Saturday Archive Dive: Chris Eliopoulos' Guide to Hand-Lettering

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.

Read the entire post and comment there.

The NCS Divisional Awards process

This is an update to an earlier post in which I was evidently a little to quick on the trigger in praising the NCS. I assumed that since the screening committe wasn't mentioned in the call for entries (like it was last year), that they had done away with it.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I have altered the original post, below, with the updated information.

The National Cartoonist Society has been the subject of some of the biggest, most passionate debates on this site. First, it was the fact that the NCS wasn't recognizing webcomics at all. Then, after the NCS added an "on-line" category, we debated the need for a special screening committee to determine the "professionalism" of the webcomics submitted. And there were strong feelings on both side.

I wasn't a fan of the screening-committee method -- although after my interview with one of the members of the screening committee, my position softened somewhat. But, in my heart, I've always felt that webcomics couldn't have equal standing in the NCS until they were treated equally.

In the call for entries for the 2013 NCS Divisional Awards, I almost missed the fact that the section explaining the screening committees was missing. Instead, the category states that each on-line category will be judged by a chapter of the NCS...

Just like most of the other Divisions.

Since I was pretty loud in my dissent, it's only fair that I'm equally loud when I see the NCS make a step in the right direction.

Well done, NCS!

... after being screened by a six-person committee. For more information on the inner workings of that committee, check out my interview with charter committeeman, Gary Tyrrell.

Now, please... for the love of God... "online" is one word. You're making me crazy with that stuff.

Friday Archive Dive: Exercise for cartoonists

Today's  Archive Dive is from Jan. 30, 2013, when we discussed exercise for cartoonists.

We cartoonists are a stagnant lot. We sit in front of our drawing boards/tablets and then we sit some more in front of our computers. I wanted to pass along a few thoughts on how we could mitigate the effect that's having on our bodies.

Read the entire post and comment there.

Hitch It/Ditch It: Flight of the Binturong, Seeking Shelter, Ed's R Us

If you're new to the Hitch It / Ditch It critiques, the rule are simple. I go to your site, and I identify something that I think you're doing well. Then I mention something that I think could be improved. Then, the membership jumps in with their own thoughts. If you'd like to have your work addressed by a critique, it is expected that you participate in the critiques of the work of others.

The New Age of Monetizing the Web

It really wasn't that long ago that I decided to convert this Web site to a subscription-based resource. The reaction was fierce. There were threats. There were recriminations. There were insults (galore). And there were countless predictions of the imminent failure of Webcomics.com.

There were 272 comments in the announcement thread. Most of the complaints boiled doen to a "free content" attitude that prevailed on the Web at that time. I had no reason to ask to get paid for researching, writing and moderating this site, after all... it was just expected that I would do so (and do so for free).

Moreover, I could tell my my site statistics that a significant number of people who had some to jab their pitchforks in the air were making their very first trip to the site to do so.

Read that last sentence, and think about it for second.

That was 2010...