![]() Oh and check it out, not only does it use lowercase, it’s a serif-type font too! It’s aware of its digital origins and takes full use of it. In contrast to Emily Carroll, Homestuck chooses a more sprite-like style, highly pixelated and very much “digital.” It makes sense that with this style, the font would be similar: computer-like precision, evoking feelings of playing an old school video game. (A page from Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck/Problem Sleuth) Additionally, it’s an upper-and-lowercase type, which further evokes that handwritten feeling. Even if the font and the artwork theoretically should contradict each other, the “pretty” handwriting gives an extra sense of depth to the story. It contrasts with the decay going on in the story, giving it depth. Therefore, the font (which I’m pretty sure Carroll handwrote) is feminine and soft, as this is done from the perspective of the female character. The style is very illustrative, with some grit, done in a narrative fairy tale style. (An excerpt from Emily Carroll’s Margot’s Room) In today’s ever changing industry, there are so many new comics with unique styles other than “superhero” or “Sunday funnies,” which don’t quite fit the mold set by other comics. This is a point where you might get away with breaking tradition, and possibly negate point number 2.Įxtra Tidbit #2: Complementing Unique Styles. Meanwhile Carl Barks goes practically the opposite way, his comics are not trying to make you feel like you’re in a bleak superhero-infested world where nuclear war is eminent. Dave Gibbon’s lettering is packed tight, the bolded areas are italicized to make an emphasized, jarring point because the comic’s target is for older audiences, and probably people who read superhero comics. All of this makes the font feel more inviting, friendly, and easy on the eyes. The lettering is more spaced out, the bolded areas avoid italics, the exclamation points have have a very bold "dot,” etc. The lettering style is pretty similar, they’re both sans-serif and they write their “E” and “D"s the same way, but what they feel remarkably different! But compare this style of lettering with Carl Bark’s Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics. Being both has some huge advantages, namely that the writing style is similar to the artwork since they’re done by the same person. In Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Dave GIbbons was both the artist AND letterer for the comic. Good fonts will work with the artwork and sets a tone for the demographic or style. This dives into the next point.ģ) Complementing the Artwork & Story. ![]() There isn’t a strong answer for that, other than “tradition.” Comics have almost always used Sans-Serif lettering, so it’s a matter of “why fix it if it ain’t broke?” But you don’t always have to follow tradition, maybe. “But Kupo, I’m typing my dialogue instead of handlettering, why should I still use Serif-fonts?” If you were to handletter your comic, doing a serif-styled type would be more work for you, which is why most comics go with a Sans-Serif style rather than Serif. It has those little feet on vertical lines, extra curves at the tips, and so on. Serif fonts put an extra level of fanciness on the type. So they tend to be all upper-case and sans-serif for efficiency. Therefore, comics would rarely work with more complicated typography (other than the logo, banner, etc.). As you can probably imagine, hand-lettering a page puts a lot of emphasis on speed while still maintaining legibility. Before the use of computer fonts, all comics had to rely on hand-lettering. This dovetails with the first point on legibility, but it goes deeper than that. If you have any amount of difficulty reading the font, it’s probably not a good font to work with. ![]() A good dialogue font should be easy to read. However, there are some characteristics that a good comic font should have.ġ) Legibility/Clarity. ![]() Every person will have a different idea of what’s a good font, and many of them could be right. I say this to keep you from searching for eternity. Let’s start by this message: there is no such thing as THE perfect font. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but here’s what I’ve observed over the years. What’s a good font for my comic? What am I looking for? What does sans serif mean? Why can’t I use Comic Sans? In this tutorial, I shall attempt to dispel any problems you might have with finding the right font for your comic. But, there is a lot of confusion on what font to use for your comic. (A promise is a promise, here’s to all of you comic creators!)Ĭhoosing a digital font instead of handwriting/lettering has obvious, convenient benefits.
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