Interview with Heather Antos

Heather Antos is a Senior Editor at IDW where she's editing all things Star Trek, creator of #SignalBoostSunday. She’s previously edited works for Image, Valiant, Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, and a bunch of creator-owned stuff, too and if that wasn’t cool enough, she is also a writer and artist.
 

Heather, can you take us back in time to when you first fell in love with comics and how that led to making it into a career.

I mean, I’m not quite sure if I can pinpoint “the” moment it happened. As my mom would say “she’s always drawn comics before she read them.” Creating and telling stories has always been part of my every being my entire life and illustrating my own stories and creating my own characters are some of my earliest memories.

In college I took an American Literature course where we had a segment on comics and graphic novels. It was then that I was introduced to SANDMAN and I was immediately in love with the possibilities of the medium. Not having grown up with a local comic shop, I didn’t read many comics outside of the weekly newspaper comics strips or various web comics. It was roughly around the same time that the Marvel films were really starting to take off and DC was about to launch the New 52 – a perfect recipe to get this future comics editor hooked on comics.

I always laugh at this, but I really like to credit the 2011 GREEN LANTERN film for truly motivating my passion for comics. Like most of us, I am a big Ryan Reynolds fan and was excited to see him take on hopefully a good (ha!) superhero role. I researched the stories the film was to be based on and devoured them. I became hooked on Geoff Johns’ run on GL from then on. And you can bet your butt that from the very first scene in the theaters I was “that” comic fan complaining about how “incorrect” everything about the movie was.

It wasn’t too long after that that I began looking into creating my own comics and self-publishing them. Coming from a background of film and theatre production, I really enjoyed the Behind-the-scenes work of building stories and producing. So naturally, the role of the comics editor (combined with my love of writing and drawing) felt like a perfect fit.
 

You’ve worked for a number of publishers, how has that affected your editing process over the years, and do you feel any of the publishers contributed to the development of your skills?

I’m extremely grateful for every project, creator, and publisher I’ve been lucky enough to collaborate with. As much as I never want to experience the grind of the Big Two™  ever again, I am extremely appreciative of getting to start my professional career working at one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) comics publishers. I learned so much about the importance of concise, clear communication, organization, boundaries, and most importantly…treating your team with respect. I learned a LOT of what NOT to do – and what kind of collaborator I never want to be. It’s easy to get lost in the daily grind of making comics, and it’d be SO easy to just phone it in and not care – we’ve all seen it – but as a book’s editor, you’re the captain on the field with the rest of the team. You can’t phone it in – you’re team leader. The job is to elevate and look out for everyone else you’re working with – and getting to make pretty cool stories while doing it!

At the end of the day, it’s important to evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and what we can do to be better on the next project – no matter the publisher you’re working for.
 

The grind is real and burns out so many talented folks. How have you dealt with it, and do you see a way of making comics that can avoid it? Or do commercial artists just need that overwhelming sense of pressure to create for publication?

I am HARDLY the best person to go to for advice on this, ha! I DEFINITELY take on way more work than I should…but I guess that comes with the territory of a creative. We’re passionate about what we do—and we LOVE doing it. It’s so hard to say no! Coupled with very unforgiving deadlines and rates at times, it’s more than enough to make anyone look at what we do and go “But why, though?”

Ultimately, though, as cliché as it is, it’s all about working smart AND working hard (but not harder than you have to!!!). It’s important early on to figure out what systems work best for you, when you work best, and with whom you work best. At the end of the day, even though, yes, making comics for a living is pretty cool and fun, we still need to treat it like a job. It’s what is hopefully paying the bills, after all.

For me, personally, time away from the desk is just as important as time spent at the desk and time management is key. Being aware of exactly how long on average it takes you to complete various tasks will help you better forecast your workloads, and in doing so will also help you figure out accurate rates.

But what I think is most important in terms of avoiding burnout? Being able to say “no” and setting firm boundaries. If you completed work for a client weeks ago and it was approved only for them to come back later and ask for revisions…you have every right to say “Sorry, I can’t.” Or “Sure, I’d be happy to, but my corrections fee is XYZ.” We’re trained to be “grateful” for any and every opportunity we get in this industry, and many bad clients will try to make us feel bad for advocating for ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with asking to be paid for additional services. Nor is there anything wrong with saying “Hey, I’d absolutely LOVE to work with you on this project, but my schedule simply doesn’t have room for another gig this month. I’d love to see if there’s anything available later we could collaborate on?” As an editor, any time a creator is honest with me about what they can take on (even if it means a “not right now”) tells me they are someone I WANT to work with down the line because they can communicate their needs.

How do you evaluate a project? What sort of metrics are you looking at/considering when coming up with the road map for a book or team’s betterment? And if a book is an immediate sales success, does it change your process?

I love this question in that I’m not sure I have a good answer for it, ha! There are some editorial practices that I’ve seen that have more cut and dry “this is what works, point plank period” – and there is nothing wrong with that – but for myself, I generally try to treat every project, every creator, as individuals. I see it as my to facilitate an environment where every creator can do their best work within the given parameters of a project. That means being able to shift and be as flexible as need be.

For instance, if I want to work with X creator, but I know that X creator is AWFUL at email and does much better with phone calls and texts…great! That’s how we’ll do the majority of our communication. Or if creator J reaaaaaaally wants to work on say Star Trek or Star Wars but I know they are not the strongest at likenesses, then why set them up to fail? Let’s find a project that’s focused on non-tv/movie appearing characters so they can excel! Or maybe I’ve been asked to come up with a 100-pg issue last minute that needs to be solicited in 2 days, and goes to print in 2 months – better think quick, who do I know who is fast, reliable, and can NAIL it? Or in that case, how MANY people do I know who can?

Immediate sales successes are nice, but 9 times out of 10 decisions about whether or not the particular book changes course are not up to the editor of that individual project.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Yes.

I knew that wasn’t going to work with you! Anyways, for those that don’t know, you and I work together on a super-rad book called Slumber at Image comics (if you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for?!), how different is it working on a major licensed comic like Star Wars or Star Trek compared to a creator-owned book like Slumber?

There’s a saying all editors at Marvel know from Executive Editor Tom Brevoort: “No editor can make a bad story good, they can only make it better. All editors can make a good story worse.” 

No pressure, right? 

Because he’s not wrong. Especially when it comes to editors in charge of managing the IP for major properties and franchises. These editors are the Keeper of the Keys to some of the biggest storylines and characters that modern media has ever known, with some of the fiercest and most passionate fans out there. How’s the saying go? “With great power…” Well, you get it.

The main difference between editing for a major publisher versus a creator owned project is who it is that holds these keys, this ultimate power of final creative say when story disagreements happen. And they do happen.

One of an editor’s many responsibilities is being the first reader to any comic. They are the first set of fresh eyes to point out plot holes, continuity mistakes, etc. They are there to question the creators’ motives — the first person to ask why these characters are behaving in such a way, in such a scene. The first person to question and correct if things just don’t make sense. 

Will every creator always agree with the notes and questions their editor is making and asking? 

Of course not. 

That’s when the rule of “Keeper of the keys” comes into play. For a publishing house like Marvel, ultimately the editors in the Spider-Man office get final say on whether or not Peter Parker decides to go on a murderous rampage. And no matter how much the writer may think it’s the best idea that will ever hit comics, it doesn’t matter. Marvel holds the keys. 

On the flipside, I may have a note or suggestion on a script for SLUMBER, TIME BEFORE TIME, BLOOD STAINED TEETH, or ROGUES’ GALLERY, but if Tyler, Declan, Christian, or Hannah disagree, no matter how much I backup my claim, stamp my feet, or hold up a boombox above my head outside their bedroom window, they hold the keys. It’s their kingdom. I’m just an advisor.

Will an editor always make the best suggestion in their notes? Nope. Will they sometimes mislead a creative team? Sure. Editors, shockingly, are human and, just like creators, can have ideas that aren’t always the best, even with the best of intentions. It all goes back to that alchemy — sometimes the ingredients don’t always result in the way you want them to.
 

Circling back around to 2011’s Green Lantern film and of you being “that” comic fan complaining about how correct the film was when compared to the comics, do you find yourself in situations as an editor where fans complain to you about the direction of a given series?

I suppose it depends on how you qualify the word “fan”, doesn’t it? I have a personal philosophy that social media and the internet has changed how we consume pop culture – that very few people now watch with curious open minds and instead “hate-watch/read” for their hot take and “clicks”. It’s sad, really. We no longer consume to experience and enjoy; we consume to have an opinion. Is that what being a fan of something has turned into? I don’t know.
 

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for editing or life, what would it be?      

“Don’t be a dick and do the thing.” Is my general go-to that applies to most generally any situation one encounters in life.

https://www.heatherantos.com/

Twitter/Insta: @HeatherAntos

Other Insta: @HeatherARTos

Interview with J.M. Brandt and Theo Prasidis

J.M. Brandt and Theo Prasidis are the writing duo behind SWAMP DOGS: HOUSE OF CROWS on Scout Comic's Black Caravan imprint. J.M Brandt  is currently working on several other unannounced projects, but you can read his short story, “The Welcoming Committee” in Vol. 3 of MIDNIGHT MAGAZINE'S anthology MIDNIGHT TALES. Theo Prasidis' new book BLACK MASS RISING is forthcoming from TKO Studios, and readily available from Image Comics is THE DOOMSTER'S MONOLITHIC POCKET ALPHABET.

J.M. Brandt

Theo Prasidis

J.M., Theo, tell us a little bit about how you both got into comics and what about the medium makes them perfect for telling your stories.

Theo: I never was much into comics. I grew up as a movie kid, devouring everything from mindless 1980s Van Damme action flicks, to Akira Kurosawa’s sophisticated epics. I loved cinema as a whole, so I studied to become a filmmaker. Along the way however, I realized that being a filmmaker, and having to deal with so many different people in order to tell a story, takes much more tenacity and resilience than I had. So I quit chasing that, and worked on different things. At some point I started writing a tongue-in-cheek alphabet about doom metal, a genre I was very much involved with because of a music festival I was curating at the time. I wrote it as a joke, really. I brought in Maarten Donders, one of the scene's most prolific illustrators, to do the art, with the ambition of printing a couple of copies and selling them at the festival’s merch booth. One night I got the crazy idea of pitching this to Image Comics, and within twenty minutes Eric Stephenson got back to me, saying they’ll put it out. That was it for me. Everything made sense. With comics I get to tell the exact stories I want to tell, without studio pressure, budget restrictions, or managing a fucking army. They’re the perfect medium for me. They’re downright liberating.

J.M.: I was a child of the 80s, and as such, grew up on cartoons and Toys’R’Us. I really cottoned early to “Superfriends” and was obsessed with the early 80s Marvel and DC action figures. So I guess that’s how I was first exposed. In fact, around the time I was 3 or 4 we would rent old VHS collections of the 1960s Marvel cartoons and I’d watched them so much that we wound up wearing down the tape on a couple. I still have vivid memories of the covers depicting Namor and Thor… to the point I could even tell you what part of the store they were in nearly 40 years later. Flash forward and my house is rather close to a shop called Golden Apple… and they had a bitchin’ mural on the side of the wall that fascinated me. It was Wolverine, unmasked, from the cover of Wolverine #1. I want to say an old iteration of the mural also had Red Sonja on it, but you can’t quote me on that part. As soon as I had money “of my own” as a kid, that was the first shop I wanted to spend it all in. I believe the first comic I bought on my own was a back issue of Moon Knight. I’ve been hooked, more or less, ever since. 

As for what makes them the perfect medium for storytelling? They give you a level of control over the narrative and the visuals of a story that no other medium can. The presentation can be as mundane or as abstract and experimental as you want. You control the pacing at an almost granular level. In a way it takes the best of writing prose and making a movie or TV and distills it to this wonderful sequential package.

Two writers on separate paths and an ocean between you. How did the writing partnership come about, and how did you know Swamp Dogs was the book you wanted to pitch?

Theo: At this point, I feel like I have told the story of how I met J.M. more times than how I met my own wife! But it’s totally worth it, because the whole thing was such a happy coincidence. We were both contributors at Screen Rant, the entertainment website, we were digging each other's articles, and we got talking. Music, movies, TV shows, our tastes were very similar, so we decided to work on something together. The idea was to make our own pop culture website, but then my Image book got announced, and J.M. came to me with a proposal: imagine if you will a Tombs of the Blind Dead comic book, but instead of rural Spain, it takes place in the swampy South, and instead of Templar Knights, you have undead Confederates. To say that I was hooked, would be an understatement.

J.M.: What he said. It’s a pretty interesting meet-cute, though, isn’t it? Swamp Dogs, at least a very distant form of it, was an idea that I’d been unable to shake for nearly a decade when I brought it to Theo to work on it together. I needed a like-minded soul to help me give birth to it. Theo was the man for the job.

A comic set in the south, undead confederates, scantily clad women. I know we only have the first issue out, but has there been any…controversy that either of you have had to address? Anything either of you would like to state for potential readers that might be cautious to pick up a book involving undead confederate soldiers?

Theo: Dealing with the controversy of the subject matter was one of our earliest conversation topics. We’re forward thinking people who are very aware of how hurtful certain themes can be, so we wanted to play this absolutely right. We did our best to portray the Swamp Dogs like the truly remorseless monsters that they are. There’s not an ounce of humanity in them, no inkling of redemption or sympathy. They’re evil to their very core. And in the wake of the Trump administration, and all the horrific things we’ve seen happening in the States over the past few years, they also work as great stand-ins for systemic oppression and violence.

J.M.: I wouldn’t call it controversy, but there have been some concerned voices both on Twitter and in person at conventions. Some have been concerned by our portrayal of queer women. Some have been concerned by our portrayal of race. In every instance, I listened to those concerns and responded as thoughtfully and sincerely as I could. We’re not out to misrepresent any group. Is there overt sexuality coming from the female leads? Absolutely. This is a grindhouse homage. This is a genre book at its core. But our thinking is that it is not innately a denigrating portrayal just because of the sexuality. These women are human beings, and there are complex goings-ons, a REAL romance and REAL emotions, that also get portrayed. And we are always open to listening to thoughts from the communities that we are representing in the book, and working to keep things balanced.

Are you working on other projects together? Any solo works you can talk about yet?

Theo: Well, we have a number of exciting things coming up in the Swamp Dogs universe, so we don’t plan to stop working together anytime soon. I have a new TKO Studios book that’s just been announced, an original Dracula-themed horror/fantasy graphic novel called Black Mass Rising, featuring some striking art by Jodie Muir. And I’m working on an awesome project with animated film director and illustrator Adrian Dexter, who is known for his cover work for the heavy psych/prog band Elder. Can’t say much about this one yet, but it’s one of those projects that keep you up at night. So yeah, I’m pretty psyched!

J.M.: There are proposals in. There are parties interested. But it’s one of those “if I told you I’d have to kill you” type situations. But I am currently writing a twisted short story about a modern day problem and how being alienated from your neighbors can lead to some pretty disturbing circumstances. That’s probably what I’m most excited about finishing next. It’s called, “What Are They Doing Up There?”

These all sound like awesome projects! As you both know by now I’m a bit of a horror hound myself, and while these aren’t all entirely horror projects, what is it about the dark that has you both creating in it?     

Theo: I don’t know, man, I ask myself the same question all the time, haha! And I did try to develop a couple of more children-oriented projects recently, but I can’t seem to be able to wrap my head around them. I keep coming back to horror. I mean yeah, horror stands as a great metaphor for our deep, personal traumas, and our collective existential anxieties, and all that. But there’s more to it. I guess there’s something comforting in horror and fantasy. Like the world makes much more sense if there are monsters in it. I just can’t think of a better place to lose yourself in, than a good horror story.

J.M.: I don’t know exactly what compels me. I mean, The Count was my favorite Sesame Street Muppet (and not because of the math) and my first dream job (and current dream job) was being a Ghostbuster. Some people are just drawn to horror. It takes the right mix of nerves and grit and sense of humor in life, I think. Fiction is powerful because it allows our brains to play in the realms of the unreal and, at the end of the story/movie/game, we are safe and unharmed (except maybe our psyches). So why not really push the limits of the unreal and make it something catastrophic and violent beyond measure?

For Swamp Dogs, you both assembled the creative team. What goes into your thought process for finding the right people to work with? With different projects is it the same process?

Theo: The process is always the same to me: figure out the vibe I want the project to have, and find the team that will absolutely nail it. It doesn't matter where they are from, or how big a name they are, or how many books they have put out. If they’re the right people for the project, they get the job.

J.M.: As a creator and writer, I see the images of what I am making before they’re committed to paper. From there it is surprisingly simple to see whose work (or potential in their work) fits most closely to what I see in my mind’s eye. That’s not to say that it’s a simple process, though. Like with Swamp Dogs, Theo and I went through dozens of artists and letterers before figuring out whose styles would mesh the best with what we wanted to accomplish. We just got insanely lucky that we wound up with our first choices!

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for writing or life, what would it be?      

Theo: There are three pieces of advice I usually give that apply both to comics and life. One, take your work seriously. If you won’t do it, no one else will. Two, keep on trying. It’s easy, even tempting, to just quit, but trust me when I say that there are people out there who are going to believe and invest in your vision. You just need to find them. Three, and hear me out on this one: don’t be a dick.

J.M.: If you believe in something and love it… then there are other people out there that will be picking up what you’re putting down. So don’t doubt your vision.

 

Theo:

https://www.theoprasidis.com

https://www.facebook.com/theo.prasidis/

https://twitter.com/TheoPrasidis

https://www.instagram.com/theoprasidis/

J.M. Brandt:

https://twitter.com/MRJMBrandt

https://Instagram.com/j.m.brandt

https://facebook.com/MrJMBrandt

Interview with Gabriela Downie

Gabriela Downie is a comic book letterer, cover artist, character designer, and she's setting her sights on video games. You might know her work on Harleen, RWBY, and Punchline.

After a bit of investigating, it turns out you and I share a similar entryway into the world of comic book lettering via DC’s Prepress department. Is that where you got your start in comics? Have you always been interested in comics?

Prepress at DC Comics was my “break-into-the-industry” moment. To get hired I had to pass a competency test, portfolio review and a few interviews. So when I got the position I felt validated as a professional artist.

I figured if I worked my way up, I would eventually end up designing the DC Heroes in the Injustice fighting game franchise, thus why my website is full of colorfully rendered character illustrations. My original goal was to become a video game concept artist. Now I’m using my experience in both fields to chart my own course. 

Now, there are some letterers who will read “work my way up” as a dig against career Lettering, but I when I went from Pre-press to Lettering, I saw it much the same way. How do you see yourself using lettering to help chart your path into video games? Do you worry a potential employer will see Letterer on your resume and that will sound the death knell?  

Every skill we artists cultivate serves us, not the other way around. Lettering has helped me master typography and graphic design, and it has already opened doors to television and video/stream content, as a graphic designer, for me. 

If lettering is the field an artist wants to stay in, more power to them. 

That doesn’t grant them the authority to guilt-trip, or “humble” other artists who want to expand or discover other opportunities, because that’s toxic. 

The video game industry has a lot of work to do on their work-culture as well, and I don’t think anyone should chain themselves to a toxic work environment. 

You’re a letterer, but I went to your website and I don’t see any lettering. Instead your website showcases wonderful character designs. Most of them beautifully rendered in full color. So, why exactly are you lettering comics, and not doing covers? 

My first Cover just got published actually! Helm GreyCastle Issue 3! But you’re not wrong, took me long enough, right? Well that’s because gatekeeping is a persistent problem in comics. They’ll throw any excuse in our faces to keep us from participating. Luckily Henry is a real-life hero, with a big heart and two functioning eyeballs.
 

You’re work first caught my eye on Harleen, but I’m seeing your name pop up more and more. Can you talk about any of the new projects you’re working on? Are you juggling character design and lettering?

I am currently producing my own original graphic novel. A one-woman-army undertaking, if you will. Don’t ask me when it’ll be ready, art takes all the time it needs.

As for works of art ready to be consumed and adored, I offer these wonderful projects I’ve had the honor of lettering:

Helm GreyCastle by Henry Barajas

Thirty Three by Juan Ponce

Twin Blade by Jarred Lujan

These creatives are the future. So much heart and authenticity in their storytelling, and action! I know talent when I catch myself reading the story as I letter, and these three stories all distracted me,  ha!

Did I mention they were all Latinx/Latine talent? These books bring fresh new perspectives that’ll resonate with all generations. 

Can you tell us more on your own graphic novel? Is there a place we should stay tuned for more details? Now that you mention it, why is it important to you that those projects are Latinx/Latine talent? 

For my graphic novel: follow my social medias for more info on that. Like I said, it’s a one-woman-army undertaking, and I’m still drawing the thing!

As for the Latinx/Latine question…We are not here to “profit-off” of brown/minority stories. We ARE the stories, and when we’re empowered to share our voices, everyone wins. Our Ancestors win, our children and grandchildren win, and consumers from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds win as well, because of education and familiarization. It’s 2021, ignorance is a liability and there is no “un-ringing” that bell.

From Pre-Press artist to letterer to cover artist with video games in sight all the while doing character designs AND working on your own graphic novel. How are you juggling it all. What is your workflow like?  

I use the Adobe Creative Suite, more specifically: Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. The key to “juggling it all” is time management. That means being honest and realistic with myself on how/when I clock in the time for each. That being said, I’m learning to value myself and my self-care. Rest and work time are almost equal, so I need to keep my workload cart updated constantly. 

Earlier this month you made some posts to your socials with the hashtag #COMICSARESTILLRACIST I read it on your IG story but readers of this can find it pinned to your Twitter. It was a well-written piece and you take ownership of it as being ‘your truth’, while I can’t relate to your story in terms of race or gender (I’m a white male in a predominately white male industry), I certainly share your sentiment on career growth, pressure, and gatekeeping. Have you faced any blowback from your statements? Has this experience made you think differently about lettering, or comics in general?

I was made to feel guilty for “throwing people under the bus” but it’s nothing personal! At the end of the day, the numbers DON’T add up to anything healthy, or fair. DC knows it gets the most “bang for it’s buck” by gaslighting the ever-loving-shit out of talented, sensitive, LOYAL creators. It’s an abusive relationship for all artists involved, they’re just too broken and BROKE to speak their truth. It’s ok, I am here to beat the drum. Loudly. Absolution won’t be granted until we get paid better, end of discussion.

So this sounds more financial, than racial. Wouldn’t a better hashtag be #COMICSARESTILLEXPLOITINGCREATIVETALENT what am I missing that makes this racist? And do you feel it’s about corporate policy, individual editors, group editorial policies, or just the way things are? How can we as a comics community fix it? 

It’s nice when race and economics can be compartmentalized separately, but for minorities, it’s the same thing. Employers that claim to be an ally for minorities, and profit from us, but mistreat, underpay, and exploit our time and energy,  or threaten to, or follow through with ending our careers for petty reasons, are racist hypocrites.  

The problem in the comics is racism/elitism. 

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering or life, what would it be?      
 

Real Heroes 

Exist…in

Real Life.

The characters in media are saturated and seductive, but they are not real. You, the listener, are real. I am real, we coexist in this reality.

How you treat others, and how you allow others to treat you, is the only thing that has meaning.

Don’t work with people who exploit you. Don’t worship entities who are cruel. In real life, the only hero enforcing kindness is YOU. The only hero enforcing fairness, is us. We must demand it, and nothing less.

Website: https://www.harmzart.com/

Twitter: @HARMZ_sh

Instagram: @HARMZ_SH, @GabrielaDownieInComics, @harmz.art @PELIGROSA_cosplay

The 2021 Eisner Award Nominees Announced!

Nominees have been announced for the 2021 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards! Congratulations to all the nominees, but especially to my fellow teammates on DC’s The Other History of the DC Universe and Image Comic’s Gideon Falls.

The Other History of the DC Universe #1 has been nominated for Best Single Issue (DC).

Gideon Falls has been nominated for Best Continuing Series (Image).

If that wasn’t cool enough, Jeff Lemire, and Dave Stewart are both up for Best Writer and Best Colorist, respectively. Andrea and myself were not nominated for our work individually on Gideon Falls, but that’s okay we’re not taking it personally. If you’re eligible to vote, please consider casting your vote for Jeff, Dave, Gideon Falls, and The Other History of the DC Universe.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my fellow letterers nominated for Best Lettering this year. They are:

Mike Allred, Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams (Insight Editions)

Deron Bennett, Bear, The Sacrifice of Darkness (Archaia); King of Nowhere, Something Is Killing the Children, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead (BOOM! Studios); Far Sector, Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red, Martian Manhunter (DC); Excellence (Image/Skybound); A Dark Interlude, Dark One, Relics of Youth, Resonant, Shadow Service, Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth (Vault); Ping Pong (VIZ Media)

Aditya Bidikar, Barbalien: Red Planet, Grafity’s Wall Expanded Edition (Dark Horse); John Constantine, Hellblazer (DC); A Map to the Sun (First Second); The Department of Truth, Lost Soldiers (Image); Giga, The Picture of Everything Else (Vault)

Clayton Cowles, Aquaman, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Strange Adventures, Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (DC); Adventureman, Bitter Root, Bog Bodies, Die (Image); Reaver (Image/Skybound); Morbius, X Of Swords (Marvel)

Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (IDW)

Rus Wooton, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth (DC); Decorum, Monstress (Image); Die!Die!Die!, Fire Power, Oblivion Song, Outcast, Stillwater (Image/Skybound)

I know I’m not there, but don’t let that stop you from voting for one of these great choices!

You can check out the rest of the categories and nominees here: https://www.comic-con.org/awards/2021-eisner-awards-nominations

Interview with Gabriel Cassata

Gabriel Cassata is a freelance artist and professional comic book colorist currently living in central Florida.

His work has been published at Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, DC Comics, IDW and Archie Comics among others. His commercial clients have included Lucasfilm, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Lego and Honda.

Gabriel, we have worked on a few books together over the years and it’s always a delight. You have a versatile style, but regardless of rendering, you always seem to pick the perfect colors. How’d you get your start in comics, and did you always want to be a colorist?

No, I just kind of stumbled into it. 

Prior to working full time in comics, I did a lot of visual effects work in Hollywood on a bunch of TV shows and movies. I began as a CG generalist but I quickly discovered that I was getting recognized for my lighting and compositing work. So when I started playing around with coloring pages of line-art I found online as a fun hobby, I realized that all that time spent in VFX was a great training ground for the skills needed to create exciting and compelling comic pages in terms of developing my artist’s eye. And most importantly, it was great fun! I started submitting to publishers and happily began receiving offers. That was about a decade ago and the rest, as they say, is history.        

You’re best known for coloring comics, but you also worked on Marvel’s X-Men game. Can you tell us a little bit about that, and are there any differences to working on a game compared to a comic?

That was one of those ‘blue sky’ jobs as I call them whenever offers seem to just drop out of nowhere. I did a little work on some games in the past but I never worked for Fantasy Flight Games before. An art director there found me and asked if I’d like to provide some illustrations for their new game, X-Men: Mutant Insurrection. So of course I jumped at the chance. 

The biggest difference between creating art for comics and tabletop games is, in comics, we’re mostly concerned with the impact of the full page, specifically storytelling through panel-to-panel sequential images. With games, like traditional illustration, it’s more about a hyper focus on the impact of individual, stand-alone images. Both are rewarding (and challenging) in their own ways. But really, the biggest difference was I was drawing and coloring all the art, which I don’t get to do often. 

What’s the process like working on a game, and how does it compare to comics? Any big differences working with art directors as opposed to editors? One of the things I love about comics is working with a team, do you find that sensation in games?

They have a lot in common from the artist perspective. There’s usually a license holder who has to be satisfied, model sheets for characters and objects to make sure the art team stays on-model and all the usual revisionary back and forth that we know and love from comics. Sadly, the team concept is missing though. I’m one of a dozen disparate artists working independently whose output needs to be on the same page when it’s put together into a cohesive product. That’s the AD’s job and I definitely don’t envy it. It must be like herding cats. But the basic working relationship between artist and art director is nearly identical to comics. Always be nice. Always be professional. Hit your deadlines and you’ll likely get hired again.   

You’ve worked with a lot of publishers. Any favorites? Anybody still on the bucket list? How do you juggle them all, and most importantly does Lego send you free kits?

Honestly, everybody has their horror stories but I’ve had such great experiences working with most publishers. You know the importance of working with a great editorial team. When you find an exceptional Ed. or Asst. Ed., treasure the experience knowing you’re being supported in the best possible way. Eric Harburn at BOOM! gave me my first real comics gig on the series, SUPURBIA, with Russell Dauterman. By the end of that 16-issue run, I knew that I wanted to make a career of it. 

I’ve flirted with Marvel and DC but aside from some small one-off gigs, I’ve yet to fully crack the Big Two. So that’s still clearly on the career bucket-list. But it just goes to show, you can make a stable career out of working for the other guys. It just requires a lot of hustle. I feel like I’m constantly working on maintaining relationships with editors and other pro’s. And I can’t recommend that enough. I’ve booked more gigs due to good reputation and word of mouth than anything. 

I prefer to juggle no more than 3 projects at one time. That seems to be my sweet spot. The key is prioritizing deadlines and I try my best to dedicate any given day’s efforts to only one job. You have to be a good juggler but it works. 

And I’ve yet to receive any free Lego kits! Who do I call about that?         

Can you dive into the nuts and bolts on how you color a page? What’s step one? How do you decide what colors to use? Anytime I color my own work, I feel lost in the spectrum.

The first step for me is reading the entire script from beginning to end. That helps get my head in the vibe of the story and I start ‘pre-coloring’ pages before I even look at the line-art, if that makes sense. I’m making preliminary decisions about tone based purely on the emotional beats of the story. Then when I get to the pages themselves, I usually have to set them up based on a given publishers technical page specs (or at least confirm they’re correct when they get to me). Everybody seems to do it a little differently. And then they’re off to my flatter. When the pages get back from flatting, I try to start from page 1 and work sequentially. That helps me establish the tonal flow and build towards impactful moments. 

I then ‘re-tone’ all the flats as most flatters aren’t concerned with palette, just making separations so finished flats usually look like an explosion at a crayon factory. This initial re-toning helps me create a visual guide for the page. I always like my tonal baseline to begin with the mid-tones. This also helps me stay ‘on-palette’ and avoid any drastic deviations in color that might create a visual speed bump for the reader. Then the hard work is done. All that’s left is the rendering. I work on the whole page at once (not panel by panel). The only time I deviate from this approach is if there is a scene change on a single page. Then I treat them as separate things; fully finishing one scene before starting the other. 

For the rendering, I start by adding shadows to the mid’s, then the highlights, rim lights and bounce lights where necessary. Finally, I add in the post effects (VFX terminology there, I guess) like any glow effects, fog, lighting blooms, etc. Some final cleanup, a quick double-check of the script to make sure I didn’t miss anything and it’s on to the next page.

The color choices I make are really informed by the story. And those all go back to the fundamentals of human nature and how we respond to stimulus. For example, I use warm tones for moments of comfort or passion. Cool tones for scenes of fear or isolation, greens and purples for sickness and unease, etc. That kind of thing. It’s all about reinforcing the emotional connections we want the reader to feel. 

 I try to manage 3-4 pages a day. When deadlines are particularly tight, I shift into overdrive and can do more but, being a new daddy, it’s even more important that I don’t indulge my work-a-holic tendencies too much.

Do you ever get the itch to go back into VFX work?

Not so much. It is a tremendous thrill to see your hard work on screen but I found the creative part of the job takes a backseat to all the technical stuff required to make it happen. My head still hurts from working on the smoke monster from LOST. I’m really proud of the work I did but I started feeling a bit creatively empty. More of a technician than an artist. Comics solved all of those issues and more. I definitely don’t miss those 2-hour, 5-mile LA commutes every day to get to the studio. I much prefer working freelance from a home studio. It opens the door to live pretty much anywhere we want which is nice. I have the freedom to pick and choose the jobs I want to take as opposed to some studio head telling us what we’re working on and hoping we’re into it. Job security is the same performance-based thing that exists in comics but I do miss having all my health insurance and benefits taken care of. Freelance life is like living without a net and it’s definitely not for everybody. It takes a serious work ethic but once you get used to it, it’s very hard to go back.      

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for coloring or life, what would it be?      

I think it’s that old thing about following your bliss. Pick a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. Not to say there aren’t challenges and tough days but as a creative person, being creatively rewarded in my work (and life) is the most important thing. And it’s never too late to start. Whatever you’re doing in life, whatever situation you’re in; if you’re not happy – you have the power to make the changes to improve your happiness. Don’t worry too much about money. Money will come. If you take care of the work, the work will take care of you. Sounds pithy but it’s true. 

And finally, try not to compare yourself to other people. That road leads to frustration, self loathing and will eventually bury the things that make you unique and special as you tend to alter your creative instincts to look like someone else. Just focus on doing your thing. Even if you’re not seeing the success you want to right now, at least you’ll be uniquely you, not just a clone of [insert name of well known artist here].

Oh, and never read reviews. As tempting as the prospect of public validation is, they will mess with your steering. Even the good ones. Just don’t do it.

That’s way more than one thing but all good advice that’s kept me sane. 

Website: https://www.gabrielcassata.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GCassata

Interview with Jim Kohl

Jim Kohl not only has a day job in payroll, but he also just became an exclusive artist for Bolero Snort Brewing. Previously Jim has done labels for Two Villains, Departed Soles, Cypress Brewing and more collaborations than he can remember. He’d also love to draw and color comics.

Jim, anyone who’s seen your label art can tell that you love comics. When did you get into comics and are comics to blame for a lifetime of choices eventually leading you to making art for beer cans?

I’ve been reading comics since I can remember. I became a collector during that early 90’s X-Men boom. Between the cartoon, Jim Lee and the X-Men game for Sega Genesis, I was completely hooked. Comics have definitely been to blame for my love of art and a non-stop push to get my work out there. I drew a daily comic strip for about 10 years coming out of college called Happy Hour. I did a spin off strip called The Brewery. Those comics were published in a few nightlife and beer magazines. It’s a long story, but that was how I connected with the owner of Bolero and ultimately what led me to doing beer labels for the past 6 years. 

Six years later and you’re still doing beer labels, still having fun, and constantly striving to make each one better than the last. What is it about the work that keeps you not only coming back, but striving to do it well?

I think like most artists, I am never satisfied. I need to make sure the next thing is better than the last thing. One of the best parts is collaborating with the owner of Bolero, Bob Olson. We have so much fun building worlds and connecting the labels through the years. Hiding easter eggs and planning months out is just the best. 

You also won the Craft Beer Marketing Awards for Best Brewery Rebrand. Can you talk a bit about what went into the rebranding of Bolero Snort? What was your thought process like for that?

This was a tough one. We had been using a cattle “brand” with BS on it as our logo. That was our logo for a few years. As we started building the physical brewery we knew we wanted something stronger. We had a few iterations, nothing stood out. We even considered dropping “snort” from the name and just moving with Bolero. We had a lot of ideas and nothing was sticking. We were about to work with a marketing firm when I had a dream about the new logo. I woke up and drew it. I sent it over to Bob and he loved it. We cleaned it up and now we have this incredible logo. That was the start, we then reworked the location of the bands on the cans and we’ve been really happy with visuals ever since. Winning the CBMA was just icing on the cake. It felt incredibly validating of the whole journey. 

Can you dive into your artistic background a bit and give us some nuts and bolts on how you create labels?

I wish I had a more exciting answer. I’m largely self trained. I took a few art classes in high school and have just tried to learn from life and comics. I have since joined a few courses online to hone my basics and those have been wonderful. Having friends like you to run ideas off of has also been incredibly valuable. Most labels start with pencils on paper. I like to give myself a quick concept. From there I will draw directly into photoshop using a wacom tablet. I use a lot of layers and move and size pieces until they are in the best spots to avoid the UPC, government warning, band and type. There are a lot of space specific items on labels that need to be considered when designing, I keep a template as my top layer and use that to confirm my spacing. You also need to realize with the shape of the can, the art will wrap around. You’ll never see the entire image. So thinking in can sides is important. 

Any tips for someone like your younger self who is mostly self-trained but working towards creating professional work? Be it, labels, comics, or coloring?

Put your work out there. Don’t be afraid to talk about it. When I am drawing I tend to be introverted. It’s hard to put yourself out there and then also talk about it. But you need to get past that. Find peers and ask for honest feedback. And then if you have the time and money, join some online courses, it’s a great way to push yourself to have deadlines. 

Recently, you took Chris Sotomayer’s online coloring class. How was your experience and are you applying any of it to your label art?

I honestly can’t speak highly enough about Chris and the class. I loved it. I’m already planning on taking the advanced class. Chris is a master and watching him work was worth the price alone. But hearing him walkthrough color theory and applying it to layouts. It was just really incredible. I saw a difference overnight with my work. I wish I had more hours in the day, I’d love to flat colors for comics to really sharpen that foundation. 

Your work generally has a good sense of humor,  to what do you attribute this? 

I’ve always loved humor. My family is really funny. I can’t remember a single holiday where we don’t tell the same hilarious stories and crack up. I try to make folks laugh as much as possible. I love imagining scenarios and mining ideas fully. When I was drawing the comic strip, you have a small amount of time to form a joke, so puns played a big role in finding that humor. Bolero is a LOT of puns. So it worked out pretty naturally. 

The world could use a good dose of laughter lately, so any chance of you doing a new comic strip?

I’ll never say never. But I think for now, that chapter is closed. I’m really loving the label work and I truly want to get some comic book work published. 

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, making labels, or life, what would it be?      

It’ll never be perfect, you just need to put it out there. I think there is a layer of fear in all of us that tells us something isn’t good enough, or we’re not good enough. But if you just keep putting it out there, eventually you’ll find your audience and you’ll find your voice. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HappyHourComic
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bolero.artwork/

Interview with Patrick Brosseau

Patrick Brosseau is a comic book letterer, he’s best known for his work one Birthright, Manifest Destiny, Wonder Woman, Hellboy, T-shirts and working on tons of other books for every major comic book publisher, but let’s be real he’s probably lettered at least one of your favorite comics.

Patrick, let’s take it back to how you got into comics and what led you to lettering comics?

I loved comics and originally wanted to be a comic book artist and attended The Kubert School for two years with that goal in mind. By the end of the second year, it’s a three year school which of course you know but others may not, I kind of realized I’d probably never make it as a professional artist so I started thinking of other ways to get in the biz. I’d always liked the lettering class at the Kubert School taught by the great cartoonist Hy Eisman so I figured I’d try my hand at lettering. So the summer after my second year at the school I sent out samples to various publishers and got a few bites here and there. I was freelance for a few months but then my work started slowing down. At that point I had become friends with another ex-Kubie by the name of Bill Oakley who also my roommate for a while. He was a great artist who at one time inked backgrounds for Bill Sienkiewicz and he was also a fantastic letterer. He had started working in the Marvel Bullpen doing lettering corrections and told me there was an opening there as a letterer and I should come in and try out for it. I got the job on a try out basis and was later hired for the position and worked at Marvel for roughly two and a half years and then went freelance from there. Was freelance for a long time after that, took a job on staff at DC Comics in the mid 2000s, met you there, left DC in 2012 and then went freelance again…whew!

So, you didn’t always want to become a letterer, but you’ve managed to make one hell of a career doing it. Simply put, you are one of the best, and someone who made the transition from hand lettering to digital. What’s kept you interested in doing it?

Thanks, Steve, that’s really nice of you!  When I originally made the transition from hand lettering to digital it was mainly about my survival as a letterer. If I didn’t do it I would have been left by the wayside like some older hand letterers were at the time when digital lettering became more prevalent. When I first taught myself digital lettering it was a chore, but when I started working in DC’s lettering department it was at first sink or swim situation but the more I did it the faster I became and the more I liked it. Also, what keeps me interested in it is looking at current work by you, Rob Leigh, Todd Klein, Aditya Bidikar, Nate Piekos and many others for inspiration and ideas. And if I see something I like done by other letterers I like to figure out how it’s done and try and apply that to some of my work.

You started out your career as a hand letter and then switched to digital lettering later on. What do you feel are the differences between pen and ink hand lettering to digital lettering?

While I still love hand lettering with a pen and ink, having the art right there in front of you and lettering on it, there are a lot of differences with that approach and digital lettering. Traditional pen and ink lettering brings out a lot of patience within you and there’s a zen like quality to it when the pen is working fantastically on the page. When everything’s working it’s great but sometimes when your pen is catching the page and things aren’t flowing it’s a bit tedious which drove me crazy sometimes. Since switching over to digital lettering in the early 2000s I did apply a lot of what I learned hand lettering to digital lettering. Of course digital lettering is so much quicker compared to hand lettering. I no longer have to rule out the lettering guides on a page, ink in all the borders, whiteout mistakes and other prep things, etc. When I hand lettered it usually took me a week or so to letter a 22 page story, now with digital lettering I can letter the same thing in a day or so. So of course I love that aspect of digital lettering. Also, with hand lettering as far as titles, display lettering and sound effects you’re sometimes limited to just your imagination coming up with different type styles. With digital lettering the possibilities are endless if you have a lot of different fonts to choose from. I still do some of my sound effects by hand though, drawing them out digitally in Illustrator or Manga Studio with a variety of brushes and pens within them. So I have tried to carry over some aspects of hand lettering which I really loved to digital lettering.

Any chance you’d consider hand lettering a book again?

I’ve thought about that a few times and my current answer is…maybe? I don’t know if I’d be up to lettering a  whole book though, maybe a short story instead. Takes a while to build up all that stamina and muscle memory lettering a page but once it gets going it’s usually good.

Let’s go back to the in house lettering department at the DC Offices. When I started you were one of the senior guys and you got to do the lion’s share of cover copy.  It’s a lettering element that I’ve always loved and I consider myself lucky that I was able to learn directly from you and Rob Leigh. Many publishers don’t even use cover copy anymore. Can you talk a bit about what cover copy is and what’s your process for creating it. Are you still doing any of it?

I loved doing cover copy and it was one of the funnest things to do while lettering on staff! Cover copy, for those who don’t know, is usually a short blurb on a cover that should entice a reader to pick up the comic. Cover copy has been around probably since the 40s in different forms but became very prevalent with DC and Marvel in the 60s and 70s and is still around nowadays but not as popular as it once was. My approach to designing cover copy was to pick a font which suggested what the copy was implying, like if a word was INFERNO then pick a font which suggests fire, figure out which words should be bolder and bigger for emphasis, and then try and pick colors for the cover copy which matched and blended well with the art. I haven’t done any in a long time now but I do use what I learned while doing it in designing titles and  logos.

Your work has always (in my opinion at least) had a strong sense of design. In our field there are a lot of graphic designers who letter and letterers who do graphic design. Sometimes—and my early work is probably true of this—you can tell when a designer is lettering. How do you find the balance between lettering and design? Any tips for designers trying their hand at lettering?

Oh, wow, thanks! I’ve always felt my design sense to be a bit limited because I’m basically self-taught as far as design goes but I think I’ve gotten better over time. I feel you can be a good letterer and equally a good designer and there’s a lot of overlap with the two. Great lettering doesn’t overpower and blends well with a page while great graphic design does the same, be it on a book cover, ad, movie poster, etc. I’m all for designers trying out lettering because the two go hand and hand at times. As far as tips go, I’d say look at a lot of comic books and pick out what you like about different lettering styles and then try and apply what appeals to you lettering a page while not forgetting what you know about design.

Speaking of design. You’ve been doing some great Comic Book inspired T-shirt designs over at soundfxstudio.com. Tell us the origin story and can you give us a tease of your next design?

Thanks again! My T-shirt idea originally started out as something else entirely different. At first I wanted to sell canvas prints of hand drawn sound effects I had done. Basically print out different designs on small canvases, staple the canvas onto small frames and then sell those. Once I had done a few I quickly realized it was a little too labor intensive plus it used a lot of printer ink! Also I had no idea how and where I would sell them. I had shown a few of the final products on Facebook and someone mentioned the images would also make great T-shirts. So I did a few mock-ups on my computer and liked what I saw. I did some research on print on demand printers, figured out to how to sell them online and went from there. People really seem to like them which is great and I sold around 400 shirts from March to December of last year! Also, here are a few new design ideas!

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Be it something that happened in your regular life or work life. Letting a small thing get to you over time only causes unwanted stress on your mind and body. Life will go on afterwards and you’ll be ready for much more difficult situations in the future.
 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/droog811

Shirts: https://soundfxstudio.com/

Interview with Aditya Bidikar

Aditya Bidikar is the letterer on Home Sick Pilots, The Department of Truth, Coffin Bound, Blue in Green, Hellblazer, and if that’s enough to make you envious, I don’t know what to tell you. 

Aditya, I always like to ask my interviewees how they got into comics and what it was that made you want to make comics?

I got into comics as a writer – I’d been writing prose since I was about 12, and I’d always read comics, but that was limited to Archie, Tintin, and Indian publications like Tinkle and Raj Comics. I came across one of those “Comics Aren’t For Kids Anymore” articles in the film magazine Sight & Sound, and that pointed me towards books like Sin City, Watchmen and City of Glass. It was when I read the City of Glass graphic novel adaptation that I realised how much there was to explore in the comics format as a writer.

I started making my own comics with a couple of Indian artists – this would be around 2008-2009 – and since there was no Indian letterer to my knowledge, I had to teach myself how to letter a comic. I found it to be a very interesting craft – it’s such a specific mix of design, typography and calligraphy, and the letterer gets so much control over how the comic is read. So I quit trying to write for a living, and leaned into lettering. It’s only got more interesting to me since then.

Interesting that you went from wanting to write for a living to leaning into lettering, I’ve seen you express a desire to letter less and do more with writing recently. This is a sentiment we share but I’ve never expressly said it in public before. What do you think is behind this shift for you?

The primary reason I quit writing in the first place was that I couldn’t find a balance between writing for myself and writing for money. I found myself losing what was interesting to me in the first place about writing, and investigating every new idea for commercial viability. That struck me as an unhealthy relationship with the writing, at least for me, so I focussed on lettering because it’s something I enjoy on the craft level – even a bad day lettering is not too bad, while a bad day of writing could be soul-crushing.

I took time off the writing – I think I had two or three stories published in the last eight years, and those were written for pleasure. I spent the last eight years investigating that pleasure – what kind of stories genuinely interested me, what did I want the process to be, and so on. Getting back in touch with the love of writing that had made me write one-and-a-half (terrible) novels as a teenager just because it was a fun thing to do.

I feel I have a better idea of those things now, and because I have a day job that I also love, I can write without worrying about getting things published or making money off the writing (though that’d be nice), and what I write is that much more authentic and honest for that. Now that I have a better grasp of what I want to do, it feels like the right time to put more time into it.

What’s your approach for creating a lettering style on a given book?

The first thing I look at when I’m creating a lettering style is the line quality of the artist. I want to do something that matches that, for one thing. Then I try and choose a font that has a similar line quality and weight, but which also suits the mood and tone of the book. I create 3-4 options, combining different fonts and balloon styles, starting with a straightforward style and getting increasingly wacky. The idea is to give the team something to explore – it’s fine if one of the styles is entirely off-the-wall if we like one element of it enough to use it in a different style. Then I sit with the team and we mix-and-match and come up with something we all like. (I follow the design credo of never offering an option I wouldn’t be happy seeing on the book.) Sometimes, though, I see a book and I just know what it needs, and for those (Coffin Bound, for example), I’ll send a single option along with an essay-length email making a case for it, to which I usually get the reply, “Calm down, Bidi. If you feel that strongly about it…”

You do some books with traditional hand lettering—despite that being awesome on a purely craft level, what the hell is wrong with you?!—and how do you decide what book(s) you do that for?

Haha, the honest answer is, I wanted to learn how to hand-letter, and I find that deadlines offer me a bracing cocktail of clarity, focus and sheer terror. So it was easier to declare I would hand-letter a book, and then figure out how to do it.

As with a lot of books I take on, how I decided to do it is more about the people than about the book. Few writers are okay with me saying, if I’m hand-lettering this, I’ll give you digital placements, and that’s the last time you can edit the text. Ram, on the other hand, just went, well, if it’s going to be worth it, sure. And once we’d decided that, he gave me the space to actually learn how to hand-letter, which meant a lot of initial failure. Ram was the one who kept saying, look, we have time, and if you find you can’t do it, we’ll go digital, but for now, why don’t you keep exploring?

But I offered to do it for Grafity’s Wall and Blue in Green because I thought that digital lettering would take away from what made these books special. As Ram is fond of saying, certain books need to look like somebody sat down and made them by hand – crafted them – rather than produced them. And there’s a quality to hand-lettering that’s not present in the most organic-looking digital lettering. For these two books, it was that combination of the books and the people involved.

Like other letterers, though, I am obsessed with making my process more efficient, so for the second book, I figured out a digital hand-lettering process that retained what’s interesting about hand-lettering while being more editable and taking less time. Hopefully, this’ll make it less expensive for prospective clients, and perhaps there’ll be more hand-lettering in my future. Even now, I’m planning to hand-letter at least one graphic novella in 2021, both because the artwork feels like it needs it, and because the writer (for once, not Ram) felt strongly that we should try and hand-letter it.

Philosophically speaking, comic-book fonts have democratised both comics and lettering, and I think that’s a good thing, because I started out ten years ago (whew) as a digital letterer who couldn’t have hand-lettered at gunpoint. But as the form progresses, we shouldn’t lose what was great about the old way of doing it. Right now, other than John Workman, I can’t think of anybody who hand-letters comics who is a full-time letterer – Dustin Harbin, Kurt Ankeny, Galen Showman, Stan Sakai are all artists who occasionally hand-letter comics for themselves or other people – and I think it’s a pity that when people want hand-lettering, they don’t immediately think of professional letterers. The next step for me, I guess, is to be good enough to letter on the board. More terror. Yay.

You’re—in my opinion—one of the best letterers around. Part of that I think is due to your respect of the craft itself, it’s history, and your ruminating on what good lettering is going forward. Where do see the craft in five years? Ten? Are you still a letter that likes to write, or a writer that used to letter?

Thank you so much, and likewise – you have been an inspiration to me, and I love how versatile and investigative you are in your work. Each book you do is distinctive and interesting in its own way.

Speaking in general, I feel like comics lettering five years from now is going to be much more alive and energetic as a field. You can see it in digital colouring right now – the kinks of how things need to be done on a basic level have been figured out, and the artistry is showing through. Five years from now, I see lettering being the same. In one direction, more people will be hand-lettering – digitally and on paper. At this point, I think I’ve managed to get the method down to be as cost-effective and production-friendly as possible, and I’m sure people like Harbin and Ankeny have their methods, so it’ll continue to get easier. In the other direction, what digital lettering means will also evolve. The direction for that lies in things like the contextual alternates that Nate Piekos is using in his recent fonts, and in Photoshop integration for sound effects the way Hassan OE and Thomas Mauer use it. Lettering in Illustrator, we are limited by how much we can touch the art, but I’m sure the process will evolve and we’ll see far more organic things happening digitally. The basic “house-style” work – I don’t see that changing or evolving much in that time, but around the edges, I think things are only going to get cooler and more interesting.

Ten years is more difficult to gauge. Either we’ll get the credit and recognition we feel we deserve, or it’s robots all the way. Who can tell.

Personally, the other aspect of my cutting down on lettering work (other than writing) is that I want to learn type design more systematically. I’ve been playing with the software for a few years now, and I’ve made 4-5 fonts that I use in my own work, but I think it’s time for me to get serious about it, do some learning, and set up my own foundry. Hopefully five years from now, that’ll be in full swing, and you’ll see my fonts being used in comics alongside those from Blambot and Comicraft. Ten years from now, I’m a hermit who lives entirely on the passive income that generates. Fingers crossed.

But I definitely see myself as a letterer who writes, because I can’t make writing my main thing again – it’s too stressful, and I’d rather do it for love.

Can you walk us through your process for hand-lettering? Don’t spare any nuts and bolts.

I have written detailed accounts of the process for both Grafity’s Wall and now Blue in Green, but those are intended for non-letterers, so while you get a sense of my aesthetic exploration from those, I haven’t written about the actual nuts-and-bolts process, and I’m delighted that you asked, because I’m going to assume it’s all us letterers here, and I don’t have to hold back.

Grafity’s Wall:

I’ve written about how I landed on the right size and style in the process post, so I’ll skip that and go straight to how each page was lettered. (You can check that out here: https://unbound.com/books/grafitys-wall/updates/writing-between-the-lines)

I would get the tiff file once the inking was done, and I would add crop marks to the edges, blow it up to A4 height, and then knock out the black and replace it with a light cyan (this is why I preferred working on the inks rather than the colours). I’d print that out on cartridge paper to letter on it.

In the meantime, I’d do a digital placement file for Ram (yes, I’d be lettering each page twice, but this version was always really sloppy) using a font that’d take up around the same amount of space (I think it was J Scott Campbell Lower from Comicraft). We’d use this to edit the dialogue, because we couldn’t fix anything other than minor typos once the book was fully lettered.

Based on those placements, I’d draw guides on the printed-out version of the page (this was when editorial placements suddenly started making sense to me), and I’d pencil out the dialogue to make sure I wasn’t covering faces or anything important. Then I’d letter it, and this bit didn’t take too long – it was everything that came afterwards that was the real pain in the ass and I constantly wished we had production people for this like in the old days.

Once the lettering was done, I’d scan the lettering, knock out all the cyan so only the black was left, and I’d use the crop marks to resize this down to comics size and align it with the page in Photoshop. Then I’d set the lettering layer to multiply (so the white would disappear, and the black would overprint correctly – this was also when I’d apply a threshold action to make sure the black was 100K and not rich black), and I’d fill in the balloons with white on a layer beneath that (this was my least favourite part, and I’d always make sure to do this over colours, because there’s nothing quite as annoying as the art showing through bits of your balloons and then having to check every page).

(The sizing up and sizing down was for two reasons – first, Anand drew the pages at A4, and I wanted to react to the art as he’d drawn it, and sizing the lettering down makes it looks smoother too.)

I drew the sound effects on paper too, so I’d take those to a separate layer and colourise them and play with them digitally so they looked organic. Ideally I would’ve liked to hand those to the colourist to mess with, like you’d do with proper hand-lettering, but I don’t think the process could’ve accommodated that.

The chapter titles were all digitally done in Photoshop, and I convinced myself that was okay because old-timey hand-letterers would occasionally use printed type in their work. Still, one of those was digitally hand-lettered and the other was a font I cobbled together based on an old Bollywood movie poster, so I like to think I wasn’t slacking off.

Once all the pages were done, we did a round of catching typos and egregious mistakes, and I still have a piece of paper somewhere with what looks like random words and phrases that I then scanned and used to make corrections.

Blue in Green:

Again, details on the aesthetic choices are in the process post, I’m just happy you used the words “nuts and bolts” and let me run wild. (And you can check that out here: https://adityab.substack.com/p/strange-animals-26oct2020-feeling)

I lettered this on the iPad, and used the time between the two books to get any kinks out of the process, so this one was smooth sailing.

I made a page in Photoshop with guides spaced at 2mm height with 0.5mm leading (I tend to letter inside the lines, so the usually recommended 1mm leading was far too tall for me), and I exported that to Sketch on the iPad. We did digital placements again (this time using CC’s Ask for Mercy), and after Ram’s notes, I used that to get a sense of the stacking while I lettered on the iPad. As I noted in my process post, some pages were lettered before the art was done, and for those, I had to guess at the stacking and then fix it while compiling in Photoshop later.

I tested out a bunch of custom brushes and tweaked them endlessly to get the right one. I did a few print tests before we started making the book to make sure it didn’t print too thin or anything like that.

Once the basic lettering was done, I used Photoshop Sketch’s integration with Creative Cloud to access the files on my laptop. There, I’d downsize the lettering from 600dpi to 450dpi, to match the art dimensions and, again, so it smooths out. By this point I had a nice little Photoshop action set up that’d create all the layers I needed for the work. I’d paste in the letters, and use the pen tool to draw balloons. Then I’d go over those to create the borders (as you can see in the book, the balloons and the lines are deliberately slightly misaligned).

As you can see, the process not only had fewer steps, it was also shorter and more flexible. With Grafity, I think I could manage 6-8 pages a day, while with Blue in Green, it was more like 10, which is getting close to my normal lettering speed.

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?

This is advice for creative people that I think applies to everyone else. It’s fine to have ambition and goals with what you do, but when you’re trying to decide what to dedicate your life to, make sure you enjoy the daily grind of it. It’s no fun if you want to be a novelist but hate sitting down and putting the words in. Results are occasional, but the process is daily. Make sure you like the process.

https://adityab.net/lettering/

Interview with Ryan Cody

Ryan Cody is a comic book artist, most recently turning heads with his colors on Family Tree. He also colors Hero Code for Jamie Gambell, an indie superhero comic, as well as an unannounced project coloring over artist, David Hahn.

Ryan, how did you get into comics and what led you to making comics?

When I was 10 or 11 my dad would take me to a barber that had comics on the tables while you waited. I'd read old issues of Iron Man and Spider-Man, and that led to picking up random issues at the convenience store whenever my parent's would buy them for me. When I discovered my first comic shop, House of Armands, in Oceanside, CA, I really just fell fully in love with them at that point. Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur were the first series I followed monthly.

I always wanted to draw comics, but life got in the way and I eventually stopped reading them altogether in the late 90's. Around 2004 I saw an issue of Powers and something about that book hooked me and got me back into wanting to make comics again. My first book, Villains, was published a couple years later by a small publisher called Viper Comics. I was very green, and it shows in the work. It was the first long form sequential work I had ever done but it still felt great to be published.

Did you always want to become a colorist?  

Not until recently. I've always been a line artist who has colored his own work for the most part. A few years ago I started realizing that coloring was my favorite part of the process and began to explore that direction the best I could. I started by coloring pin-ups of my friends work and then an occasional short project or pitch pages for small indie books. Eventually, Phil Hester gave me chance on an anthology book called Shock Vol.2. for Aftershock Comics. Those 5 pages led to working on Family Tree.

How do you approach coloring a comic? Do you have the same method for every book? Please feel free to get into the nuts and bolts a bit!

My process as far as page set-up and lighting is very much the same on most projects. I flat color the pages in basic colors, no different than how we all colored when were 6, or sometimes I pay someone to flat them for me. Then I lay in my shadows and highlights and any special effects lighting. At that point, my main focus becomes the overall color palette of the page. The most important thing that changes between each project is the color and “mood” the creators want it to have. For Family Tree it's supposed to be desaturated and gloomy, except when there are scenes that need to pop and be lush and green. I try to give every scene its own color mood.

For example, a calm scene set outside at night will have blue and purple hues as the main color focus. Conversely, an action or tense scene set at night might have more of a purple and red color focus, to highlight the tension or aggression. Once colorists saw red skies for night used on Batman: The Animated Series, we all filed that one away for future use.

A scene set in a doctor’s office or an office building, places where people generally don’t like to be I’ll color in yellowish greens, almost a sickly pale color. In my opinion environment and mood should dictate color, not necessarily realistic and typical colors.

Do your roles as artist and colorist ever conflict? I know from my own experiences that lettering and coloring tend to have some very tight deadlines, and I can attest to how fast you can color a book, but do you ever have a lineart gig and a coloring gig with the same deadline? If so, how do you make that work?

Most of my projects that I have done all the artwork on have had flexible deadlines so it’s never really been a problem. Much like my coloring style, my line art style is pretty simple as well, so I can work fairly fast if I need to and can usually pencil, ink and color a page in a day, unless it’s very detailed.

Time for some tough questions! Do you have any favorite horror movies you like to watch this time of year? Do you put on spooky music when you’re coloring Family Tree?

I’m not really a big horror fan honestly. Usually this time of year I’m gearing up for my annual re-watch of Band of Brothers in November. I’m a big podcast and sports guy, so I usually have a soccer game on, or a comedy podcast going when I’m working. I’m not super deep into soccer, but I find the pace and commentary very soothing.

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      

Creating comics is work. If you get into this business thinking it's all fun and working from home and being your own boss, and having insane creative freedom, you're going to be sorely mistaken. If your goal is to pay your bills making comics in any form, the sooner you treat it like a job and understand the hardships that come with it, the better.

https://super75studios.com/
www.instagram.com/ryancody75 (@ryancody75)

Interview with DC Hopkins

*This interview mostly took place over the course of 2019 on the Lo-Fi Fonts Monthly Newsletter.

DC, you’ve lettered for IDW, Dynamite, Lion Forge, Black Mask, Disney, Tor, Vault, and others. You’re a staff letterer for Deron Bennet’s AndWorld Design group and you co-host two podcasts. Sounds like you’re a busy guy. So when you told me you were going to quit your job to pursue lettering, I assumed you already were lettering full time.

So, why are you quitting your day job?

Ha! Fair point. I actually have been lettering full time for awhile, but I’ve had a second full time day job as well, primarily for the insurance. Professionally speaking, I’ve been lettering since 2013 but I’ve always had the day job in the background (although, ironically, most people at my day job didn’t know about my career in comics). For the past 3.5 years, my day job has also been from home. This allowed me a lot of flexibility to get things done at both places, which meant I was able to keep increasing my lettering work load.

Why lettering, and why now? 

It’s always been my dream to do lettering full time ever since I realized back in 2010 or so that lettering was what I wanted to do with my life. Since the age of 16, I’ve always held down a job, but discovering my love for lettering was the first time I felt a sense of ambition with the work. I wanted to learn, I wanted to improve, and I wanted to chase the challenges that were in front of me. And that’s honestly what still fuels me to this day. I think most things are as easy as you want to make them, and lettering was the first time that I wanted to make things more challenging for myself so I could keep getting better. As for the “why now?”…it was a combination of the normal life necessities (insurance, savings, etc.) getting worked out, as well as that personal sense of taking my work to the next level kicking in yet again.

Now that you’re ready to take it to the next level, have you set any goals for yourself? Any challenges you’re preparing for, or concerns you might have?

Definitely for all three categories! With the concerns and challenges in mind, I’ve tried to mold my goals around them in a way that allows me to continue to push myself creatively, while mitigating the stress that comes with the transition.

Creatively...

• I want to work with at least three new publishers whom I haven’t worked with in the past. This might happen organically of course, but I want to continue to push myself to reach out to new places and network more.

• I’d like to work on an impactful book this year. Not necessarily that it has to be high-profile (although obviously I wouldn’t turn that down!), but something that has people talking and generates some buzz. Whether that’s for quality reasons, social messages, or otherwise.

• I want to continue to promote and grow AndWorld Design, Deron Bennett's studio that I'm a member of. I've very proudly waved that banner since I started lettering for Deron and with the rest of that crew, and I know he has exciting things happening in 2019. Keeping that badge and staying tight with the group is a priority for me.

Financially...

• I want to continue to have a better grasp on what exactly I should be paying for my quarterly taxes and have a deeper understanding of how I should adjust in either direction. We’ve met with an accountant who will help with this piece as well, but I want to continue to learn more and more about the fiscal side of being a freelancer this year, both when it comes to taxes and also fine-tuning income going from one account to another.

Personally...

• I want to establish a (relatively) loose schedule for my work days to balance efficiency and time with my wife and 2-year-old son. One of my primary concerns with quitting my day job was ensuring that I don’t immediately lose myself in the lettering, potentially causing damage to our family as a husband and a father. I know that I have trouble saying “no” to projects, so I want to try and find a loose rhythm within the first quarter.

• I want to double down on good health-related habits. A healthy diet, daily exercise, an attention to proper posture and working conditions, and an attempt to get a full night’s worth of sleep.

How was your first month as a full-time freelancer?

In one word…hectic. For a variety of reasons. Some that I expected and planned for, some that I expected and didn’t prepare well enough for, and finally some that were totally unexpected and random. Things started out well enough…I posted a two-page comic I’d made (check it out here) and sent to my day job co-workers as both part of my goodbye email and also to show them what exactly it is that I do as a comic book letterer. It gained a surprising amount of traction and attention on Twitter which in turn led directly to some new jobs with both indie creators and an established publisher (BOOM! Studios). Because I wanted to keep this positive momentum going, combined with my fear of quitting my day job, I was accepting EVERYTHING that came my way haha. Looking back, I can tell that I took on too much. I had the best of intentions that first week to start off with all of my positive habits in place that we discussed in the last newsletter (life/work balance, good health and sleep patterns, etc.), and after one day of doing things well, I was back to staying up till 2:00 AM each night drinking coffee and working late. A couple of weeks later I was getting better at balancing things and getting used to the new routine, and things were falling more into place.

That’s when a pipe froze in our bathroom and burst through the wall, flooding half of our downstairs and causing damage extensive enough that we now have to replace all of the flooring!

Throw in my son and wife both getting sick (including an ER trip for the kid), and things got extremely stressful VERY quickly. I say all of this, not for the attention or sympathy, but simply because it was my first brush with these sorts of stressful situations in an environment that was already scary and new to me. Having to handle and work on all of these new challenges while still trying to get work done and keep up with deadlines was really tough. I’m only now starting to feel like I can breathe a little better again. Three weeks ago I was on the ground with a Shop-Vac trying to get all of the water off/out of the floor, and all I could repeat in my head was “You total idiot. You quit your job. Why did you quit your job?!” over and over again haha. With some time and distance, I don’t have those same feelings of fear and stress. Financially, I can see that switching to freelance full time is working, and we’ll be good. So I feel more personal fulfillment and happiness when it comes to my career than ever before.

Has going full time revealed any obstacles you didn't plan for when you decided to make the jump?

Definitely! I didn’t really think about planning for the unplannable (which isn’t a word, I know, but go with me here). That sounds silly and, obviously, it’s impossible, but the concept that sometimes things will happen that prevent me from being as productive as I’d like to be is one that I hadn’t accepted or anticipated. As much as this last month has sort of sucked, I’m glad that it happened now because it was a huge lesson which allowed me to grow through the stress. With a day job, especially a salaried one, if circumstances outside of work get truly difficult and you have to step away to deal with them, that’s relatively easy - whether you take a personal day or have to use some vacation time, you can set that aside and come back to it later and things stay on the tracks. But with freelancing, it’s all on you. The deadlines don’t care if life has just roundhouse kicked you in the face. All of that being said, I also learned that bouncing back and making things work even when it gets tough is doable. It might mean a few extra late nights or early mornings, but you do what you gotta do, and you get things back on track. It was a good lesson to learn.

With con season upon us, let's explore what's worked for you?

With 2019 in full swing, one big aspect of being a self-promoting freelancer for me has been determining A) how many cons to visit during the year, B) which cons to visit, and C) how to receive the biggest return on investment (financially and otherwise) at the cons I do attend. Up until a few years ago, this aspect of the freelancing gig was one that gave me a lot of stress, primarily because the idea of cold-calling and “networking” (quotes because that term is often used so vaguely that it loses all meaning) was something that I have zero natural ability for. Operating professionally in known work environments and interacting with other co-workers? That’s easy. Walking up to someone I’ve never spoken to at the after-hours “bar con” and striking up a conversation? That sounds like a special sort of torture.

So here are some of the things I’ve learned that have worked for me when it comes to attending cons as a freelance letterer!

1. Research the connections you do have with other attendees of the show BEFORE you go. This one is easy and doesn’t cost you much of anything beyond a little bit of time in the days leading up to the convention weekend. I go through all of the guests on the website’s listings (including and especially Artist Alley!) and make note of which names I recognize in a professional capacity. This doesn’t have to be as direct as you’d think. Obviously writers and artists that I’ve lettered with I’ll make a point to stop by their booths and introduce myself, but I’ll also do the same for friends of friends or other ancillary professionals. Do we follow each other on Twitter? I will make the introduction and find out what they’re up to at their table, what they’re currently selling, working on, etc. I always make sure to lead with my full name and what the connection is to, that way there’s not any sort of awkward pause where they feel like they’re trying to remember how they might know me. I make my way through Artist Alley at least twice during the weekend, stopping by tables and making those connections where appropriate. People tabling always seem to welcome the interactions too, if for no other reason then it breaks up the monotony of being tethered to their location all weekend.

2. After/before-hours networking outside of the show is a must. This one is a little harder to make happen sometimes because you never know what’s going to be going down for sure and you have to be pretty flexible and willing to adapt. While the convention is, typically, as organized as possible with the uniform lanes of booths and tables, the stuff happening outside of the con is much more impromptu and you never know who is going to show up where. This is why you have to be willing to be out and about with the people! The amount of connections I’ve made simply from being out there is pretty high, and I never expected any of them to happen when I walked into the location. As chaotic and unappealing as something like “bar con” can be to some of us, especially those of us with more anti-social tendencies, it’s where people are getting to know each other and social connections are being formed. Social media can also be pretty helpful here in terms of finding out where industry folks are congregating if you don’t already know someone who will be there. And last, but definitely not least, we also always have each other as fellow letterers to reach out to!

3. You don’t have to attend EVERY show, but try to attend at least 1-4 during the year if possible. I’ve attended C2E2 every year since its inception, but only in the past few years did it become more of a business trip and less of a thing I attend as a fan (although I still make a little time for the fun stuff too!). Because of my familiarity of that con and proximity to Chicago, combined with the size of the show itself, this became one of my staple cons to attend every year. Last year I added in NYCC which I found to be incredibly rewarding as well - it is attended by a lot of publishers, both indie and otherwise, and the amount of face-to-face introductions and conversations I had while there was worth the trip alone (and the annual Letterer Meet-Up too of course!). I try to keep some availability during the rest of the year open for other shows that either present themselves with a specific incentive to go, or ones that are large enough and will have professionals in attendance who I’ve worked with but haven’t met in person, etc. I don’t subscribe to the idea that the only way to get work is by attending cons all of the time and making contacts in person. We’ve all gotten plenty of jobs through social media and other online connections to prove that theory wrong. But I do think that having a physical presence helps maintain and strengthen existing professional relationships, as well as provides an advantage in recruiting new clients and industry-based connections. Too many of us in the industry are adverse to any sort of communication other than email or other text-based methods. I understand why this is, but taking the time to connect with people in person at conventions is huge for many people. It’s all about making the relationships strong.

So for C2E2 this year, I…
• Researched ahead of time and discovered there were about 10+ tables I knew I needed to stop at.
- About half of these were creators I’d worked with over the past year(s), but hadn’t met in person.
- A quarter were folks I’d met in person before and work with currently.
- A quarter were people who I had minor/tangential connections to over social media and wanted to introduce myself.
• Knew from years past that the Hyatt bar attached to the convention center was the place that most industry people would meet up at each night, so that was a good place to make some connections/have a drink.
• Also stopped at publisher booths where I’d done work in the past. This is a good place to meet editors and other folks who work more behind the scenes and it’s great to get to know them as well.
• Happened to learn the hard way that bringing a toddler to a convention makes all of the above points approximately 4x harder to accomplish, so there’s a bonus lesson for all of you parents with young kids! ;)

DC, what's going on? We took a month off and it's already the end of May. You're closing in on the halfway point of your first year as a freelancer. Are you hitting the goals you've set for yourself? Found challenges you didn't anticipate?

It’s crazy to think we’re already midway through 2019, but you’re right! This time has flown by. So far, things are going great! Although I always want to knock on wood whenever I tell someone that because I know how quickly things can change. I’m very grateful that my official start to full-time without a day job has been busy from the jump. In terms of my goals, I had originally broken them down into three key categories: Creative, Financial, and Personal. On the Creative side, I’ve met my goal of wanting to work with new publishers already through a new relationship with BOOM! Studios, a book currently in the works over at Image, and my first story over at DC in a recent Titans 100-Page Giant. I still have a few publishers who I’d love to work with in 2019, so I’m trying to keep the momentum going, but this was a goal I did not anticipate to hit so quickly, and I’m grateful that the opportunities arose. For my Financial goals, things are going well there too - meeting with our accountant has been incredibly helpful and I now have a better grasp on getting into the more minute details of saving for my quarterlies. Lastly, on the Personal goals side of things…not as much success haha. My schedule is still all over the place and I get in work when I can find the time. I know that a big part of this is that for at least half of the day I have a toddler at home with me, so I’m trying to accept it as much as possible while still attempting a “normal” schedule whenever I can get it. Because of the chaos, the healthy habits have been tough as well. I’m still able to get to the gym 3+ times a week, but the diet and posture habits aren’t as consistent. That’s my current main focus I’d like to shape into a dependable routine.

What books are you currently working on?

Right now I’m lettering Sina Grace’s new monthly book for BOOM! called Ghosted In L.A. and it’s been a ton of fun working with that team. I’m also finishing up Vol. 3 of Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand OGN for Dynamite, and I just finished two more OGNs for Lion Forge and Humanoids respectively. I’m still trying to get used to the unpredictable rhythm of being a freelancer…one minute you’re buried with work, the next you’re all caught up while you wait for more pages to come in. It used to just fill me with anxiety, but now I’m kind of enjoying the insanity! :)

DC, it's been a minute since we talked. How's it going? Are things more or less going as planned, or has life taken your plans and made toilet paper out of them?

Hey Steve! Honestly, things are going pretty well. Any time where I’ve sensed a lull is coming on, something comes up, or a new client appears, and things get busy again (which I am incredibly grateful for, as always). One thing I’m learning is that for me at least, the last third of the year is becoming more and more con-heavy. This means a little bit more financial planning so that the travel expenses aren’t hitting me as hard all at once. Definitely doable, but one of those things I couldn’t really plan ahead for that I’m learning as I go.

Have you learned anything new about yourself that you maybe thought you wouldn’t?

The biggest lesson right now that I’m trying to learn is that my mental health is just as (if not more) important as my physical health. I’ve made some great strides in the physical health and fitness side of things - getting to the gym every day, eating super healthy, getting the right amount of sleep (most of the time) - but one area I’ve lacked until recently has been taking care of myself mentally. I think therapy is a good thing for anyone and everyone, regardless of what’s going on, but for me personally, it was something that I finally realized I needed to start doing. I won’t get into all of the depressing details, but from a lettering perspective just trying to find the right balance between work and family has always been a challenge, and taking steps to take care of my mental health has helped in many ways. I’m still very much in the thick of it and to be totally honest some days I feel like I’m struggling more than ever, but the most significant difference is that I’m working on it now and I have plans in place to help me work toward those goals. Before recently, I was just relying on myself to make everything work without any “training” so to speak, and it was quickly becoming clear that it wasn’t a viable long-term approach. So take care of yourselves, people! :)

With the end of the year in sight are you still excited about lettering full time as a freelancer?

Absolutely. It’s weird cause I often tell people that a pivotal day for me some years back was the day that I sat down to letter and realized I just didn’t feel like doing it right then. I wanted to go do something else like read or watch a movie or play video games. That moment was a strange one for me because, up until then, I loved lettering ALL of the time, without fail. But I forced myself to stay at my desk, and I loaded up my files and did the work. That was a pivotal day for me because, contrary to popular belief, doing what you love can be and often is STILL WORK. I love lettering comics, I love doing design, I (sometimes) love creating logos, but sometimes I don’t. And I sort of love that too. I know it means that the honeymoon phase is over and that I’ve found the internal resolve and willpower I need to be consistent at making this a career and profession. So I say all of that to say: even without a day job looming in the background as I did before this year, it still excites me that some days I have to prod myself to get going because it means I have a career in comics now that I value so much, both from a creative POV and a financial one. It means a lot to me.

DC, thanks for sharing your journey and being candid about it all. Let me point out that it seems DC is learning a lesson that took me far too long to learn--mental health--especially the work/life/family balance. If anyone takes away one thing please let it be that. Find the balance and define the balance. The time you take away from your work might be the best thing you can do for your work. 

Hold on boils and ghouls cause we have one more cat to skin! I mean, time for a very important question with DC Hopkins!

DC, this has been your first year as a full-time freelance letterer and I'm dying to know…what…is…your…favorite Halloween-ish thing to do?

I’m a HUGE horror/Halloween/spooky stuff fan, so I’ve been all about the Halloween mood lately. For things to do, it’s been cool to see all of the staples (trick-or-treating, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, etc.) through my kid’s eyes since he’s 3 now and at an age where all of that stuff is new and fun to him. In terms of books, earlier this month I finished Hell House by Richard Matheson which I absolutely loved. It’s a great haunted house novel with some edge to it and a lot of fun technology at play that feels very ahead of its time, especially since the book was published in 1971. I also watched the 1973 film adaptation and really enjoyed it too! Probably the thing that I love the most is finding old commercials and television specials from the ‘80s and ‘90s to have playing in the background while I work. On an emotional/nostalgia level, that stuff takes me back to my youth the most. Along those same lines, I also usually watch the WNUF Halloween Special which is a lot of fun!

Looking back at your first year of freelancing, how do you think it went? Any final takeaways or insights you can offer someone looking to do the same?

Looking back, I can safely (and fortunately) say that my first year of being totally self-employed went incredibly well, especially considering how much trepidation and anxiety I had first stepping into it. It wasn’t without its challenges of course, and many of those were outlined throughout our conversations throughout the year, but all of the preparative steps we took before making the transition were what set me up for success. Other veteran letterers and creator friends in the industry were especially helpful in answering questions and encouraging me from the jump, which I will always be incredibly grateful for. 

I’ve already had other lettering friends reach out to me asking your latter question and I’m happy to share what really worked for me. The first thing, easily, would be to save up (at least) a few months’ worth of pay to cover bills and other items in the event that creative work dries up after you make the jump. This gives you some breathing room so you’re not immediately having to go back to trying to find a day job if lettering and design jobs get lean. Secondly, speak with an accountant if you haven’t already done so. Their expertise and insight is invaluable in helping you best plan out your estimated tax payments, determining the most efficient write-offs, and other important items that can be intimidating and confusing to try and figure out on your own. Third, seek out a support system of other creatives if at all possible. AndWorld Design is the primary network for me in this way: studio mates and co-workers who are my first stop if I have questions about pretty much anything related to the job. But other creator friends on social media are super important too, and I’ve also made steps to connect with local Indiana-based industry folks which was creatively energizing in a way I didn’t fully expect. Finally, be bold, but be smart about it. Too many inspirational memes and quotes throw caution to the wind in a way that I think can be counterintuitive. You CAN make this work, and you SHOULD put yourself out there and take risks…but a bit of preparation and calculation is only going to tip the scales in your favor once you make the leap.

Last, but not least, let me thank YOU, Steve, for doing what you do in the industry and being a great example to the rest of us. Putting together a monthly newsletter in the way that you do, with the amount of content you provide, is a big task. Between your insights here, your fantastic fonts, and your work in general, you’re an important piece of my network and I know the same is true for many others. This has been a total pleasure chatting with you for so many of these months - I look forward to buying you a beer whenever our paths cross IRL! :)

Something I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering or life, what would it be?

One thing that my dad taught me from a young age is that we don’t grow during the good (or easy) times. While we should appreciate the good times while we’re in them, the growth happens when we’re being challenged and when things aren’t easy, and that’s when we need to take stock of what’s happening so we can learn how to grow. This is one of my biggest life takeaways, but it also applies to lettering in a big way. For example, just earlier this week, I was challenged at AndWorld with a bad lettering habit I had been doing for literally YEARS that I didn’t realize was incorrect. It was sort of minuscule, and imperceptible probably to even most letterers, but it was a hit to my confidence and took me a second to gather myself and realize that I shouldn’t push back or be defensive, but to understand and learn from it. Moments like this are invaluable to me as it only helps to improve my work and, hopefully when taken at the macro, my life!

You can find more about DC at:
hopkinsletters.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dc_hopkins

GIG-A-TRON!

So you got your first gig--congrats! It probably feels a little surreal. You've loved comics your whole life and fought tooth and nail for this moment and you made it happen. You got your first page rate, and damn is it low, but that's okay cause you're in the biz, kid! Enjoy the moment, and if you're talented, pleasant, organized, and a little bit lucky you'll have many more moments like it.

Okay, you've lettered your first comic and are now getting acquainted with the editorial and proofreading process. Hopefully since this is your first gig they aren't re-writing the entire book on you, but it happens (and don't worry, we'll eventually talk about that BS here). You manage to fix all the mistakes, and yep, there are bound to be some. And yes, even you will have made mistakes on your first book. That's okay, I still make mistakes, too. Just try to improve every time. There's a thin line between mistakes and messiness and your editor will let you know if it's the latter. Anyway, so you've delivered your final files and the job is done. The payment is on the way. Now what?

Now, you should be leveraging this gig into as many gigs as you want to take on. Start with your editor or publisher you just delivered your first work to. If they're happy with your work and you in general they will use you again. The thing about comics is that they always need to be lettered! But Steve, how?! Well, just ask. Ask your editor if they have additional work you can take on. If not, do they know of any other editors in need of lettering? No? Don't fret, don't be annoying about it, and as soon as you can show the world your first book. Post it to your socials, share it with your friends. Talk about your positive experience with the work and how much you'd like to do it again. Tell people you're looking for work. Reach out to other creatives, other letterers and ask if they know someone looking for lettering (or whatever it is you do). Leverage this work in all the ways you can, while being sincere, non-spammy, pleasant, and professional. 

And that really should be enough to turn one gig into another. Rinse and repeat.

WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?!

First off, this is not some self-help mumbo jumbo about self-esteem, but self-esteem and how you value your self and your time absolutely affects your overall worth. Now, for the sake of this piece I'll be focusing on determining if a page rate can work for you and if it doesn't what--if anything--you can do about it.

So, despite your parents protests, you've decided you want to letter comics. Let's assume you have a solid foundation on how to actually do this and you've proven to yourself you can do it well. You've put your work out there, submitted samples, and hey! someone has just offered you your first gig. Congrats! 

The client has neglected to tell you what your page rate is, and being the smart individual you are, you ask them, "what's the rate on this?" They reply, and it's 10 dollars a page. It's probably not the answer you were hoping to get, and you respond asking if it's possible to get more. Turns out to be no. This is your first gig after all, and it's with a smaller--but reputable--publisher. Now you have to ask yourself if you're worth that? Are you worth more? Chances are you're worth more, but you decide you love comics. The project is a good fit for you, and you're just excited to get your first professional credit in a comic book. It really is a great feeling. Enjoy it, be proud of it.

You now have a baseline page rate. 10 bucks a page. There's probably 22 pages in the book. If you're decent at math that's 220 dollars. Factor in 30% for the tax man and you're going to take home 154 dollars to letter that book. If a client offers you less than 10 a page, walk away. Seriously. In my opinion this is the bare minimum page rate even a beginner letterer should take. 

Now the gut-check begins. Can YOU realistically make that page rate work for YOUR life. You seriously need to take a look at your ability and speed. At this rate, speed will be your best asset. Not only to get more work, but to make the most efficient use of your time and page rate. If you can develop a workflow that moves you speedily through pages, while delivering GOOD work this will develop your overall ability as a letterer but earn you the ability to get more work and command a better page rate. Why? Because you're worth it, and you've proved to your client your worth it. Now, it may take you some time but if your persistent and consistent it will happen. (You have to ask of course.)

Let's say you're able to letter 4 pages per hour. Instead of looking at it as a page rate, you could change the way you look at the project to an hourly wage. Now, you're making 40 dollars/hour (don't forget the tax man!) that's not bad. Also keep in mind time beyond the initial page. Keep track of how much time you spend on communication with your client, on corrections, proofreading, re-writing, file delivery and then factor that into the rate. Is it still worth your time? How can you make it so that it is? I have no easy answer there, that's really up to you. But if you really want to be a letter, speed is the name of the game. Speed kills.

Interview with Corey Breen

This month we’ll be talking with letterer and designer Corey Breen. Corey has lettered a variety of titles for numerous publishers including DC Comics (Batman Overdrive, Teen Titans, Doomed, Firestorm), Boom! Studios (Bravest Warriors, Fraggle Rock), IDW (Samurai Jack, Sonic) and AfterShock Comics (The Normals). He is currently doing more design than lettering, especially for AfterShock as their Book Designer and Collections Production.

Corey, you were a fixture in the NYC DC Comics offices as a senior pre-press artist and one of the first folks I got to know in my time there. Always full of enthusiasm and excited about comics. You were lettering for awhile and then took a job outside of comics, but now you’re back and designing books. Where have you been and are you returning to comics full time?!

First of all, hi Steve, it’s really great to talk with you again! As to your question, you got most of that right, but it’s way more complicated then that. To really get into what I’m doing now, to me at least, is a much longer story. One that I actually like telling, though. I do get a bit long winded though, so please feel free to reign me in.

I started my career in comics after college. Scratch that, I actually interned at DC Comics in their Production department my senior year of college (Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, BA in Illustration). They liked me a lot, and actually wanted me to stay, but I went back to finish my senior year and graduated. I kept in touch with them and a couple months after graduation, they hired me full time. I worked on covers in the Production Department but made it known I wanted to be in the bullpen working on the books themselves, doing art and lettering corrections. This was back in 2000-2001. I made that switch and I knew immediately that I was where I wanted to be. We still did everything by hand then. We did art corrections on the real boards sent in by the artists of each book. We did hand lettering corrections over hand lettering as well. The key was to always match the style of the artist and letterer and make it seem that it had always been that way, not knowing we had changed anything, even though we did. The process was really cool actually, but time consuming. Comicraft was just getting started and was really the only one doing computer lettering then. They would send in their final files though a hard copy and we would cut them out and paste them on the boards. Everything was still done manually up until about 2004, I think. Marvel had started digital lettering before we switched over, but we adapted at DC, and started doing everything on the computer in Adobe, no longer on the boards. Anyway, back to me (hah ha). I worked with some incredibly talented people over the years, including yourself, and eventually DC created their own lettering department, of which you joined with the likes of Rob Leigh, Pat Brosseau, Jared Fletcher, Phil Balsman and Rob Clark (sorry if I missed anyone). I really thought about joining, especially later on when Sal Cipriano, Taylor Esposito, Carlos Mangual, Dezi Sienty, and others came aboard. It was a really great group of people. But my love was always art first, so I stayed in Pre-Press, where I still got to do lots of lettering anyway, mostly corrections for the lettering department when it came time to put the books together.

After 13 years at DC Comics though, a lot more things came into play where a life in the comic book industry became more difficult. As you know, the pay was not really great, Manhattan was beyond expensive, I got married, moved to Queens then Long Island where the commute got really tough, too. The financial crisis hit and my wife lost her job and we had my first son, Tyler. It became clear that we had to really evaluate our life and every aspect of it. I had asked DC for a promotion again and when I didn’t get one, I had to make a difficult choice to follow my wife’s career to another state, leaving a job I loved. Most difficult decision of my life. I moved to Virginia with my wife, Kristy, Tyler and three cats and became a stay-at-home-dad until I could find something down there. I reached out to all my contacts I left DC with, like Rob Leigh and, well, you. Rob hooked me up BIG TIME with some indy creators who needed production work and design. I also found a small company called Paradigm Press (now defunct) which I did my first lettering gig, which I’m still really proud of to this day. You hooked me up with Boom Studios and Bravest Warriors. That was what really got me going.

But as I started these freelance jobs (I couldn’t work with DC again yet, for their policy was that I had to wait a full year from leaving to do any work for them again), I realized that doing that and caring for my son was really not doing it for me. It just wasn’t enough. I missed having a day-to-day job. The daily grind of freelancing, finding work, doing your own marketing, sending emails trying to find more work so that I could make a living at it was really tough. So I started looking for full time jobs as well. I knew I could take my time doing that because I was getting steady comic work and I didn’t want to just take any job just to have a job again. Especially since I was used to working for one company for 13 years with DC Comics. I’m a loyal person and not one to jump around from job to job. If I was to go back to full time work, it had to be something really good and really worth it.

Well, I got a job in finance. Yes, finance. And before you say anything, yes, i know it’s strange. But hear me out. I had a recruiter contact me and said she found a company that needed a designer and I should think about interviewing with them. She told me it was in finance, and although I had a couple of siblings in finance at times, it was a strange idea for me to go into it. But I took the interview anyway, keeping an open mind, mainly because I know that every company needs a designer and design in that sense is universal. Long story short (too late, I know) the interview went fantastic. They decided to take a chance on me, and I decided to take a chance on them. Honestly though, I had no idea what I was getting into. It was actually pretty brilliant on their end though, which is why they are such a great company. They said, ‘you handle all the design work we need, we’ll teach you the finance world’. They were basically thinking outside the box in hiring an artist who they could use for their needs despite me not being from their field. It was tough though, I started the job and went through a really rigorous, four month training process, learning everything I could possibly learn about finance. I was working til 8, 9, sometimes 10pm for about a year. It was big learning curve but paid off because it’s an awesome job and am still there, six years later! I’m a one-man design department for the entire firm and I work on numerous projects that are really fulfilling as a designer and an artist. All the while, I was still working in comics! I freelanced comic work on nights and weekends. I worked a full 8-9 hours at my full time job and then I would go home and letter books from about 9pm to 1, 2am in the morning. Then work some on weekends. I was a machine. You know me, Steve, so you know my work ethic.

That is what I continue to do still to this day, but have gotten better at managing my time and finding a better work/life balance. I’ve been doing less lettering this year, so that is one reason. I thinking lettering is so much more taxing on the mind and body because of the tight deadlines, faster turn-arounds, and skill involved.

So to answer your question, I never actually left comics. I just quietly worked my ass off and basically what I do now is work two full time jobs.
 

You’ve been a pre-press artist, letterer, and designer. Do you think your background in pre-press has had an impact on how you approach lettering, or design?

Oh, for sure. Definitely. I think it’s really important to know every aspect of making a comic book, even if you don’t have the skills to do each part of it. I hear Taylor talk about it a lot on Twitter actually, and I totally agree. He always says that writers should really try to letter a book, or look over their letterer’s shoulder sometime. They need to understand how it works, and I think that applies to every aspect of comics. I think you remember me at DC and how I used to get upset that a lot of Editors didn’t even know what we did to make the books complete. I mean, seriously, they didn’t. They would say it was magic. But, as you know, it wasn’t. It was hard work. It’s hard work making these frackin’ books. We do it cause we love it, but man, there are easier professions, we don’t go into comics saying, “this will be easy, I’ll give it a shot”. I think all my years of experience has taught me that being an artist is more then just one thing. Every aspect of making a comic, or if I talk about my job as a financial designer, a pitch book or conference presentation, requires knowing art, design, composition, typography, style guides, color, storytelling, pacing, technical skill, time management, businesses skills, marketing, self promotion. It’s pretty crazy actually. But at DC, or AfterShock, I feel I can take on any job. For example, lettering. Am I as good as Jared or Pat, or Taylor? You? No, no way, but I’ve been there since hand lettering days and the beginning and evolution of digital lettering, and was trained by the best of both. Working with Todd Klein and Clem Robins, Rob Leigh, Comicraft and Nick Napolitano back in the day, at DC. I love lettering, but it’s really hard and there is a lot of competition now, as well. I’ve never been it for the recognition or anything, I think you know that about me, considering we were basically ghost artists and letterers when we were in Pre-Press. It was always about making great books.

To me though, it’s not just about lettering. I love lettering a book, yes, but I also want to do it’s design. I want to do its logo. I want to do its Production. All of it. (I secretly want to do its art, but so far that is one thing that has eluded me, unfortunately). Point being is, I think we are like Liam Nielsen; we have a certain set of skills…hahaha.

Right now, because of that competition and a real big talent pool, honestly, I’m finding it so much harder to find lettering work. Because I’m not as well known, because I’m not the best, or don’t promote myself as others do, whatever it may be, I find lettering jobs hard to come by now. Even at DC where I’ve worked for 19 years (that one year off). Part of it is because most of the top letterers are just so amazing at it, and deserving so, get the higher profile gigs. All the people I mentioned, and more, are just killing it right now. Which is fine. Do I wish I could have more lettering gigs, or at least have my choice of a title or two, be sought after or requested by? Sure. I would like to work on one or two really high profile books at some point in my career again, yeah. But on the other hand, I’m fine with my place in the industry. I am content with just getting consistent work and producing top quality work quickly and efficiently. I’ve built up my reputation with the people who know me and that is what I am most proud of. That is what has led me to AfterShock actually. Since I fell in with AfterShock, I’ve been extremely happy with doing more Design and Book Production for them. Many people may not know, but I’ve been working on some really awesome books with AfterShock, like Animosity, Jimmy’s Bastards, Dark Ark and more. I also do the design for AfterShock’s Diamond Previews listing every month. It’s fantastic.

Lastly, i wanted to mention that I’m working on a Sci-Fi book for Antarctic Press and it’s exactly up my alley and I’m having a blast with it. As I get older, I’m trying to get to a point where I’m picking my own projects to work on, or just working on projects that I feel I want to work on or am a good fit for. I look at you for example and I see you working on some of my favorite books right now. I mean, Descender, DAMN dude, sooooo good. Gideon Falls? Damn. And I see others working on books like Isola or Low, Black Science, Batman, Southern Bastards, and Curse of the White Knight, I hope one day I get to work on a book or two like that. If not, so be it, I’ll ALWAYS do my best on the book that is in front of me, for sure. But I’m also an artist and a comic book lover and I know the books I love and would love to work on.

How did you end up designing for Aftershock? Is it difficult to design for a company while doing it from your home studio?

Two words. One person. Mike Marts. When I left DC Comics in 2013, I bugged Mike for months leading up to the date I could return to work for DC after their one year policy. He was still the head of the bat office then. He left DC, but kind of kept his promise and got me lettering work on Batman and Robin Eternal on his way out. After he left, I kept in touch. He finally let me letter an AfterShock book, called The Normals. It was a mini-series, and I had a blast doing it. Great book, please check it out if you haven’t read it. It got optioned for a movie, recently, too. Anyway, I asked for more lettering work but he asked if I would be up to designing a special one-shot book for Animosity. It was a who’s who type book and I would have free rein to design it from scratch. It was called “World of Animosity” and I’m still super proud of it. After the success of that book, he gave me their Diamond Previews Catalogue Section to design and I worked on that which led me to doing the trade collections and now their whole collections production and book design. I would be remiss at this point to mention that the incredible John J. Hill was AfterShock’s designer before me and I still use a lot of his designs. He is so brilliant and one of the most amazing designers out there. I took up where John left off at AfterShock and honestly I’m just trying to not mess it up too much. Mike Marts continues to push me to do more and thats been great. Mike and I have a great relationship and we trust each other. That is key. i think honesty is very important in this industry. I don’t like being messed with. I just don’t have time for it. Just tell me how it is, what you want and when you want it by and I’ll do the best I can do. Thats my guarantee. Mike understands that and I think why we’ve been working together for so long. I know what he wants and he knows what I’m cable of, so it works. I think you understand that a lot, too, Steve. Once you build a trust with someone, you become they’re go-to-guy. My hope is that if I always give something my best effort, that it shows in my work. I let the work do the talking, and hope theres give me a chance based on that.

I love designing for AfterShock and we continue to get better. If you are not checking out they’re books, you are really missing out. I recommend the hard covers of Baby Teeth Year One (lettered by Taylor, by-the-way), Animosity Year One and Year Two, Jimmy’s Bastards (I think some of my best work is in this book, where I did this really cool sketchbook section in the back design pages), and the soon to come out Rough Riders complete collection (lettered by Sal).

Being that it's Halloween, what's your favorite movie/book Halloweenie-thing to do this time of year?

Ah, yeah…Hmmm. I’m not the biggest Halloween fan, honestly. I was really good at costumes when I was little, but I don’t get that into it that much anymore. I wish I could carve awesome pumpkins like I see online, but I don’t like getting messy and it’s really frustrating to me. I do like to watch holiday centric movies in general, so I’ll always watch my favorite movie respective of that holiday. For Halloween, it is the movie Halloween. The original 1978 movie. It has always been a favorite of mine. I was never a fan of Jason movies or Nightmare on Elm Streets, in fact those scare the bejeezus out of me. Straight up horror movies are tough for me to watch. The Shinning and the new IT movies are awesome, but they’re not Halloween specific though, are they? Really, I’m just ready to start new traditions with my boys though. I’m psyched for that. So whatever new traditions they want to do, I’ll adapt, for sure. 
 

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      
 

Been looking forward to this question actually, and I think I set it up earlier when I was talking about the fact that I still work what is essentially two full time jobs. I also have a 8 year old and a two old, so I’m freakin’ exhausted, lol. It’s really all about what you feel you can handle. I know by now what I can handle. I work 5 days a week at my full time job, get home about 7pm. Eat quickly, put my 2 year in the bath and then to bed. Then I get to work on my comic jobs. I work from about 9pm until I finish. Sometimes that is at 12am, sometimes 2am. Then I do it all again the next day. I can handle that. I’ve been doing it for years. But I gotta be careful because sometimes I do get run down. Sometimes I do say, “you know, I just want to come home and watch a movie, or play video games”. I am a workaholic and I’m still working on that. I don’t really want to be someone who works all the time. I’m getting older now, that is getting harder to do. It’s not really healthy either. Even though I love comics, and will always make comic books for someone or just for myself (working on my own stuff always but its hard to find time for it), I do realize there will come a time when that model for me is not sustainable anymore. But until that happens, I do a pretty damn good job of managing my time and I know my limits. I still spend the weekends with my family and kids and only really work when the kids are finally asleep. I am a huge night owl and usually always get a 2nd or 3rd wind somehow, someway. I get everything done I need to get done. Work first, then play has has always been my m.o. since I was a child. I don’t think I have ever missed a deadline, for 19-20 years I’ve been working. In Comics or in Finance. Hah. In other words, I’ll keep doing what I do until I can’t do it anymore.

For other people, you have to find out what you are capable of. Find your ideal schedule, your ideal workflow. And know your limits. Also remember that people are relying on you, and you have to come through for them, and always do the best possible job you can do. Will I ever letter like Dave Sim (my favorite)? No, but I know I’ll give 110% to any job I take on. I think being reliable, being professional, courteous, and honest and up-front is so important. I pride myself on treating people with respect and 

In closing I do want to say that what’s best for me is not what is best for everyone else, or even anyone else. I found that comics needed to be side job for me. I wanted to have a family, I wanted a house, I wanted money and give my kids things I didn’t have when I grew up. I feel if I stayed in the comic industry I wouldn’t be able to do those things. So I was lucky in the sense that I got to work my dream job for 13 years, and I even though I “left”, I still get to do what I love. I have an incredible day time job that takes care of me and my family, and yet I still get to make comics too. I am able to have the best of both worlds right now.

I’ll never knock anyone’s idea of how to make it in this world, but for me, it became clear that comics alone wouldn’t cut it. Somehow, someway, I am to make that work. A lot of the time I have no idea how I do it all. I really don’t. I surprise myself. I don’t how long I’ll be able to keep that up, but for now, I’m in a really great place. However you do it though, make sure you put your blood, sweat and tears into it, because to me, thats what really matters. Why bother if you don’t do that? If you don’t love what you do, as hard as it is sometimes, still give your all. Then at least you can proud of what you do and say, yeah, I gave it my all. If you have a bad day, wake up the next day saying “today is gonna be AWESOME! I’m gonna kill it!” If that doesn’t happen, so what, tomorrow is another day to try all over again. You can never go wrong with that approach in my eyes.

Lastly, find time for things you love. Life’s too short to talk about things that you don’t like or don’t enjoy. It’s why you don’t see me online as much as others. Know why? Because I’m working, for one, I don’t have time for non-sense and silly arguments. But the free time that I have is spent reading, playing with my kids, playing video games, going outside, watching sports and swimming. Take out the negativity in your life, because there are so many things to do in life and to enjoy!

You can find Corey at these haunts:
Twitter: @CjB_Producions
Facebook: CjB Productions
Art Portfolio: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjb-productions/sets

Family Tree Logo Design

Logo design is something I've generally stayed away from in the past. There tends to be a lot of cooks in the kitchen and they all know how to make the dish. It's almost more about marketing than anything to do with the book and I'd rather stay away from that noise. But in the last few years, this year and last specifically, I've been getting back into them and really enjoying it all. I've done a number of logos for DC this year and they were an absolute pleasure and entirely in my wheelhouse.

Okay, that's great Steve-O, but what does that have to do with this Family Tree cover over here?! Well, I don't know, but I was already lettering Family Tree when Jeff and the gang asked if I wanted to handle the design and logo, too. Spoiler, I said yes. The first issue was done and I had a good idea on the tone of the book and what everyone might be into so I cracked my knuckles and came up with a few ideas.

I always show a few ideas. Anywhere from 3-6 is usually good. Sometimes I show 1 and that ends up being a mistake. Never show 1 idea. It's probably not as good as you think it is. So, I showed a few and most of them sucked, but everyone dug the one we ended up using. I found a font I liked, made some adjustments, staggered the letters in a pleasing way and then I stared drawing little branches--or roots, whatever--coming up from the bottom of the letterforms. Side note: I dig logo's that have a story element in them. Like how I made the Frogcatchers logo look like frog toes. Or the tentacle in Plunge. So--branches! Freaking brilliant!

Then we lay it out and try a few different options. The creative team and Will, our fearless editor, keep throwing notes at it. Jeff keeps saying make it bigger. Bigger. BIGGER! So, I do. Then, I think it was Phil says he wants the branches, or roots, or whatever coming through the cuts I made and really gelling with the logo. Then I'm thinking to myself great idea, but it's more work, and there's cold beer in the fridge I'd like to get to. But before I even have to try, Ryan says he can handle it. He colors the book so it makes more sense anyway. Teamwork makes the dreamwork, I say. He knocks it out of the park and makes it look easy.

And that's it! I hope you were paying attention cause that's how you make a logo. At least this one. Mileage may vary.

Interview with Sal Cipriano

This month we’ll be talking with Brooklyn-based comic book letterer and action figure reviewer, Sal Cipriano (AKA Ultrazilla). He’s currently lettering Invisible Kingdoms, The Batman Who Laughs, Female Furies, Mary Shelley: Monster Hunter, and Gryffen. YouTube.com/UltrazillaToys

Sal, I usually start these off by going back to the beginning, but recently it was announced that the Vertigo imprint is coming to an end and I wanted to hear your thoughts. You and I, and a number of our lettering pals, got to work on some great books under the Vertigo banner over the years. You had a healthy run on Hellblazer and carried the Scalped torch to the finish line. What do you think about the end of the Vertigo era?

Man, Vertigo ending was a gut-punch. I hadn’t worked on anything there in a bit, but yeah, Hellblazer, Scalped, Saucer Country, various others were always so much fun to work on, and more liberating in terms of style. It also carried class and prestige and you were always just honored to contribute to such a storied imprint. Sandman was like the first time I really noticed lettering when I was in high school and most definitely planted the seed of interest in me, so it means a lot in so many ways. I always feel like there’s ways to save an important imprint like that, but sometimes it’s also good to start fresh. Obviously, mature themed books will continue at DC, so the future is still bright in that aspect. What’s in a name, ultimately, would be the argument not to try something new, especially in this environment.

You letter a lot of different titles for a number of publishers. Do you approach each book the same way, or do you come at each one differently?

My approach is ALWAYS the same. I don’t get bogged down with fear of starting something new. I’m pretty good at seeing the art and picking up the tone right away and then I just go. At this point in my career I’m just confident with what I do, so I let that carry me through. We’re in a biz of constantly changing stuff anyway, so getting it right the first time does not concern me AT ALL. (lol, cut to most other letterers cringing. Par for the course, so whatevs.) 

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you? What about your workspace? 

My Cintiq died late last summer, which SUCKED, so coupled with ramped up reviewing for Ultrazilla, I changed my workspace a lot. I’m more compact with lettering now with just my Macbook Pro, I’m using just a Trackball! Don’t laugh, but I’m super fast with it. DC had to rip my old one away from me back in the day, lol. I’m probably upgrading soon on everything, though. My deskspace is more geared towards reviewing toys, as you can imagine with a turntable, backdrop, lights and stuff just taking up more space. 

Your wife Marilyn is also a freelance artist. Do you guys ever have studio conflicts? Do you get to work together on anything?

We work at separate spots, her office is in the apartment, mine in the basement, so we don’t get in the way in those terms, but schedule-wise, yeah, sometimes, especially with a 5yo. Who’s watching him when, making dinner, etc., plus we don’t do the same things so we have different ideas of scheduling. Definite conflicts there ALL. THE. TIME. But we manage, we’re lucky to be doing what we do and enjoying it.

You also review action figures as Ultrazilla. How did you get into this? Do you get free toys? 

I’ve always been into toys, collected heavily in my younger years, but stopped when I was trying to break into comics. Slowly came back into it over time, especially when I was settled at DC, which was great with DC Collectibles on hand. When I went freelance, my collecting amped up, and I decided it’d be great to put that to use, plus I like to yap and have strong opinions on all things pop culture, so it kind of made sense. I just felt like I could contribute here with my experiences as an artist, in retail (extensive, too), what I learned from osmosis at DC about the biz, etc.. I get free toys every once in awhile, I’m still small potatoes, but I’m consistent and professional, and folks can see that, I think. Like in comics, or anything, it’s 1. about getting yourself out there and meeting people in the the industry, and then 2. putting in the damn work.

Perhaps the most important question I can ask you: What is your favorite Godzilla movie?

Terror of Mechagodzilla.

I know you have a varied background, and some obvious other interests (toys, pop culture)—you write as well, so what is it about lettering that keeps you coming back for month after month of insanity? 

This is a tough one. I’ve always loved writing, and will probably write some comics again at some point, but lettering has been there for me, y’know? It’s the thing folks WANTED to hire me for. That meant a lot to me, and I have so much respect for the craft. I mean, we say this all time, but you can’t read a comic without lettering. We’re supposed to be invisible, but we’re oh so important. That last thing probably resonates the most to me, as I can come in and out of projects stealthily and then go and do other things. It’s more freeing than other aspects of comics, that appeals to me. 

You mention strong opinions, and the internet seems to be overwhelmingly full of them all the time. Has being outspoken on anything affected you professionally? Has something a publisher has said or done caused you to avoid them?  

Honestly, another aspect of doing Ultrazilla is so I can just shut off when whatever lettering project I’m working on is done. There’s always something happening out there, but I just try to concentrate on the work. It’s tough enough to survive doing lettering as it is, but sure you have to pay attention, make sure the folks you work with are on the up and up, pay, etc.. As for being outspoken, well, I just stick to keeping that about toys…for now…because trust me, if I reviewed comics, with my experience, y’all be in trouble. ;)

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      

Just said it above, PUT IN THE DAMN WORK. Stop being afraid to expose yourself, you can always improve, but only if you do the work. I expect nothing from anyone, and want the volume of work to speak for itself. People know the deal, trust me. 

Interview with Ray Fawkes

This month we are pleased to share an interview with Ray Fawkes, the critically-acclaimed author of Underwinter, Intersect, One Soul, The People Inside, The Spectral Engine, Possessions, and Junction True, as well as Batman: Eternal, Constantine, Justice League Dark, and Gotham by Midnight (DC), Wolverines (Marvel), Black Hammer '45 (Dark Horse), Jackpot! (AfterShock) and more. He is an Eisner award nominee and a YALSA and Shuster award winner. 
http://www.rayfawkes.com

Ray, you’re an author, artist, poet,—a storyteller—and you seem to have chosen comics as your medium of choice. How did you get her and when did it all begin? 
 

I’ve always had a love for comics as a unique medium - there are so many things you can do with comics that are difficult or impossible in any other media, and the fact that it’s something you can do on your own, put together and bring out to the public all by yourself for relatively little cost - are both factors that drew me to it initially. 

It began for me with that impulse - to just make my stories and put them out there. I used to make little photocopied comics and take them to ‘zine fairs here in Toronto, selling them for one or two dollars a pop. They were pretty awful, but they brought me into this world that I loved - of creativity and storytelling - and I was hooked! Now I pretty much do the same thing, left to my own devices, but I’m lucky enough that there is an audience out there that enjoys and supports my work, and publishers who are willing to carry it further than I can on my own.
 

You’ve done some work for DC Comics but much of your work is creator-owned. Do you prefer to create your own characters and worlds?
 

I do, absolutely. In fact, I don’t really understand someone who wouldn’t . However, I should say that working with established characters really runs a close second place for me - it’s not like I don’t like doing it. I love it almost as much… it’s just that given the choice, I will always lean towards creating my own work out of whole cloth. There’s just more of a blank slate there, so my voice stands on its own, for better or worse. 
 

While not all of your work is horror, there is an inherently dark quality to it—and often a contrast of beauty/horror. From your paintings to the mainstream characters like Batman and Constantine you write. Why are you drawn to the shadows?
 

That’s a deep question - something that I’m not sure I fully know the answer to. I’m simply drawn to darker, more difficult characters and themes - maybe it’s because I think of them as part of our world of life and beauty, not separate from it - and that’s something I don’t see a lot of people doing. For me, beauty and horror intertwine on a daily basis, when I think of the world around me.
 

What does a typical day in the life of Ray Fawkes look like? Where and when do you do your best work?
 

I work to a pretty regimented schedule - every week I break down three tasks in order of priority - an A, B, and C - and I have set hours that I’ll work on each. My schedule lists when I answer emails, when I stop to update my online store or do self-promotion work, and when I assemble pitches or do concept work. From week to week I may shuffle the priority of three projects, or pull in new ones and push current ones down or out of the schedule. It all sounds pretty complicated, but what it amounts to is a method to keep myself on track all the time, despite distractions. Deadlines can mess with everything, of course, but that happens less often than you’d think.

So typically I head down to the studio first thing in the morning, turn on some music, set down my coffee, and hit project A, B, or C as the schedule dictates. I continue, hour-by-hour on the scheduled tasks, until it’s time to pick the kids up from school or otherwise close out the day. 

In the evening, if I need to, I’ll do more work on one of the tasks at hand. It’s… not a very relaxed life.
 

On some of your creator-owned titles, Intersect comes to mind, you’ve lettered your own books. Was this born of necessity, or was it a part of the comic process you actively wanted to do?
 

At first it was born of necessity, though I have come to enjoy lettering. I’m aware that I’m barely competent at it, though, and I feel that my lettering carries a story but doesn’t improve it. I prefer a professional letterer - like yourself - with greater skill when I can afford it.
 

Your latest book, Underwinter: Queen of Spirits, hit stores this month. (Full disclosure, I lettered it.) It’s the third volume, but each volume is it’s own unique story, are you thinking about a fourth installment? 
 

The fourth volume is already plotted! I’m writing it now, and will likely be illustrating it later this year. I have a lot of plans for the world of Underwinter, and I hope readers are enjoying it.

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?    
 

I think the only piece of advice I ever give anyone that does any good - for any kind of art - is to do the work and don’t wait for someone to tell you it’s good enough. If you want to be a storyteller, a letterer, an artist, anything - do the work, finish the work, and then do another piece and another and another. Present your work to people - they’ll be drawn to your craft and your dedication as you keep going, and you will constantly improve as you finish one piece after another. Don’t worry about how much money you are or aren’t making. Don’t worry about praise or criticism. Just worry about how good the work is and how faithful it is to your own voice. Do the work.

Interview with Paige Pumphrey

This month we’ll be talking with the Baltimore bred, Brooklyn based cartoonist Paige Pumphrey. She’s an illustrator specializing in pin-up style artwork, heavily influenced by American comic books and animation, tattoos and mid-century ephemera.

Paige, you’re mostly known for providing artwork for roller derby bouts, gig posters, burlesque shows and comic book pinups. What some folks might not know is that you also letter manga and design ads. You do a lot of different things and you do them all well. How do you juggle it all?

Aw thank you for the kind words! 
I definitely consider myself to be all over the place as far as projects go. Usually I schedule myself week by week and plan a day for this and a day for that. The paid gigs like manga lettering and commissions are always a priority. I usually focus exclusively on them until they’re done, especially when money and deadlines are involved. Freelance is all about time management and finding the initiative to start working, even when someone isn’t telling you to. If I have stuff that needs to get done and I’m taking time to work on personal projects I get an immediate pang of guilt that I could be spending this time on “work-work” instead of “fun-work”, as is the tendency when your hobbies and personal interests become your vocation. However when my schedule is free I tend to come up with fun side projects of my own, like fan art or crafting merch or creating concept art for my fabled magnum opus comic I’ve been working on for 20 years. 

Out of the varied work you do, do favor one discipline over another? 

Character design has always been my foremost passion. I didn’t have a ton of friends growing up, but early on I was introduced to RPG manuals, comic books and video games by my older brother. I love drawing people. Drawing unique characters and figuring out the puzzle to giving them that spark of life gives me so much joy and purpose. 

Does it require a change of mindset when you go from working on say a Manga then over to a gig poster? Any mental palette cleanser?

Oh absolutely! Like I said, some jobs have priority over others and I’ll devote my time and creative energy to them almost exclusively. When I need to finally take a break I try to get as far away from my computer desk as possible and focus on real life things in front of me. I’ve been taking Pilates classes the past couple of  years which has really helped me with my posture and undoing the years of damage that hunching over a sketchbook or computer desk has caused me. I also live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which in and of itself is this crazy cultural zeitgeist and I’m very lucky to be here, so when weather allows I’ll take walks around the neighborhood to appreciate the city and all its inspiration. Being freelance at home and working crazy hours can be very isolating, so I’m glad to be able to even just open my shutters and be reminded that for good and bad, humanity exists. Which now in these days of constant screens in our faces, can get very divisive and make you forget that people are people and everybody’s got shit going on. 

What does a typical work day look like for you? Your workspace?

I work from home as a freelancer alongside my husband and fellow Kubert School alum Phil Balsman. With our powers combined, we form the design house Odin Star Industries. We usually have a staggered schedule (he’s a night owl, I’m a day walker) so I’ll get up before him and get my shit together. Coffee, NY1, moisturizers. Once Phil’s been roused I’ll head over into our office and get down to business. We have a two bedroom apartment (that I’m currently redecorating which is very exciting) and our second bedroom is our office space. Both Phil and I’s desks sit perpendicular to each other, so yes technically we’re ALWAYS at work. Work time is all the time. Which is great and terrible, all at once. Especially working in a field that directly correlates with your personal interests, because you’re so invested. That being said, my workspace is basically my entire apartment- I have one desk in the office alongside Phil’s where my computer and Cintiq tablet reside. That’s the “serious business” area, where I do all my digital work including manga lettering, ad design, typography/logos, and drawing/inking/coloring on the Cintiq. I also have a second desk out in the living room that’s reserved for physical media, mainly my sketchbooks, crafting and makeup. A lot of my creativity spills out into the world through how I express myself as a person. I’m very much into pinup and fashion and I will often get myself all dolled up when going out, a lot of the ideas I get for pinup art start with me being my own model. One of the tag lines on a con-exclusive art book I put together a few years ago was “is it life imitating art or art imitating life?” Which is very much my brand. And now with social media I can share the goofy adventures I dress up to go on with my friends and followers, which in turn inspires my art, which in turn affords me the ability to go out, ad infinitum.

In regard to Odin Star Industries, how do you guys divvy up the workload for a project you're working on as a team? 

Phil definitely takes on the majority of the Odin Star workload with designing logos and covers for manga and businesses. Most of the work I do under the banner of Odin Star is separate from Phil, including manga lettering, interior house ad design, and  reformatting digital comics files for print. Phil does enlist me for help with cover design on occasion. A major example of us collaborating was on the zombie manga series Sankarea, where the covers were completely redesigned from the Japanese version to something more palatable to the US market. The original manga series had a somewhat generic cover design that didn’t really tell the potential reader what the story was about. We ended up taking interior art from the book and I digitally colored it to match the spookier/horror feel we wanted to give and then Phil used those new art assets to design a new cover. It turned out really cool, I was very happy with it. Other duties I’ve had as a part of Odin Star Industries directly working along with Phil includes art assistance such as cleaning up image files, flatting colors, and standing over his shoulder at 1am and telling him which of the 3 f’s (or whatever letter it is) he built for this logo looks best.

Being that it’s still early into the new year, do you have any professional goals, art goals you’ve set for yourself?

Haha, ohhh there’s always ongoing stuff that I’m supposed to be working on. To the point that I get overwhelmed and have to take a nap. 
The guiding star of my entire career has always been that I want to draw actual comics. I’ve done a few shorts here and there but nothing of notable value. I’ve been carrying around my own magnum opus universe of characters in my head for over 20 years and every year I fine tune those ideas a little more and more and inch closer and closer to actually doing something with it. Like when I want to indulge in drawing purely for myself, I draw characters and scenes and ideas for that. So doing more of that is always on the to-do list. 
Also I’m tentatively planning a return to vending my wares at conventions. I took what was supposed to be a year long hiatus after 2015, but I was so very, very tired and here it is 2019 and I’ve still yet to muster the energy to be back working a show. Tables are expensive and require an exorbitant amount of time/work/money before, during and after the convention. I’ve been keeping my eye on shows and have been concocting new ideas for merch, so perhaps I’ll be back in the saddle in the near future. 
In the meantime, a more immediate goal I'm working on is more commissions and paid illustration work. One of the ways I'm doing this is running a special I just started this year of tattoo flash styled portraits with name banners and flowers. Couples, singles, I'm even doing pets. They've been taking off pretty well so far, and make great presents. I also have really enjoyed focusing on likenesses and the botanical illustration aspect It's been super rewarding making people happy with my art on an individual level. 

With an added interest in more illustration work, have you considered an agent, or representative? Ever used one in the past?

I’ve never used an agent or representative before! The whole process of acquiring one and then navigating the work that an agent would get me always sounded so daunting and complicated. Granted I have zero experience on the matter. I definitely could see how an agent would be helpful in matters of project management and rate negotiation. Shoot I know from experience that uncomfortable feeling of directly talking to a client about getting them to pay what I’m worth. Especially me being someone who’s known for always being so nice and pleasant and eager to please. There have been times that clients took advantage of that. So I get the appeal of someone going to bat for me and taking care of all the technical business stuff so I can focus on art. 

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      

Being a creative person who works in a visual field, I'm always looking for inspiration. A great way to find that elusive spark is to go read up on your favorite artist, and find out who inspired them. Or better yet go online or to a show and ask them yourself. I read about that in a book called "How to Steal Like an Artist". It's basically like going through your artistic family tree. Once you see who inspires your favorite artists you can almost see what bits and pieces they borrowed from to get the style that they're using, that's inspiring you. It's like being a DJ and crate digging for records. Yeah you can grab a sample everyone knows from a pop hit made in the last 30 years, but to me the best DJs are the ones who really dig in the crates and find some ancient gems no one knows about and folds that into their repertoire.

Thanks to Paige for talking shop with us this month. Be sure to check out her work and follow her on Twitter:

https://paigepumphrey.carbonmade.com
https://twitter.com/PaigeyPumphrey

BREATHE

Don’t forget to breathe. In life, it’s automatic. It’s not something we have to think about. If you’re having trouble breathing stop reading this and dial 911. 

Still here? Good. In your professional life you need to breathe, too. If you care about your career chances are you get stressed out from time to time. You might hit a wall. You might stumble. You might lose a gig, get two too many, make a mistake, hit a home run, hell, you might even fail remarkably at something. That’s okay. Breathe.

If things are going insanely well? Stop. Take a deep breath. Enjoy it.

If things are going to hell. Step away. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale. Identify the problem. Breathe. Seek the solution. Breathe. You got this.

All creators, the young gun just starting out, the Stephen Kings of the world, and you, need some distance from what you’re creating. You need some time to breathe. Whether you’re writing a novel, or you’ve lettered the 37th page today and your editors just keep sending you more. Take a walk. Breathe. The work will be there when you get back.

Interview with Taylor Esposito

Taylor Esposito is a graphic designer and letterer. He started working in comics in 2007. He’s worked for Marvel, Random House, Bottled Lightning, Valiant, and DC Comics. He’s currently working on Reanimator/Vampirella, Red Sonja, and Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep.

Taylor, you started working in comics in 2007 at the Marvel bullpen. Can you tell us what led up to that, and what was it like to work there.

Honestly, it was a bit of happenstance. I was out of college about 8 months, and had just left my seasonal job at the end of the year, when a good friend from college who was working in the bullpen called me to tell me about a temp job with Marvel for a few days/a week. The job was digitizing the comics for what ultimately became Marvel Digital Unlimited. I was there for a few months, learning bullpen responsibilities during that time. I eventually transferred to the bullpen proper and worked my way up to assistant to the production manager. It was a great experience, as I ended up learning how comics are put together from the end of the line. That job started my interest in lettering, which I picked up after I was laid off in 2011.

You’ve worked for most publishers already and have a massive amount of credits to your name. What’s the secret sauce to you being so prolific?

Hard work. I come from a very blue collar family, and the old world work ethic was instilled in me at a very young age. I just applied that work ethic to my career in comics. I also try to be as good to my collaborators as possible, as well as being as fast as I can. I never thought of myself as one of the best letterers, but I always try to make up for that with my professionalism and speed. The rest is that folks seem to want to work with me, for some reason I’ll never understand. Haha.

Being the horror hound I am, I’m a little jealous of some of the titles you’re working on. Do you look for horror projects in specific, or did your current line up converge on it’s own?

Haha, likewise, bud, some of the stuff you work on I’d kill to work on. I don’t look for them in particular, it kind of just falls into place that way. A lot of my friends and collaborators are horror folks as well, so when they request me, it just happens to be horror books. I guess my love of Halloween and the spooky doesn’t hurt my cause either.

Do you approach lettering a horror comic differently than say a superhero comic?

I try to approach every book as it’s own thing. Obviously, there are staples of super books that we use on those that we don’t use on horror, for example, but I start every book by looking at the art and reading the script to get a feel for the story, mood, etc., and then building a style guide from there. I try to give every project as individual attention as I can. Sometimes, we are given a basis from editorial to start with, but even with those, I try to put my spin on the projects as much as possible. The way I see it, I’m on this project for my skills, viewpoint, and taste, and as much as I can, I will put that into the book.

Have you ever had any conflict with what you wanted to bring to a book and what an editor/creator had in mind?

Fortunately, this hasn’t happened often. I’ve been very lucky to work with wonderful editors who also want the best for the projects, so their suggestions have usually been for the better. As we all know, sometimes we are too close to a project, and need a set of fresh eyes to see things properly. Even the few times it hasn’t worked out that way, it usually opens up a dialogue and a compromise is found. The wonderful thing about comics is that it is a team coming together to achieve a unified vision. I thrive on the collaborative process, and love to help bring a teams vision to life/completion.

Can you tell us about Ghost Glyph Studios?

Ghost Glyph Studios is my lettering/design studio. I started it in 2015 when I left the DC staff (due to the move to California) to keep working on comics and expand to other fields. I’m a graphic designer by trade/education, so I want to keep doing that as much as I can. It’s be an incredible ride watching the studio grow and the kind of projects I’ve gotten to work on as a result of it. Since starting the studio, I’ve begun training interns and even bringing Dezi (Sienty) to work with me on occasion. It was named for my love of Halloween/horror and spookiness, and incorporates a reference to lettering, as glyphs are what each letter/number/symbol are called.

(Dezi is awesome. Great call there!) What are the benefits of creating a studio and what goes on in the background to maintain it?

The benefits to a studio, at least as far as I’ve found, is a bit of insane baseball. With a studio, you definitely have business and tax help that keeps work and personal life separate, which as many freelancers know, can be a logistical nightmare at times. The behind the scenes is a lot of rigid work scheduling. Emails and bookkeeping are first thing in the morning, make sure the machine is running smoothly, followed by assigning work to those that need it. Once all the business side is done, the fun begins. I keep things separated like this to make sure there are few interruptions to the creative process. Another useful aspect to the studio is when you are looking to start business with companies, or hire interns, etc., is that the studio adds a bit of legitimacy to your business. When I freelanced the first time around, it was just under my name, and it always felt a bit like a college student just looking for a random project. It also allows for branding, which many of my clients seem to be attracted to. Having the studio has allowed me to branch into merchandise like t-shirts and enamel pins. I’ve been lucky that I had an example to learn from from my father’s business. I’ve just switched out automotive for comics/design.

Being that Halloween is tomorrow, it’s time for some serious questions…

Favorite horror movie, novel, and comic?

Hmm, Evil Dead 2, The Shining, (cheating) Babyteeth.

You have the chance to pin Ash against any opponent, who, and why?

Myers. Of all the 80s horror monsters, Myers is probably the scariest, as he just doesn’t stop, and isn’t really fueled by any magic, like Freddy or Jason. If Ash can’t taunt him, how can he possibly beat him. If not, Ash teams with the Monster Squad as adults versus the all the Universal Monsters.

I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, or life, what would it be?      

Specifically for lettering, but it does apply to life: It’s hard work with a long road ahead, and lots of amazing, well-trained, and respected colleagues working on 15-20 books each and every month. If you really want to be a letterer, you’ve gotta be as good and indispensable as possible. Lettering isn’t an easy way into comics. In fact, it might be one of the hardest.

Thanks to Taylor for talking shop with us this month. Be sure to check out his Ghost Glyph Studios: http://www.ghostglyphstudios.com/

Interview with Warren Montgomery

Warren Montgomery has been making comics for thirty years with a laundry list of publishers he’s worked for.  He’s lettered Adventure Time, Over The Garden Wall, ‘Namwolf, Galaktikon, Hillbilly, Regular Show, RuinWorld, and many many more. His self-published titles include; Monty’s World, John Kirby: Firefox, and Fun Adventure Comics!.
 
Warren, you’ve been doing this for thirty years, can you take us back to the beginning? When did your love of comics begin and how did you get your first start?
 
For as far back as I can remember I’ve always loved comics and cartoons. As a kid I use to copy comic strips like Beatle Bailey and Charlie Brown on card board boxes. Later, as I got into comics, I began drawing panels from comics like Spider-Man and the Hulk. But, instead of drawing their characters, I would make up my own characters. My favorite artist were Jack Kirby, John and Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Jim Aparo and George Perez, and letterers were Sam and Joe Rosen, Ben Oda, John Workman, Tom Orzechowski, Ken Lopez and my number one favorite was John Costanza.
 
After art school in the early 80s I, like most, began drawing pages and submitting them to Marvel and DC. I even submitted pages from the Marvel Try-Out Book. But nothing happened from the inks and lettering I sent in, just a lot of rejection letters. My first published work was a Green Lantern Guy Gardner pinup in Amazing Heroes #127, 1987 in the letter column. The first official gig was in 1988 for an indie publisher who gave me a 4 part, 10 page sci-fi series called The Exiles (unrelated to the Marvel series) to draw. Unfortunately the story was never published (until I started self-publishing in 2012) and only 3 parts (30 pages) were done.
 
My first published work was in 1991, a book called Dartman. I penciled and did lettering for that.  Not the greatest thing on earth. After that, I spent a lot of time lettering for indies like Boneyard Press (known for their Jeffrey Dahmer books) and London Night Studios where I lettered most of the early Razor stories and designed the original logo. There were many more, I didn’t make a list of what I worked on back then. My hand lettering wasn’t the best, but I got by.
 
Current books include: RuinWorld, The Great Wiz and the Ruckus OGN, Ben 10 OGN for Boom! Studios, Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond, Spook House 2 from Albatross Funnybooks, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man for T Pub Comics. Plus, stuff of my own.
 
Was lettering something you picked up along the way from your love of comics, or was it something you learned in art school?
 
Although I did go to a local Portland art school (now defunct) in 1980 after high school, it had nothing to do with comics. Hand lettering was something I picked up by studying comic book letterers like John Costanza, John Workman and others. I just was never as good as them, but it all worked out okay in the end for small press. Submitting work as a letterer was easy to get gigs compared to penciling or inking samples which I did a lot of. As time went by I started using the comic book Whiz Bang (yes, the floppy disk Whiz Bang font) to help speed things along. Sometimes I would even mix that with hand lettering on a book.
 
How do you juggle lettering, coloring, and Will Lill Comics? Do you love one more than the other?
 
I love doing both! When I got back into comics after a short break in 2010 I had very few real gigs and a regular job. What I did have took precedence over my own stuff which was very few. Now, that I work full time at home things are much different. Mornings are usually for other companies, while evenings are mine or vice versa depending on my deadlines. I might start lettering a book, then move over to coloring when I have something or practicing. I don’t normally get to bed until 1 or 2am in the morning. Up about 7 or 8am, Monday – Friday, weekends only when needed. I know how many pages I can letter and color per day, so I’ve learned to pace myself. Besides that, I’m preparing books for print, drawing art for comic cons and writing stories. I try to keep busy.
 
How do you approach a page of lettering versus a page of coloring? Any major difference from how you would have approached it in the past, by hand? Also, what was your hand lettering process like?
 
My hand lettering approach was easy. Just an Ames guide and a good nib. I can’t remember what size nibs but I would use a variety. I would pencil in most of the text and balloons then letter over for most panels. Nowadays I usually spend a few minutes formatting the script and setting up my Illustrator template. I don’t use fonts for SFX that much nowadays, basically I’ll do them by hand (in the computer) because I think it looks more organic and different from everyone else. If I do oddly shaped balloons, I sometimes will do those by hand for each panel rather than creating presets. I can usually, without interruptions, get a book done in a day.
 
Coloring is a different beast. Depending on what I’m working on, for me or for others, I’ll do flats myself and take shortcuts. I never flat every object, just the important items. Other times I’ll send pages to my flatter. But I do prefer to do them myself (I’m probably the only colorist that enjoys it. Haha). On average I can do 3 to 5 pages per day. If I’m lettering pages I color, once I finish those pages for the day, I letter them. That way I can send out color and lettered proof files all at once. Saves me time from coloring first then lettering them.
 
Speaking of hand lettering. Do you ever get clients who want something done by hand?
 
Nope. Pretty much everyone I work with is younger than I and never had to deal with getting hand lettered pages. Haha.
 
I have John Kirby: Firefox on my Kindle Fire. It’s a fun book that reminds me of the comics I grew up reading. How did you come to publish it? How do you pick what titles to publish and when?
 
Thanks for the support. Firefox, like most of my original characters, began in the late 80s and 90s. Around 1998 I had written a 3 part series then just called Firefox in hopes of finding a publisher for him. The only thing I drew was the logo (no computer needed). I put the story aside and continued to work a regular job. 
 
When I started self-publishing, Firefox was my top choice. I rewrote it and added the name John Kirby (from legend Jack Kirby). The stories I wanted to tell are good, fun superhero adventures the way I remember reading them. I loved stories by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Bill Mantlo and the great fun stories they wrote back in the day. I liked characters that changed into another person to become a hero. I’m not trying to reinvent superheroes, just want to have fun creating all-ages superheroes stories. 
 
I would love to have more stories of JKFF, but doing an anthology like Fun Adventure Comics! takes up lots of time. I have enough stories for FAC! (which I’m glad to say is becoming popular at ComiXology and at comic cons), I’m committed to releasing them monthly until February 2019. Afterwards, back to the happy world of superheroes. 
 
Do your self-published titles ever conflict with your lettering/coloring work for other publishers?
 
Nope. I’ve learned to manage. Some months are better than others.
 
I ask everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering, coloring, or life, what would it be?     
 
Love what you do and do what you love. To survive in any industry you must be dedicated to your craft. Practice, practice, practice, practice and be patient. Hard work does pay off, but only if you want it.

Thanks to Warren for sharing his insights. Check out his self-publishing imprint Will Lill Comics: http://www.wlcomics.com/