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| Copyright REBELLION |
Surprising as it may seem, some people don't know - or appreciate - the difference between typeset lettering and hand-lettered dialogue balloons (or captions) in a comic. "What difference does it make?" they ask in a puzzled manner. Of course, these people are as thick as the proverbial brick and I'm sure all you 'Crivvies' could tell them the answer just as well as I could, if not better.
However, there's no need to tell them when I can show them. Back in the 1970s, there was a period when IPC MAGAZINES resorted to typeset lettering for all their publications, the result of a dispute (so legend has it) with the letterers they usually employed. DCT had used typeset lettering for years of course, and more or less did it pretty adequately. IPC's attempts were disastrous on the other hand, and the appearance of many a strip was ruined in my humble opinion. (For which I'm justly famous, I might add.)
Years later, when these strips came up for reprinting, they had to be re-lettered by hand to bring them up to an acceptable standard and allow them to fit in with the new material they sat alongside. One such story is the one featured in this post, 'THE GRUDGE', which first appeared in BATTLE #196, cover-dated December 2nd, 1978, and resurfaced twelve years later in BATTLE ACTION FORCE (un-numbered), cover-dated December 14th, 1985.
This is one I lettered myself, and more was required that just placing new lettering over old. There's a fair amount of 'blotting out' and 'drawing up' to be done, so that old balloon tails or odd edges don't protrude out from under the new and improved speech bubbles and captions. Anyway, I'll let you judge for yourselves just how good a job I did - right after you've read the story. Ready? Off you go then, and remember you have a choice. The original pages are on the left, the re-lettered versions are on the right of them.
Click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.
total difference.
ReplyDeletei hated reading a lot of comics because of this.
commando comics usually had typeset,and i could not do it.
also some of the early alan class.
i reckon that there is more life to hand lettered,not just in the text that symbolises dynamics,but as a whole.
I have played with comiccraft fonts and even they have a lack of something.
have you ever tried or considered creating your own digital font,even out of curiosity?
My lettering on this story still looks a bit 'dry' - but that's because there's no bold words to tart it up a little. Typeset wasn't new of course - EC Comics had used it for years before D.C. Thomson. Creating my own fonts? Yes, I've thought about it.
ReplyDeleteWhen are you going to do another post on your blog?