Chris Eliopoulos' Guide to 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 uniqueBarnaby 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.

There are many good reasons to use computer fonts and there are equally good reasons to hand-letter; with hand-lettering, your lettering will be unique. With these readily available fonts, you see them on every strip and there is no individuality. You can also better integrate the lettering and art. Sometimes it looks like computer fonts are just pasted on top of a strip. And, of course, when done, you have a whole strip on a board to frame or sell.

But, how does one get good at hand-lettering? Well, like most things, it takes time and practice to get good at. Just like you practice drawing hands or using a certain pen or brush, hand-lettering takes time.

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Seth Godin: "What Matters Now"

Passed along by Graham Moogk-Soulis:

This week, Spark, a CBC radio program about technology and culture, aired an interview with Seth Godin, a serial entrepreneur.  Godin's eBook 'What Matters Now' is available free as an eBook.  His upcoming book, 'Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?’ was released today.

In the interview, Godin speaks of a number of things that apply to webcartoonists.  Among other things, he continues the discussion of giving away things for free.

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Banner Ad Hot Seat Part Two: Design

Earlier this week, we started our discussion of Web advertising by analyzing The Message. Today, we're going to focus more on the design of the ad. As always, I'm using as the basis for this discussion my original thoughts on Web advertising that I shared in October.

You only have a second. Use it wisely

Part of designing a good ad is knowing your place. The reader didn't come to the site looking for your ad. They came to the site to see that site's content.

Your job in designing an ad is to steal their attention.

And your best bet in doing that is a strong visual.

If you try to cram too much type into that little space, the result is a jumble of words and too little room for the visual.

And that's no way to steal eyes.

To the right are all ads that could be improved with a little editing.

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Friday Archive Dive: Preorders

Today's Archive Dive takes us back to a May 18, 2009, discussion of preorders.

You need to sell merchandise to make money. But getting the merchandise to sell costs money. Which you don't have. Until you sell the merchandise. It's a dilemma. The solution is a process called "preordering." Offer the merchandise to your readers with the understanding that they are buying an item that has not been created yet (with the understanding that they will receive it shortly after it is). To execute a successful preorder, you have to do a little math.

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Webcomics intervention

This post was contributed by Scott Kurtz.

This is an intervention.

 Your webcomic is horrible. The characters are poorly drawn. The writing isn’t very clear. The concept has been done before. The entire piece is lacking a distinct and unique voice. There’s no cohesion. No consistency. No distinction between characters.

It’s awful. It needs work. And most importantly, it’s not ready to be monetized yet.

This is your first day of rehab. This is your first group session. We’re all in a circle and it’s important that each of us take turns admitting that we’re focusing too much on the web part of webcomics. You have a problem. The first step is admitting it.

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