not ready for the big game, someone should be telling you to get back on the bench. This is far from the worst lettering I've ever seen in a published book and I don't claim to be the ultimate expert...and God knows that I look back on some of my own lettering work and cringe. But my early stuff wasn't published by some huge corporation...the comic arm of the company may be new and unproven but the company overall is huge and successful, shouldn't "do it right" be part of the business plan? I also don't mean to single out the "new kid" I see the same thing on books here and there from just about every publisher lower on the foodchain than Marvel and DC (heck even the big two have a clunker lettering job now and then), it just seemed to me that someone in the position of having Virgin money behind them wouldn't cut corners on quality.I'd love to get my hands on some unlettered Devi pages so I could reletter it my way and post a comparison. That way you could all tell me if I'm full of it or not. :D If anyone knows Richard Branson drop him a line for me. On second thought, maybe not. I don't need the folks at Virgin Comics mad at me...they might sic Devi on me. Then again, she's hot so it might be a good way to go.
posted by The Mad Alaskan at 4:24 PM
4 Comments:
You said this was for an Indian market. Could part of the problem be the English version uses the same balloons as the Indian and had to make the translation fit within the space? Probably not, but I'm reaching.
I just can't believe you don't like my lettering. lol.
Nah, that's the beuty of going into it knowing that you'll be printing in multiple languages. You keep the illustrator files and can easily redo stuff.
Yeah, I picked this book up and saw the horrible layouts on lettering. But, the reality is, most people just don't care. As long as they can read it in the order that's suppose to be read in (although, there was one point in this story where I wasn't sure which caption box was suppose to be read so I said "fuck it".
With Digital Webbing, lettering means a lot to me... Whenever I put credits on covers, I try to even put the letterer down.
Speaking of lettering, I got a 8 pager, you into it? I know I'm gonna get flooded with stuff by the time we roll so I won't be able to do it.
Look at Paradox from Arcana. Now that is some bad lettering.
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