IS THE 'ART' BEING TAKEN OUT OF COMICS?



Front page of hand-lettered promotional leaflet. (Address & 'phone number removed)

 As regular readers of this humble blog should know by now (all four of them), your fearless host has never been one to avoid subjects of a controversial nature. So, let's once more leap into the fray and tackle the topic of the role in computers in comics, and whether they've taken some of the 'art' out of the process of producing them. With that subject very much in mind, I once asked a computer-colourist if he'd be able to colour a comic the traditional way, by hand. "No!", was his short and honest answer. Apparently, he didn't think he had sufficient ability and was therefore dependent on technology to enable him to make his comic contributions.

Technology has taken over in other areas too. Lettering, for example. Most comics nowadays are lettered by recourse to computer fonts, enabling practically anyone who can type (and that means just about everyone) to overlay speech-balloons, text panels, sound effects and logos onto a standard comics page. All of which most of them would be unable to produce by their own hand to a satisfactory professional level.

From the reader's point of view I don't suppose it much matters as long as it's done well, although, for myself, I find all those perfectly elliptical balloon shapes kind of tedious. I much prefer the spontaneity of hand-lettering (again, when it's done well), because it allows the lettering artist to accommodate the artist's layout in a much more personal and custom-made manner than computer fonts allow for.

When I used to earn my full-time living from lettering (mainly), many years ago now, I used to take great delight in making speech-balloons fit in spaces that one would think had no room for them, and to do it in a way that didn't seem forced and awkward-looking. For the most part I succeeded, and obtained immense satisfaction from making a page look as if the art and lettering were an 'organic' whole. I find that a lot of computer-lettering doesn't look as if it's part of the artwork, but rather some 'disembodied' shape that floats above each panel of a page.

Photo of promotional leaflet's centre-page spread of hand-lettered logos

A couple of years or so back, I briefly considered returning to comics and had a go at computer-lettering with some fonts someone lent me, just to see what the process was like. How mind-numbingly tedious it was compared to the actual thrill of handling an original page of art and affixing one's lettering, either directly onto the page or an acetate overlay (for colour work) in such a way as to make it a 'finished' piece. I soon abandoned the exercise as it afforded me not the slightest iota of creative satisfaction. I felt like nothing more than an office secretary. (Which is fine if that's what you want to be.)

I should perhaps make it clear that I have no problem with genuine hand-letterers putting their fonts onto a computer programme and going down that route. After all, these guys have been in the trenches and earned their stripes; anything that makes their job a little quicker or easier is not something I'm going to grudge them. Legendary 2000 AD calligrapher TOM FRAME eventually resorted to computer-lettering (I believe his deteriorating eyesight made it increasingly difficult for him to continue in the 'old-fashioned' way), but he had more than earned the right to do so, and it was his own lettering style he utilised.

It does niggle me however, when I see some of the newer people credited as letterers when they should more properly be listed as typographers - or in some cases, just plain typists. After all, they couldn't letter a page by hand if their lives depended on it.

If you can't play the game, then don't wear the name. 'Nuff said.

(Agree or disagree? Feel free to let me know, but try and do it without cussing at me. You know how sensitive I can be.) 

   

Back page of hand-lettered promotional leaflet