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 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.

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

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

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/

Interview with Phil Balsman

Phil Balsman is a graphic designer whose primary client is Penguin Random House Publisher Services / Kodansha Comics. He handles all of the cover design and logo design for the print division of the company, as well as many ads and promotional materials, handling roughly 300 covers a year. He recently took home an Eisner Award in Publication Design for his stunning work on the Akira 35th Anniversary Edition Boxed Set.
 

Phil, we’re both Kubert School Graduates who landed jobs at DC Comics when they were headquartered in NYC, and while I recall some of this due to our time in-house together, can you walk us through your journey from graduate to working professional, and was lettering always something you wanted to pursue?
 

I think my post graduation story is pretty common; I graduated in 2002, and spent the next year trying to figure out how to make a living while doing the odd part time job and graphic freelance gig. Around the middle of 2003, former classmate Jeremy Regan, who was interning in production at DC at the time, told me that DC was forming an in-house lettering department. I was obviously interested and he put me in touch with Kenny Lopez, who was going to be one of the people overseeing the new department.

I’d always noticed good lettering and typography; I just saw it as another component of good design. I had hand lettered a bunch of my own indie comics and projects, but had no real experience in digital lettering. I schooled myself on it as best I could over the course of the next few weeks and went in for the interview, which had an on-site lettering “test” as well. I thought I did ok given the circumstances, but Kenny had forgotten to give me the lettering placements when I did the test; I did’t even know I was supposed to have them, I figured part of the job was deciding placement and flow of the conversations.

So I guess for being as inexperienced as I was, and not having all the resources I should have had, what I did was pretty good, because I started a couple months later.
 

How many years did you letter for and what are some of your personal highlights from that time? Any favorite runs you lettered?
 

I was in the lettering department for about 4 years or so, until the end of 2007. When I look back on the first year, it’s rough—a lot of things I would never do later, a lot of misplaced effort. I had the bad habit of just going overboard on title design and sound effects, spending way too long on certain things, trying to do crazy stuff. But eventually I got a balance and did some books I can still look at today and be happy with. Particularly All-Star Superman, Scalped, Blue Beetle, Seven Soldiers Frankenstein, Swamp Thing and Green Lantern Corps, which were all actually some of my favorite comics we were making at the time, so I don’t know if that correlates directly or not; enjoying the book you’re working on means you end up doing better work sometimes—it definitely makes it go smoother I think.

As an in-house letterer you also designed components for the books that lasted long after you left. Your Green Lantern captions immediately come to mind. Many letterers (myself included) adopted them and would riff on them for years. In most instances when designing something for a company it becomes their property. And if you design something for a single book it can then be given to other letterers for an entire line of books. Was this ever something that bothered you? What are your thoughts on this practice?

It never really bothered me; we all know the situation going into it and we’re all basically “shepherds” in that regard—we care for the sheep, we guide them, but they’re not ours, we don’t own them. In many situations I think individual contributions should be credited and recognized, but when it comes to lettering style guides and such, I take it as a compliment that they’re used beyond me—makes me feel like I designed them well enough that they could be used for so long and by people other than myself.
 

At Random House, have you always been a cover designer? I recall you were in-house, then freelance, then you had your own office, and it’s totally possible my mind has made some of that up. So, what job titles have you had there, and what exactly does a production designer do?
 

So moving across the street to (then) Random House was totally unexpected. I was happy lettering at DC, for the most part. Sure it’s frustrating and stressful being a perfectionist and wanting to do all this extra stuff when it’s such a deadline-oriented environment, and admittedly, it was tough to get by financially in New York City on what we were making at the time. But the place was my life; I loved the people I worked with, they were my best friends, all my social activities revolved around the place and the people who worked there. It was my only “ family" in the area, being from the midwest originally. My plan was to stay there, or as much of a “plan” as you have in your 20’s, anyway.

In 2007, a friend of a friend had given my name to Dave Stevenson, who was overseeing the cover art direction for Del Rey Manga at the time. They had been licensing manga from Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan, and the imprint had been going for a while at that point. Dave was looking for someone to do cover design for manga, but really wanted to get some more interesting logo designs for the titles; something that would help “get manga seen by all kinds of readers”, I think was what he said. So I got the call and figured I’d go do the interview over my lunch break, if for no other reason than to be courteous for the invitation, and see what the job was about. I had no illusions about actually getting the job; I didn’t feel i had enough experience in the layout and pre-press areas to be hired for that kind of design position.

But the interview went really well, Dave and I hit it off, he really liked my portfolio—which was almost exclusively title treatments and cover blurb lettering for DC comics. He offered me the job right there, which I was taken aback by. I had to be honest and say I needed to think about it, and also to be upfront and tell him that I knew very little about pre-press, InDesign or (ugh) Quark, which were all things cover designers used there on a daily basis. And it’s cheesy as hell, but I’ll always remember him telling me “Anyone can learn the technical stuff, I want to hire you for the skills that can’t be taught.” But the offer boiled down to simple math—three times what I was currently making, and half as much stress. The opportunity to make new things and have them be seen, as well as learn new skills. It was a hard decision because I didn’t want to leave DC, but it was the kind of choice that’s so difficult that it must be right, if that makes any sense.

I was basically “perm-lance” at Random House. I worked in the office every day, for 8 or so hours, I had a giant cubicle that was basically an office without a ceiling, the walls were like 6 feet high had a door, (thankfully this was in the days before open office plans became a thing). I was technically “full-time freelance”, which meant I was paid hourly, I got overtime, I got health insurance, I could do other jobs for other companies, I could do freelance illustration work (but not design work) for other art directors at Random House, and I was generally less scrutinized than a regular employee. I could keep weird hours and no one seemed to mind. In some ways it was a step below a regular employee, but at the time it worked for me. Eventually the license from Kodansha came up for renewal, and Kodansha wanted to start publishing in the US themselves, so it wasn’t renewed. Without the Kodansha license (and many other factors), Del Rey Manga decided to cease operations. I was basically given the option of staying at Random House and moving over to the Publisher Services division, which was going to handle all the production, editing, etc. for the newly formed Kodansha Comics, or I could take all I had learned and done and go freelance with an agreement that I would handle all the cover design for the print line of Kodansha Comics. Going freelance was terrifying for me at the time, but I realized I’d never have an easier time of it than being guaranteed a full load of work from the start. So I started my own design operation, Odin Star Industries, and struck out on my own in 2010.

Now that you’re an Eisner Award Winning Designer, do you feel any added pressure? Has it changed your mindset in anyway?

This is a tough one to answer without sounding like a complete jackass, but I have to be honest—no, not at all. I’ve worked on many books that have won awards, and Akira taking two Eisners this year, with one being attributed to me specifically—yes, it’s nice, I appreciate the recognition for my work, and I’ll always do my best to be courteous and accept congratulations graciously, as uncomfortable as I am with it, just being somewhat socially awkward as many of us are. But I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself, probably too much, to outdo myself and do more and be better than I was yesterday. That’s just caring about your craft and having a desire to grow. If you look at your career like a marathon, like a long-distance race that you run, some people like to think of a winning an award as crossing the finish line first, getting a trophy. They might look at as a goal. I see winning an award as a sign or a flag a cheering spectator waves at you as you run past; it’s thoughtful, it’s encouraging, I’m thankful for the acknowledgement, but it’s not my goal, and it’s not why I’m here. The race itself is the goal, and I’d be running it just as hard with no one watching as I would with packed stands.
 

As you're running this marathon, have you ever questioned it? Did you ever ask yourself if you were on the right personal path for the long haul?

I think a certain amount of self-doubt is a healthy thing. I think there are few things as destructive as absolute certainty—some second-guessing is required to maintain a good balance. Sure, some days are bad and you feel like a fraud or an imposter—most successful people, regardless of their profession, have those days. I think that’s totally normal. If you have nothing but those days—that’s not good, and if you never have those days—that’s not good, either. A little bit of doubt keeps you sharp, keeps your eyes open to all the possibilities, keeps you open to the idea that everything you do might not be the best way to do it all the time. As far as being on the right personal path? I don’t know—I’m sure there was more than one way to get where I am right now, there had to be, and I’m sure there were things I could’ve done, or could still do, to be more popular or marketable. But honestly, one of the things I’m most proud of, if I’m looking at my career in the overall scheme of things—I didn’t have to hurt anyone to get where I am, I didn’t have to take anything away from anyone, I didn’t have to do anything I’m ashamed of or deal with people I wouldn’t want to be associated with (for the most part), and I don’t think too many people can say that.

You’ve been a letterer, a designer, created many a logo. Do you see these as appendages to the same beast, or as separate smaller beasts? Are there any notable differences in the way you approach them?

I think so, they’re all parts of a whole in that sense. The approach can be different depending on the particulars of the project; some books leave a lot of options open for doing interesting work—with more freedom to explore and try new angles of approaching a design problem, you can usually make an effort to achieve harmony between the logo and the rest of the trade design, making the whole thing more cohesive. But sometimes you can end up doing some really cool stuff because of how limited your options are—sometimes the problem helps you make a better solution than you could’ve done without being “held back” by restrictions. But overall I feel it’s important for everything to complement everything else, to surround good art and good ideas with good design.

Presentation matters, how you say it is as important as what you say. Go online any time and you can see a nice bit of cover art surrounded by lackluster design and pirated fonts being used as “logos”. The message that sends to the viewer is louder than anything they’re actually trying to say; it says “I don’t care, and neither should you.” Don’t serve steak on a paper plate. 
 

You’re work is always in demand. Your workload is hefty. How often do you have to turn clients/projects away, and is it difficult to say “no”? 

As far as just having to turn clients or projects away, I’d guess and say maybe on average of maybe 3 or 4 a month, maybe? I’m not super-high profile, I don’t spend a lot of time hyping my work or advertising or having a social media presence; I’m literally too busy doing the work to talk about it on a regular basis. Some of the things I have to turn down are smaller projects, small press comics and small companies wanting logos. I try to give smaller clients lower rates and do try to work with them if the project seems fun or interesting. 

Sometimes a project sounds cool and you just want to do it, no matter how impractical it may be, you just try to find the time. I can’t do that too much, Kodansha is my main concern and I have to take care of them first. I’m always open to doing work for other companies, it’s just that I don’t go looking for it or asking about it, and the ones I have contacts at tend to assume my plate is too full to do more. And sometimes that is true, most of the time it is, but it’s nice to be asked, and I try to make time for new and different projects when I can; I feel it helps all your work as a whole when you have to stretch a bit.

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’m gonna cheat and do two; only because they’re short and I find I’ve relayed them both pretty often to people over the years—

Person first, Artist second. Being a good person will make you better at your job. Being good at your job has no effect on your person.

Take pride IN your work; don’t take your pride TO work. 

What that means, (to me anyway) is that it’s important to do work you’re proud of, it’s important to do your best, but your ideas will not always be the best ideas all the time. Listen to others, and when their ideas are better, make sure you acknowledge them as such. Being right is never as important as producing the best end product you can.

---

Thanks to Phil for sharing his insights. Head over to his website and check out all of his projects. You can follow Phil on Twitter, too.

Interview with Ariana Maher

Ariana is a comic book letterer currently working on Flavor, Prism Stalker, Outpost Zero, Circadia, Nancy Drew, and Sfeer Theory.

Ariana, let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into lettering? At what point, did fandom become career motivation?
 
Back in 2010, I read Scott McCloud’s “Making Comics”, where he explained how important it is to find the balance between words and pictures. From there, I started seeing comics in a whole new light. 
 
In my free time, I began goofing off with Adobe Illustrator CS3 – getting a grasp of vector shapes and reading any tutorials and tips I could find online about lettering and design. Some of the best articles were from Balloon Tales, Blambot, and Jim Campbell’s incredible blog. I needed material to letter and my friend, colorist Donna Gregory, was drawing a webcomic, so we goofed off together as I slowly taught myself the process.
 
For a while, I simply considered it an odd hobby… but then I read Thor: The Mighty Avenger #4. There was something magical about it – how the entire creative team worked at their best together to create such a memorable story. Rus Wooton’s work on that book deeply inspired me – instead of simply for fun, I wanted to start cultivating my hobby into a new skill. I wanted to be a part of the creative teams and help make comics that I’d enjoy.
 
Building up my skills, I started working with Jayd Aït-Kaci on Sfeer Theory and it has been one of my most enjoyable ongoing book over the years. Eventually, other creators started to get in contact with me. In time, I started working with several creative teams for different publishers. At this point, I feel that the time and effort I’ve put into lettering is now rewarding me with fulfilling work and a full schedule. 
 
Anyone who comes across your work, or portfolio, will notice your books tend to have a unique look all their own. I love when I see lettering that is tailored to a book’s needs (I especially love the tails on Firebug). How do you develop a lettering style for a new book?
 
When I start a new project, I take the elements I’ve used for previous lettering templates as my skeleton and then I put some fresh meat on those bones. I test out different ideas until I find a style that feels natural for that particular book and meets the creators’ expressed needs. I don’t know if I succeed often, but it has grown easier for me to make a judgment call and feel good about the result.
 
Sometimes the creative team already has ideas of how they would like the lettering to be and that gives me direction. For Firebug, Johnnie Christmas liked the style of my lettering in From Under Mountains, so I started building the style from that template until I formed a more unique look. On Prism Stalker, Sloane Leong wanted to draw from her manga inspiration with fuzzy free-floating thought balloons and multi-color captions, so I developed a completely new style based on the manga she shared with me and we went back and forth on different techniques until she was happy with the result.
 
Without suggestions from the creative team, it’s all on me. Usually, I build the style up based on the book’s theme and the artwork, such as the line weight used in the art. Thicker lines could mean heavier fonts and strokes. Thinner lines may mean a lighter feel to it overall. 
 
Flavor was a fun template to build because I started on the first issue when Tamra Bonvillain’s colors were already completed. I love the way she gives the background a paper texture and the foreground a cell-shaded look. When I first saw that, it gave me the impression of watching an animated feature or reading a comic in the Sunday paper. The latter idea stuck with me, so I made the balloon stroke heavy to go with Wook Jin Clark’s lines and then cascaded the balloons without uniting them, a bit like drawing out dialogue in newspaper strips.
 
There are occasions when the font carries the lettering style best and I build around that. Blambot’s Spinner Rack font is beautifully constructed –the clear, legible appearance turned out to be a lovely fit for Outpost Zero, a YA Sci-Fi story from the perspective of scientists.
 
What are some of the things you consider when taking on a new title, and being part of a new creative team?
 
My considerations have a lot to do with personal interest, collaborative relationships, and – most importantly - time. 
 
I hold down two jobs: a day job that automatically absorbs 40 hours per week and my freelance lettering work that takes up a good chunk of the rest of my free time. Healthcare and rent is expensive, so my day job keeps me safe and sane – but lettering is my passion, so I dedicate myself equally to both. 
 
Since I have less time available than I would if lettering were my sole career, I have to be careful about how many books I can work on without overworking myself or overlooking the quality. In my experience, about half a dozen books per month (my current amount) is as perfect a work balance as I can hope for.
 
So time is a major factor for me. If the general timeline works for me, I’ll consider a book. From there, if the creative team features people I’ve worked with or have dreamed of working with, that’s a big deal for me. In addition, if the concept for the series is something I would put on my pull list if I saw it in Previews, then I’m already onboard, eager to get started. Every book I’m working on right now are comics that I feel terribly passionate about.
 
When I have to turn a project down, it’s usually something I would want to work on but I can’t – and that’s due to timing. I have to be careful not to overextend myself. Fortunately, I have a growing list of letterers that I recommend to the creative team for them to consider instead of me. I don’t want a client to restart their search for a letterer empty–handed - I want to make sure they know that great talent is accessible to them, so it helps to point them in the right direction. 
 
I usually have a good idea of which person to recommend to a team based on the style of a project, but it helps to know if that letterer is available to take on more work. So I appreciate it when fellow letterers mention when they are looking for new projects on platforms like twitter, since I can help spread the word.
 
Many of your current titles are out via Image Comics, do you prefer to work with creators directly? Has DC or Marvel come knocking yet?
 
Working with creators directly helped me establish my little corner in the comics industry thanks to word of mouth. Going forward, I hope to keep working with creators directly, though I’ve found that working through editors and assistant editors has been pretty fun and rewarding too. I enjoy the rapport I get to build within creator-driven teams and I also appreciate how editor-driven books keep the process focused, so I don’t have a particular preference to one or the other. Both are enjoyable. 
 
So far, I’ve worked with Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Hiveworks, Skybound, and Boom Studios. Those have all been positive experiences, but I don’t know what it is like to work for DC or Marvel. Perhaps it is much the same, but it could be wildly different. If they ever do come knocking, I’d definitely give it my best shot because I am curious to learn from such an experience. 
 
However, getting hired by one of the Big Two isn’t my particular career goal, so I’m not waiting for any knock at the door. The projects I’m working on right now are what make me happy, so my current goal is to do more of whatever this weird, wonderful thing is that I’m doing right now.
 
Having a day job presents some obvious hurdles in being available for publishers, and creators as a letterer. How have you gone about setting boundaries between the two, and have you had any struggles in keeping those boundaries?
 
Communication is very important. My creative teams are aware that I have a day job and also other books that I work on. They know my time is limited and they also know that I value the time that I work on their books. Likewise, my co-workers know that I have a freelance job in a different field. In fact, when I get comp copies in the mail, I often share them at the office. They’re big fans of Flavor!
 
It’s not a weakness to admit I hold down two jobs. In fact, by being clear about it, collaborators do not expect me to produce finished work at the snap of their fingers. They set a deadline, I confirm that time frame with my schedule, and I turn in the pages on the agreed time. If something unexpected comes up, I’d speak with them as quickly as possible. If they suddenly demand results well before the agreed deadline – I can either refuse due to scheduling conflicts, or I charge extra per page for the shortened deadline. Communication and contract agreements are some of the most important tools a letterer has to set up clear boundaries and trustworthy relationships.
 
Don’t be afraid to push back when necessary. It’s good to form relationships in the industry to build your career, but if someone makes unreasonable demands and you fold to them without protest, then what is to stop them from doing it again and again? If editors and creative teams know where you stand and respect the value of what you contribute to a book, they will hear you out.
 
On the flip side, thanks to finding a balance between the two, I’ve discovered some benefits to the situation (aside from retirement savings, I mean). There are times when my day job is frustrating, so coming home and getting into the zone to letter a series I enjoy is the best way to relieve stress! I did get into lettering from what was originally a hobby, after all. 
 
Conversely, when I get really stuck on the design for a page or if I’m not quite sure how to develop the lettering style for a new book, taking 8 hours out of my day to force myself to be somewhere else and do something completely different lets me put those thoughts on the backburner. When I start a day unsure of how to tackle a lettering conundrum, I often end up having new ideas percolating by the time I get home in the evening, ready to start lettering.
 
A few weeks ago I noticed some tweets you had posted.  More or less they were about being the right fit for a book. What goes into your decision making to determine if a book is the right fit for you?
 
I think each letterer – especially those who have grown experienced and relatively confident in the profession – bring something unique to the table. And that unique quality can be the sum of one’s skill and limitations. I think it’s important to identify my strengths and understand how to negotiate with my current weaknesses. Having a clear idea of what those are helps me decide whether to join a project. 
 
I can be a good fit for a book for one or many reasons. The book could appeal to me as a comic book reader. It could be a challenge I’d be excited to tackle. It could be a project where the creator wants to dig in and help guide my lettering style right down to the minute details – that approach seems to work fine for me, since I’m pliable and always willing to give experimental lettering ideas a shot. I find that I’m a good fit when I’ve built friendships with the rest of the team. If we’ve previously worked together and it was a good experience, I’m quick to join any new project with that creator, if time allows. 
 
Have you ever had to leave a project after realizing you were on the wrong book, with the wrong people?
 
I don’t believe I’ve actively decided to leave during a project. Nothing quite so dramatic. Early in my career, I’ve had a few difficult projects where things weren’t clicking and I’ve had to power through to the end, but I learned from those experiences. 
 
Through that, I learned that if I’m not passionate about a book, then it’s more difficult to motivate myself to put in the time I have available. It’s poor business to limit myself like that, but it’s also something I have to be honest with myself about. I find it difficult to leave a book after getting started so, for me, it is best to identify any issues as early as possible and make a decision before I find myself in the thick of it. Seeing past my ego to acknowledge my limitations is both fairer to me and to potential clients.
 
Also, I’ve learned that if something is not legit about the client, I end up regretting that I didn’t listen to my gut. So I try to keep on my toes. For one thing, I’m wary of anyone who implies that “exposure” is as important a reward as payment. The one client I had (early in my career) who insisted I would get “exposure” as a letterer was quite quick to short-change me on my work. I was so naïve.
 
Don’t feel bad about that, most of us have come across clients offering exposure or some other form of non-payment.

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?     
 
Center your professionalism in empathy. It helps you understand, forgive, move forward, and be a better person to yourself and also to others – including your creative teams, editors, and fellow letterers.
 
There’s plenty of pressure put on letterers since we are one of the last steps in the process before going to print. We are aware that shit (i.e. deadlines and associated stress) tends to roll downhill, right to our feet. There’s frustration because we are often not credited well enough (on covers, in reviews, etc) to acknowledge how important we are to making comics look good and read well. There’s a perceived scarcity of work due to how much we have to hustle to reach the notice of editors, get invited onto creative teams, and build up a sustainable amount of ongoing books to be successful. It’s easy to fall into lonely cynicism and it is hard to muster empathy. But if you take the hard path, I believe it rewards you ten-fold. Instead of seeing a bleak rat race, you start to see a warm - and rather geeky – lettering community. After all, I believe we letterers have our hearts in the same place: despite numerous frustrations and difficult deadlines, we love comics.

You can follow Ariana over at Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommentAiry

And check out her website: https://www.arianamaher.com/

Interview roundtable with Buddy Beaudoin, Lucas Gattoni, Matt Krotzer, and Josh Southall

We're going to switch things up a bit this time around. Instead of talking to letterers’ who’ve already “made” it, I’ll be doing a roundtable with letterers who are maybe struggling a bit to find regular work; Buddy Beaudoin, Lucas Gattoni, Matt Krotzer, and Josh Southall.

Buddy Beaudoin

I'm Buddy Beaudoin. I'm based out of upstate, NY. I've been working in comics one way or another for about the past five years. I started out writing my own books and went through all the pains and joys of self-publishing them. That decision led me to work with a lot of really great artists and I feel incredibly lucky for that. I continue to do that today. I run a small publishing imprint with friend and artist, Brennan Freemantle, called Gentlemen Pickle. I do most of the lettering for our books, but I've also recently lettered a book called Margo:Intergalactic Trash Collector and I'm wrapping up a project right now called The Underachievers.

Portfolio | Twitter | Email

Lucas Gattoni

Lucas Gattoni is a seasoned graphic designer and typesetter now pursuing his dream job of comic book lettering, bringing over to this medium 15 years of professionalism and a lifetime passion for storytelling. He lives in his home country of Argentina with his husband and their five unnamed goldfish (oops, make that four now).

Portfolio | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email

Matt Krotzer

Matt Krotzer gives voices to characters and adds sound to action. As a comic book letterer and graphic designer working for powerhouses like Image, Dark Horse, and many fine independent comics around the world, he’s collaborated with some of brightest artists in comics. He is an optimist and frequent champion of lost causes, regularly found cheering for the mighty Bengals of Cincinnati. Matt lives in suburban Pennsylvania with his wife, daughter and faithful feline companion, Teddy.

Portfolio | Facebook  | Twitter | Email

Josh Southall

I’m Josh Southall and I live in Phoenix AZ with my wife and 2 awesome kids. I’ve been lettering for about 6 years now, mostly for small press and indie titles. I recently wrapped a 100 page OGN called “Soulforge” for BackPocket Comics out of Northern Ireland and am now working on a 22 page one shot for a Kickstarter project that was recently funded.

Portfolio | Twitter | Comixology | Email

Now that you've met these young guns let’s get to it…

So you’ve somehow come to the conclusion that lettering is the right fit for you, why?
 
BB: I suppose I started lettering out of necessity. When Gentlemen Pickle was formed, it was mostly just myself and Brennan working on the books. We would get our books colored, but budgets for our books were super small. Brennan was already penciling and inking our stuff, as well as having a role in writing, whether it was editing my words or giving me ideas. So, I decided to give it a shot. This was before Adobe came out with Creative Cloud. I had a really old version of Photoshop Elements that came with a laptop and I learned to letter on that. My letters in those days look pretty awful, but I stuck with it. Luckily I have Illustrator today.
 
 For a short while, I was also a comic reviewer for a site called FanboysInc (currently Earplug Podcast Network). While reviewing, my main objective was to break down a book piece-by-piece and really try to explain why I have such a reverie for comics – or not, some books are bad and I had to cover those as well. I really started noticing lettering as a comic reviewer. I started reading other reviews and it  felt to me that a lot of folks were missing out on how vital lettering is to storytelling in comics.
That's kind of when I decided to take the plunge and figure out what it is about lettering that can make or break a book. I kept studying lettering while I was reviewing comics and it quickly became my favorite part of comic books. I think what most people don't realize is how nuanced lettering is. There are of course big lettering pieces that anyone can look at and recognize how much work went into them, but there's a lot that can go into making good lettering decisions – especially in indie books. Every panel has its own challenges.
 
LG: Because it was one of the reasons I began studying graphic design back in the late 90s! I’m a huge fan of stories in any media (movies, books, videogames) and I truly revere people who can imagine these new worlds and characters and bring them to life. I specially love comic books for the infinite possibilities they provide, and since I can’t draw much but wanted to be a part of this industry, lettering was my choice. 
 
I got my graphic design degree and then life got in the way; ten years later I found myself researching the internet for a completely different project and came across a forum that offered a couple of art pages and some lettering exercises. As soon as I got some off time I watched a couple tutorials, read lots of tips and how-tos (Jim Campbell’s blog and Blambot’s articles are a must!) and with over 10 years of daily mastering the software, and a lifetime of reading comic books lettering just came natural to me. 
 
I lettered those first seven pages, uploaded them to the cloud and got my first job lettering for a very small American publisher just two or three days later.
 
MK: I actually came upon it completely by accident. I found into a discussion online about GrayHaven Comics' latest "You Are Not Alone" anthology, and the editor of the book, Marc Lombardi, was responding to people, so I messaged him and expressed my interest in contributing my artistic skills. Unfortunately (or so I thought at the time) they didn't need any more artists. However, if I knew how to letter, they could really use some help in that regard. I knew the basics, and figured I could make my way through it, and it was for a great cause, so I'd happily jump in and help. I quickly discovered that I REALLY liked lettering, and that it dovetailed nicely with the skillset I'd developed as a graphic designer of 10+ years.  
 
JS: I began lettering my own books out of necessity, but after 3 books, I realized I really enjoyed the process and set out to learn more. I was lucky enough to have a very established letterer take a look at one of my books and give me some great feedback. After brushing up my skills I began lettering for OTHER people’s projects and found it just as rewarding to see the finished product. The challenge of getting everything just right and the rewarding feeling of being the first to see a comic complete kept me looking to do more and more. 
 
What’s your “day job”, and how are you finding time to letter comics, and further pursue your comics aspirations?
 
BB: I'm a full-time freelancer. Other than lettering, I'm an event and portrait photographer and I'm currently working on a photo book. Day-to-day, most of my freelance work is done for a comic book publisher called Ominous Press. I work on their various projects and also do some work for their sister company Sleeping Giant Collectibles. I'm pretty fortunate that my day job so heavily involves comics. Working with Ominous and Sleeping Giant has opened a lot of doors and I've been lucky enough to meet and befriend a lot of pretty amazing comic creators and it's definitely helped in getting more work as a letterer as well.
 
LG: I work as a prepress manager for an offset press print-shop, it will be my 15th year this next July.
 
It’s an 8 to 5 job, so I concentrate my main lettering hours during the weekends; Saturday and Sunday mornings are as productive as I can make them be! As the workload tends to be irregular and my employer is quite understanding, I can also get some lettering done during my working hours. On tight deadlines I’ve also lettered at night, but it hasn’t been the rule yet.
 
Working at a print-shop means dealing with problematic files every day of the week, and that has given me a lot of exercise and confidence in the quality of work I do and the files I can produce (something my clients are very appreciative of!).
 
I love lettering, and while my main goal is to someday letter at least a story for some of the big companies, I enjoy being a part of this industry and helping small creators have their voice out in a fashionable and legible way!
 
MK: I work as an Assistant Art Director for a direct-mail advertising company.
 
JS: For the last 10 years I’ve been a Customer Support Manager for various technology companies. Being that my day job was a 9-5 gig, I’ve been lucky to have a decent amount of time to letter at night after the kids are in bed. My wife has been super supportive as well to help me find time on the weekends when I have pages to work. I was laid off recently and have been hustling to try and snag more comic work while working odd jobs like part time delivery gigs etc. 
 
What are some of the biggest obstacles you’ve found in getting work?
 
BB: Lettering is a pretty bulk thing. If you're going to make a real living doing it, you need to have a lot of work and you need to be able to do it all day long. As a relatively unknown person who has never produced work for any of the major publishers, it's really difficult to get your name out. Also, there are a lot of people lettering now. When you do manage to get your name out, there are dozens of other portfolios in the mix and you just have to hope that you hear back about a job.
 
LG: Last year I really got as much work as I could do on my limited time frame, mostly lettering for independent creators (so I’ve usually dealt with writers and artists directly).
 
The biggest issue for me has been reaching out to established companies, as I’m pretty sure going through the regular submission channels leaves your portfolio floating in a sea of artists (I still send those emails once or twice a year). I haven’t managed yet to contact any known editors, so that’s my main concern now. Not living in the US means not being able to attend cons, which is where the best networking opportunities lie (as I’ve heard).
 
As a side note, I’ve recently noticed how a few quite seasoned letterers apply for work on the same blogs and Facebook groups where I do, so that sometimes means competing with household names. And most of the times, that means not getting those jobs. 
 
MK: Meeting and befriending the right people at the right time. I find that once someone's found a letterer they can rely on, they stay pretty loyal to that letterer. Which is awesome, once you're the chosen letterer. But there's a lot of luck involved in finding the right people to work with at the right point in time where they're looking. The downside is, when they're not working, you're not working. So it's a constant game of hide and seek, keeping your ears open, and doing the best work you can, when you have it.
 
JS: The world of comics is VERY small and the group of “working” letterers is even smaller. Being that lettering is pretty much the last step, I feel a lot of companies are hesitant to go with someone they’ve never worked with for fear of something going wrong. It’s understandable from a business stand point, but it makes breaking in as a letterer more difficult. I try not to take it personally and keep forging ahead.
 
How are you reaching out to editors, creators, and studios? How are you getting your work in front of them? Websites? Online portfolios?
 
BB: Anyway I can. There are various groups/message boards/subreddits for finding comic jobs. I reach out to as many of those as I can when I need work. I also post on Twitter and do a lot of pitching in person to folks I meet at conventions or other comic related events. Having an online portfolio definitely helps.
 
LG: Again, being a foreigner I exclusively use internet to reach out; I’ve found four or five forums where job needs are posted, and a couple of Facebook groups too.
 
I’d usually see an ad asking for a letterer and if the project suits me, I immediately send my speech stating rates and working dynamics (as a seasoned designer, I tend to be very meticulous with communication, details and deadlines). I also post ads every other month, where I present my portfolio or a couple of the last pages I’ve lettered, and I’ve had many contacts made through those too. I have an online portfolio on an art-oriented site, where I can organize my projects and present them neatly for everyone to see. Again, years as a professional have taught me you have to give a great first impression, and a good portfolio is key. I also try to be as active as I can on social media, updating my profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with my latest works, helping creators promote their projects and overall interacting with the lettering and comic book community.
 
MK: I do it in person, or not at all, really. And that might be to my detriment, but I haven't had much luck with cold-calling people and just letting them know I'm available (always with samples, though).
 
I try to get out to cons when I can, try to speak to editors if they're available at the publisher booths. Talk to writers and artists at their tables. I make sure to have a card and a sample of my work available at all times, even when walking the floor. You never know who you'll bump into.
 
JS: When companies have open submission forms on their site I’ve submitted to those (to no avail so far). I keep my eye open on Twitter for people working projects and offer my lettering services pretty regularly. Comic Cons are a great place to get in front of editors and studios, and I’ve seen a TINY bit of success in that. Most of the work I’ve gotten has been through old fashion hustling and networking; six degrees of separation and all that.  I have a lettering portfolio on my website so checking out my work is as easy as possible for any potential clients. People that don’t have an easy to find online portfolio confuse me. 
 
Do you think there’s some specific kernel of information that could make the transition of letterer in search of work to letterer with too much work? (Spoiler alert, there is no in between.)
 
BB: Realistically, no. There are a lot of people trying to work in comics and a lot of them are pretty talented. Not everyone is going to be lucky enough to make lettering a full-time job. It hasn't stopped me from asking pro letterers for some sage wisdom, but at the end of the day, I still have to do the work and I need to make the decision to learn every day.
 
LG: Well, the first of course is quality of work; and not just on the final product, but also meaning communication skills, commitment to a project, meeting deadlines, and offering a professional opinion when the creator is open.
 
Once that’s settled, I think getting published by a big company might do the trick. When you start getting your name attached to other known creators, I think that should change the status from “asking for work” to “being asked for projects”.
 
Networking and getting to know editors might be key too; I still don’t know if it’s completely OK to approach an editor online just to have your portfolio reviewed or your name added to a talent shortlist (as you’d do personally at a con). But it’s something I’ve considered too as they’re usually the ones who make the hiring decisions.
 
MK: I've found that even in my situation, as a part-timer who would love to make the transition to full time, it's very feast or famine. Projects, especially when you're working for a bevy of independent creators who are self-publishing, frequently shift their timelines and deadlines, and you can go from a situation where you think you've got some breathing room to a state of frenzy as art starts flooding your inbox along with completely revised scripts, all of which need to be done yesterday.
 
JS: If I had to pick of piece of INFORMATION, I would say being versatile in your lettering abilities. But to be honest I think the biggest thing to know in order to make that transition is a WHO and not a WHAT. Having the right PERSON recommend you for a more high-profile job could help you snag it and visa vi lead to more work. The trick is getting to know said mystery person and giving them a reason to put themselves out there on your behalf. Being that this would be either taking work out of their queue or putting their OWN name on the line (or BOTH) it’s understandable that this is easier said than done. In my experience however, letterers are a tight knit and amazingly friendly group who look out for each other so it’s definitely a possibility. 
 
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?     
 
BB: If you're passionate about something, go and do it. If you're passionate about a bunch of things, do all of them. It's a scary jump and you'll probably have a lot more failures than successes, but working on my passions has been the most fulfilling experience I've had. 
 
LG: If you do postpone your dreams for some reason, it’s never too late to pick them up! 
 
A couple of months ago I found a ten year old backup folder where I had compiled lots of lettering resources back then. In those days, internet was not as prominent as today, so maybe I came a bit too late to the game, but I’ll surely make the best of it now that I can.
 
MK: Make time for yourself and your family. Comics won't look after you when you're old.
 
JS: Don’t be a jerk. Like I mentioned before, the world of comics is very small and word travels fast. If you’re nasty, notoriously late or otherwise difficult to work with, people WILL know. On the flip side, if you’re easy to work with, reliable and generally pleasant to be around, people will talk you up. You’d THINK this would go without saying, but I see up and coming creators of all types blow it all the time. I guess this pertains to life outside of comics as well so there you go, two birds with one stone!

Interview with Deron Bennett

Deron Bennett is an Eisner and Harvey nominated letterer of comic books. He writes Quixote and has worked for BOOM! Studios, DC Comics, Vertigo, Lion Forge, too many others, and runs Andworld Design. Right now he’s lettering one of the coolest books on the shelves, Death Bed, for Vertigo.
 

Obviously if you’re lettering comics, you love the medium, what was your journey from lover of comics to letterer? 

When I was little, I was heavily into comic strips, but not so much into mainstream comics. I’d read the Sunday funnies and borrow a bunch of collections from the school library; stuff like Mother Goose and Grimm, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes. So those were really my introduction to comics. Of course, I had been into Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman from the TV shows and movies, but they never really compelled me to read the comics. I just wasn’t aware of any comic shops around or anything other than the newsstands to buy them. It also didn’t help that I didn’t have a dollar to my name, so there was that as well. 

It wasn’t until the ‘90s that I started collecting. The X-Men animated series finally got me into a comic shop. I became a frequent buyer and, soon enough, Milestone Media came out with Icon, Hardware, Static, and Blood Syndicate. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. The Dakota Universe presented comics in a way to me that I thought, “this is how I want to tell stories.” I was always an artist. I planned on becoming an animator, but when I saw how these particular heroes developed, I started making my own comics. I decided to become a penciller and I followed that path all the way through college.

I went to SCAD and majored in Sequential Art. After I got my degree, I wasn’t sure how to go about landing a job in comics. In retrospect, I didn’t know the business like I do now. I didn’t know about going to conventions and submissions policies. Every job, I had gotten up to that point had been through classified ads, resumes, and interviews. So that’s what I did. I kept looking for entry level openings and internships. I eventually migrated out west because a relative of mine had connections at Warner Bros. While I waited for that to pan out, I continued to put out my resume and one eventually found it’s way to TOKYOPOP’s CCO. They called me in for an interview and I got a job as a freelance letterer on manga. 

From there, everything kind of snowballed. I really enjoyed what I was doing. I got hired full time after a few months and got deep into production and typography. It was a new puzzle for me. Eventually, I headed back east to my hometown, but continued with TOKYOPOP as a freelance letterer again. I’d get recommended to do more jobs in manga and through some of those business connections that I made, I found my way into lettering traditional comics. Been at it ever since.

What’s going on with Quixote? I read the first issue when it first hit Comixology and I’ve yet to see any more. Please tell me that you’re still working on it…? Are you writing anything else?

Quixote! I’m glad you asked. Yes, I am still working on it. My writing takes a back seat to everything else since that’s not what pays the bills. But I’ve made a commitment to return to the story this year. One of the biggest challenges with Quixote was losing my artist—the incredible Dan Mora. After the first issue debuted, he was immediately picked up by BOOM! and wasn’t able to return to the series. It really took me out of stride, so after unsuccessfully searching for a new artist I decided to put it on hold until I could figure out my next move. Which bring us to the present day. I’m currently planning some short stories to publish online. I’ll have different artists working on them so that I won’t be hampered down with finding a permanent creative team and it’ll also provide the opportunity to showcase some fresh takes on the characters and world. These stories will be sort of like side quests, so readers can get their Quixote fix while I work on the main adventure. I’m hoping to start rolling out those mini adventures this summer, so stay tuned for that. 

Aside from that, I’ve contributed a story to an anthology against bigotry and hate called The Good Fight. It’s still in development, but as soon as we have news to share, I’ll be sure to let people know. I’ve also been toying with the idea of a novel. It’s a little ambitious, I know, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m ready for it.

Glad to hear we can expect more Quixote adventures! Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on, and a lot of ideas for the future. How do you prioritize? 

I’m a deadline-oriented worker. Fixed deadlines are very helpful for me in determining how to schedule my workload. If I don’t have a deadline set in stone, I usually factor in the who, what, and when of the project to help me sort it out. 

Who’s it for? Is it a personal project, a favor, or is it for a new client? A lot of times, that relationship can help determine how to plan your time. In terms of personal projects, I look at its value to myself to help shift things higher or lower on priority scale.

What is the project? Is it book layout? A font commission? A novel? Those questions lead me to figure out how long it will take me to complete a project. Longer term projects can get spaced out accordingly. If it’s something that can take me hours instead of days, I can schedule that as needed.

The When is the simplest. If it’s due sooner, I’ll tackle it sooner. If we have a good lead time, I can structure milestones. If I know a client expects turnarounds at a faster pace, that also gets factored in. So I take all of these things into consideration and map it out in my task management program and take it from there.

What’s your typical day like? You’ve got a wife, 2 kids, you’re running Andworld, lettering high profile gigs, how do you pull it off?

With clients across multiple time zones, I usually work a 9 to 9. The day always starts off with coffee. It’s vital. I’ll spend the first half hour or so of my morning responding to emails and setting up tasks for the morning/afternoon shift. After that, I dig into whatever’s on the agenda. That can vary between lettering, corrections, production, or sending final files. Typically, I’ll knock out any corrections and production items and then I’ll go full steam on lettering a book. Once I’ve sent off a lettering proof, I switch back to project management. I make sure the AndWorld team has their assignments and follow up on any current progress. By that time, new tasks will have rolled in from clients so I’ll spend the day delivering on whatever needs have arrived. 

I think being part of a studio has really helped to mitigate some of the everyday demands. I have around 50 titles to manage each month and without a full squad of letterers and designers, I’d never be able to succeed. The studio really provides flexibility to do more. When it was just me, I’d work around the clock to keep up with everything. Now I don’t have to. I can spend time with the family, cook, and all of the other normal things (like sleep) because I have others to pick up where I need them to.

Managing a workflow, handling the business side of things, communicating on that many projects is a boatload of work on its own. Do you ever find the management duties of running a studio to be a drain on you creatively? 

It can be an obstacle at times, yeah. Sometimes, I want to get my hands in the mud, so to speak, but then I’ve got to take time to review projects, give feedback, or handle paperwork and finances. Managing a studio is definitely not something everyone is built for. You’re responsible for the livelihood of others as well as yourself. You also have an added responsibility of quality control so there are things that can make the job feel a little corporate at times. But there’s some overlap too. I really enjoy training sessions. I get to interact with my team and teach them some of the things I’ve learned in this business. Communication is very informal, too. We can joke and banter with each other while we’re discussing projects. So though running the studio isn’t necessarily a creative outlet, it mixes up the work so my day is never stale. 

When you get a new book, like Death Bed, for instance, what’s the first thing you do? How do you develop the lettering style?

On a new book, the first thing I do is get a sense of the art style because I believe that should dictate the lettering style. Is the style serious or cartoony? Does it have even line weights or varied? Line weights have a lot of impact on what I do since I prefer the balloon strokes to mimic the subtleties of the line. Time permitting, I’ll check out other work to draw some inspiration from. Not just other work from the same artist, but books that I feel possess a similar art style. If there are lettering styles that worked, I’ll reference them for some of my decisions. But, it shouldn’t be a direct copy. I try to choose unique styles so that everything doesn’t look the same. I determine what works, what doesn’t work, and try to improve where I can.  

For Death Bed, I felt like Riley’s style needed something loose with a hand-drawn feel. I didn’t want the line weights to be uniform. I also needed a font that complemented the weight of the balloon. At the same time, I was inspired by what Clem Robins was doing on Batman and The Shadow, so I looked for a font that resembled that. I selected a few different choices, but ultimately settled on a relatively new font that I’d picked up, Blambot’s Collect ‘Em All. I usually advise against using newly released fonts just for the sake of using the font, but this one seemed to fit perfectly. I spent some time ironing out some of the ideas with Josh and Riley and we settled on the final look that you see now.

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?      

I took this a long time ago from the intro to Jay-Z’s My First Song (and I’m paraphrasing), the key to success is to treat everything like it’s your first project. And I think you can apply that to outside of business as well. Don’t forget how it was when you first started; the desire and passion that was there. Keep that fire and run with it daily.

Deron's Site: http://www.andworlddesign.com

Interview with Joe Caramagna

Joe Caramagna is a writer and letterer of comic books. He writes DuckTales and Frozen and has worked for Disney, Marvel, and IDW. He’s lettered some of the finest comic books around; Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-Man, Iron Man & The Armor Wars, and many more.
 
You’ve lettered all the coolest Marvel titles for the last decade or so, what’s been your favorite? Why?
 
That’s so hard to answer because I’ve been lucky to have lettered so many great ones. As an Amazing Spider-Man fan - in fact, my first non-Archie comic was an issue of Amazing Spider-Man that a friend gave me when I was in 5th grade - it blows my mind every time I realize that my name has been in the credits of Amazing Spidey about a hundred and fifty or so times out of 800. That’s about 1in every 5 ever made. That’s crazy. And because of that, I’ve been able to continue reading Amazing Spidey for the past ten years for free, which is nice. And of course every book I’ve ever done with Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson has always been the highlight of that particular month-slash-year. They always brought out the best in me and made me want to do right by them. 
 
You’re also writing comics now. My son and I checked out DuckTales from IDW and loved it! Are you done lettering? Leaving behind the balloons and tails for that fancy writer credit on the cover?
 
I’m so glad you’re enjoying DuckTales - thanks so much! I’m definitely not done lettering, I’m still working on a bunch of titles every month. Lettering gives me the opportunity to read scripts from all different writers - and I’ve worked with some of the best like Waid, Dan Slott, Ed Brubaker - and I think that makes me a better writer. And it’s a nice break to be able to switch off between the two disciplines. When I get burned out on one thing for the day, I get to do something else and still spend my day making comics which is all I’ve ever wanted to do.
 
How long are you going to be writing DuckTales for? Any new projects we should be keeping an eye out for?
 
I plan on writing DuckTales for as long as they’ll let me! I am also writing a Frozen series for Disney Comics and Dark Horse that starts in August, and a not-yet announced graphic novel that should be out in the fall, but they’ll have to pry DuckTales from my cold, dead hands.
 
You’re a real human. You have a wife, three kids, all that comic book work and them pesky deadlines. How do you juggle it all and stay sane?
 
It’s much easier now than it used to be, that’s for sure. My two youngest are barely a year apart, and when they were babies, that was a real test. The house was so chaotic all day in those days that I ended up working late into the night every night. I barely slept and would take a bunch of naps instead. Going from man-on-man defense to a zone with your kids can make you crazy. That’s a sports reference, people! And in those days I was still trying to prove myself, too, so I didn’t allow myself any time off at all because I was afraid of losing my spot. As the kids got older, they needed less direct attention, and I was able to normalize my schedule. Also, those years went by so fast that I felt I needed to make some changes and slow down and appreciate things more. I became obsessed with efficiency - making to-do lists, updating my workflow, lettering actions, etc. and, most importantly, getting rest. I’m much more productive when I’m well-rested than when I’m not. That means no more all-nighters. I go to bed when the rest of the family goes to bed, I wake up nice and early for work, and I have scheduled breaks to keep me fresh. Work smarter, not harder. Now that my wife is working full-time again, I get to drive my kids to and from school and hear about their day and what they’re doing, what they’re reading... last year I even had enough time to be an assistant coach for my daughter’s basketball team. 
 
With your schedule being the way it is. Do you find yourself having to say “no”, or having to turn down a project/projects? Has saying “no” ever caused you friction?
 
I don’t usually say no to writing projects, but I have had to turn away lettering work. The best part about writing is that I can do it from anywhere – from bed, from the kitchen, from the beach (and I have done it from all of those places) – but lettering can only be done at my lettering station in my home office. I can’t letter books on a laptop anymore - the screen is so small and I have to keep scrolling to see what I’m doing. And there are also only so many hours per day I want to be stuck in the office. I want to see my kids, I want to go outside…
But you know how this business is. If you want to make a living, you have to stay very busy because stuff falls through, some jobs don’t pay right away, etc. Plus, when I’m busy, I’m focused. When I have plenty of time to do something, I spend most of that time playing hockey on X-Box. But I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t afraid of not being asked again if I say no to something.
 
As an Eisner & Harvey Award nominated letter, when you’re writing a project and not lettering it, do you find yourself directing the letterer? Do you offer any suggestions?
 
No, no way. Never. I know from having to deal with editors, writers, and sometimes artists who have specific requests that what they want doesn’t always work and it’s not always the best choice for the panel layout or the style of the book. I have plenty of opportunities to letter books my way, I don’t need to direct others to do it the way I’d do it.
 
Do you think you write differently as a result of being a letterer too?
 
For sure. For one thing, I make sure my scripts are super tight before I turn them in. I don’t rewrite panels and pages after they’re lettered. A letterer needs volume of work to make a decent living, and I’m not going to be the one to make them do extra work for free when they could be doing paid work with that time. I’m also a good judge of how much text can fit in any given panel because of my lettering experience.
 
Since you mentioned re-writing, have you noticed an uptick in writers that re-write their work? Have you had to discuss with a writer, or editor, how re-writing effects what you do as a letterer?
 
I guess “discussion” is a nice way to put it, haha. I’ve downright been a jerk about it quite a few times because some editor just happened to be the second or third editor who gave me rewrites to letter in a short period of time, and it was the final straw. And it’s not only because letterers typically don’t get paid for “corrections” even though they aren’t really lettering corrections, they’re SCRIPT corrections, but also because that’s time away from doing PAID work, or spending time with my kids, or sleeping, or whatever. I think as Marvel has hired new writers from outside of comics, there has been an uptick in rewrites, and it’s not that they aren’t good writers because in some case they’re amazing writers, but they’re inexperienced at writing comics. Writing comics is unlike writing anything else, and I think sometimes executives and editors take for granted that it’s a skill that the comic book writers have been studying and perfecting their entire lives and sometimes they make it look easy. Some of the powers-that-be are under the impression that as long as you are a good storyteller, or a great writer in another medium, then you can write a great comic book and that’s certainly not necessarily true. 
 
Something I will be asking everyone I interview…If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering or life, what would it be?     
 
Give yourself permission to fail. No one thing is your be-all, end-all, and just about everyone in this business failed many times before they succeeded. If you’re afraid to fail, you won’t take any chances, you’ll be paralyzed by fear. But if you give yourself permission to fail, you’ll go for what you want, and if you fail, it’ll sting a little, but you’ll learn that life goes on and you’ll get another chance. The only REAL failure is when you stop trying.

Go check out Joe's Site: http://www.squareheadentertainment.com/

Interview with Todd Klein

Working at DC Comics, 1979. Photo by Jack Adler

Todd, since I began my career in lettering you’ve been not only a source of inspiration, but a source--a veritable fountain--of knowledge on the craft. Your website, blog, and co-authored book The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics (essential reading for the budding letterer) combine to make one hell of a master class. It’s clear you’re passionate about the profession, but I’ve got to ask; have you ever fallen out of love with lettering?

If so, what brought you back?

I’ve always liked and been interested in hand-drawn lettering. My mother’s father worked with hand-drawn or painted letters in several ways: sign painting, calligraphy and engraving. These were all side-line jobs he did in addition to his main full-time job working for Mack Trucks. As a child, he gave me some Speedball pens and ink, with some alphabets he’d drawn for me to copy. Later, when I discovered Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” I became enamored with the Elvish alphabet Tolkien created, and often imitated it. Tolkien’s own signature uses a very similar style, and I stole it for my own professional signature, which was pretty easy, as our names share many letters.

When I began lettering comics, I found the same enjoyment in doing that hand-made work as I had with calligraphy. Later, in the 1990s, when I began doing digital lettering, much of that particular pleasure was lost, except when I was creating my own fonts from letters I drew. However, by that time, I was finding it harder to produce large amounts of lettering by hand due to some arthritis pain, so the gradual transition worked out well for me, and I never really got tired of lettering.

Is there anything you letter by hand today? Or maybe some title/logo work that starts off on paper and gets digitized along the way?

Yes, logo designs often begin with hand-drawn sketches that I scan and trace with Adobe Illustrator. I haven’t lettered a comics page by hand in a few years now.

You began lettering comics in 1977 and watched the industry go from all the lettering being done by hand to almost all of it now being done digitally. What do you think of the current state of lettering and where do you see it going from here?

There are many fine comic-book fonts available from ComiCraft and Blambot. If I did not have my own, I would probably use them. There are many letterers doing good with with those fonts, but also many inexperienced users whose work is not good. The ability to tell the difference comes with practice and experience. Unfortunately, there are now far more people who want lettering work than there is available work, which puts downward pressure on pay rates and encourages letterer abuse. I don’t see that situation improving any time soon, nor do I see any solution for it.

Do you think that digital lettering has led to the increase of letterers, or the downward pressure on pay rates?

Yes, it makes it easier for anyone to get a result that’s at least readable in most cases, a process that took a lot more effort and practice for hand-letterers. Doing digital lettering WELL takes more effort and practice, but the starting point is further along. This encourages more people to take it on, and creates more letterers pursuing each potential lettering job.

Those of us in this profession live and die by deadlines. There are companies and editors and books that can sometimes be very demanding time-wise. Revisions are often expected to be turned around quicker and quicker. How do you handle it? Do you have set working hours? Just say no?

Yes, I generally have set working hours, starting around 7:30 AM, breaking for exercise and dinner around 3PM, and if needed another hour or two in the evening. I will work later in the afternoon to meet a rush deadline if I have to, but try to avoid that. Most editors are doing the best they can with the deadlines they have, and we work things out between us.

Were deadlines any easier before the days of digital lettering?

Not really. In my younger days, I was more willing to work longer hours and even all night on occasion, but that gets old, and now I won’t do that. At almost 67, I am willing to say no to impossible deadlines.

Do you think saying no has ever led to you losing future work? What would you say to someone just getting into lettering that may be uneasy saying no?

This is something you have to learn and decide for yourself. In my case, I have a long track record to back up any decision I make, and the confidence in those I work for. No, in my case, I don’t think it has led to losing future work unless it was work I didn’t want anyway.

You’ve earned a few awards over the years. Were there ever times you doubted yourself? Times maybe between the accolades, or before, when you questioned your abilities? If so, what kept you going?

One thing I believe is that, to continue to improve, you have to be your own harshest critic. When I look at my own work, I see the things I wish I had done better. That doesn’t mean I hate what I’ve done, just that I will never stop trying to do better, and keep looking for ways to make that happen. Awards are great, but never something I aspired to, and I’m always surprised when I win one.

If you could only give one piece of advice, be it for lettering or life, what would it be?      

Find work you enjoy doing, and learn to do it well. Always strive to do it better. That’s the best entry into a successful work life.

If you’re new to lettering you should go to Todd's Site: https://kleinletters.com