Lettering - Intro by Cary Kelley

If I had to pick a discipline in comics that's most often overlooked or halfassed, it's lettering. It makes no sense really, if you think about it. Letters being the only way someone actually READS your comic, you would think the creators would want them perfect! And yet horrible balloons, tails pointing every which way, and overbearing effects that pull you completely out of a book are common in small press books where creators are more focused on getting the product out, or making the art look perfect. I'll let you in on a little secret. If the letters suck, so does the book, no matter how cool the art looks. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say "Wow, great art, but I can't even read this!" about an Indy book...I'd have an even faster car than I have.

So what makes good letters or bad? Attention to detail for one. Misspelling can cripple the best looking lettering job in the world. Seeing a word misspelled is the fastest way to pull a reader out of a book and just ruin the whole experience. Good, proper lettering should actually be virtually invisible to the reader. You don't want them seeing something you've done and saying "Wow. Interesting choice there." You want easy to read, consistent, and under the radar dialog with properly spaced balloons, and you want that through the whole book. If you can do that, you raise the bar for your book immeasurably, and in the process dispel the myth that Indy books can't hold their own with the mass produced stuff coming out of the big four or five.

It's not like anyone is reinventing the wheel here. The difference lies in the user. Fact is, we use the same techniques, technology, and software that they use. If we use the same SKILL, we're looking just as good as they do. If we don't...then we've failed.

What will follow will hopefully be enlightening, useful, and comprehensive from the standpoint of a beginner so as to allow someone with very little knowledge to come in and get started without being so far below the curve that it seems daunting. No one taught me how to do this, I learned through initiative, a TON of study, and practice. Along the way I've managed some really ugly lettering, but everything I've done has made me better, and I get paid to letter these days, so I guess I've stepped up my game a bit from my beginnings. Understand first, that I'm still learning. Some of the stuff other letterers do still blows my mind, but I'm picking up more as I go along, always trying to get better. That more than anything has allowed my work to progress and get better.

If you have questions as we go along, ask them. I'll do my best to answer them as I can. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does. I'd also like people to post examples of their work as we go along. Show everyone how you're growing, because that's how we all get better.