Saturday Archive Dive: Chris Eliopoulos' Guide to Hand-Lettering
Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 5:00AM Today's dive into the deeper archive of Webcomics.com take mus to january 2010 when Chris Eliopoulos shared his guide to hand-lettering.
When he's not working on his webcomic, Misery Loves Sherman, Chris Eliopoulos is a letterer for Marvel Comics. He has kindly provided for us this detailed guide to his hand-lettering process.
Hand-Lettering
With the advent of computer-lettering and the comic-style free and pay fonts, it’s become easier to letter comics quickly and with greater ability to edit. One of the skills that has slowly been pushed to the side is hand-lettering.
For years, almost all comics were hand lettered. Two examples that are obvious exceptions were MAD magazine and the delightful and unique Barnaby by Crocket Johnson. But one of the things about hand-lettering and even the choices made by Crocket Johnson or MAD magazine is that the lettering contributes to the overall look of a strip. If you look at strips like Peanuts or Pogo or even Cerebus, the lettering became an important part of the overall look. A font was created of Charles Schulz’s lettering and even if there is no art and you saw that lettering, you’d know who the author was.