“the” project

August 5th 2011

Lately, there has been less revision, less challenge in shapes shown. Inker’s tracings of selections held enough artistry to build commentary soapboxes upon. After hearing a Carter lecture, again, a non-existent challenge was accepted to avoid thoughtless preservation leading to “taxidermy,” if only for the length of a post. This revisionist exercise was fun, but will be very short lived. It is doubtful anyone will take offense at adjusting Crack Comics’ lettered legacy, no matter how loved Gill Fox may have been. This cover is hardly a cherished artifact nor cultural touch point, even for funny books. Bubbled sans are plentiful. What caught my eye was the contrast in plumpness within and outside the “E.” Its structure seemed upholstered, a stiff frame padded outward and minimal fluff around to the crossbar. I wondered whether the effect could sober up, deflate and approach the crop of recent mutant sans which smartly utilize shallow curves in all characters to upend possible boredom with straight-sided historical sans. Diminish the bounce and level out the interior angles. What if a sausage-link sans like VAG Rounded went to boot camp, trained under a humorless drill sergeant and came out with a broken spirit but lots of resolve?

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Posted at 10:12am and tagged with: lettering, 1940s, sans, caps, comic, rounded,.

June 9th 2011

23 notes |#

The 1970s comix scene is troublesome. I understand their desire to push an infantilized medium into adult content and breaking taste barriers* was a quick and blunt tool to do so. It tore down seeming tyranny Disney held upon talking animal story telling. Adult in age, Adult in seedy flashing neon content, Childish in packaging? My attempts to appreciate such comix always fall flat at the point of drugged monsters + women solely wearing thongs and battle axes. My curiosity about the craft and independent publishing holds out against personal content bias. Larry Todd’s drafting is typical of the genre to my unlearned eye, bloated characters gone a little ripe crammed into dense backgrounds. His generation was raised on bouncy 1930s Fleischer cartoons and had a taste for body hair. Intently detailed organic bits, unmachined aesthetics, micro wobbles. Inky, messy, heavy coverage, blotter paper conditions. Horrifically cheap newsprint. A lone fanatic at the drawing table, doubtlessly sleepless. Out of artistry or necessity, the traditional comic pencils to inks to lettering production line was forgone and illustrators did their own titling. I doubt Todd was trained in commercial lettering, but he was obviously a meticulous draftsman who could rip looks from history and dedicate time to unimportant yet delicately adorned details. “The,” hidden in a nook of exposition bubbles (so much bold emphasis) and headlines is a nugget of goodness, a brilliant impersonation of typographic shapes. Why is the “h” connected at the base to the “T?” It is just as likely an improvised fix to a smudge between stems as it is guesswork at fancy letter anatomy, caricatured like the people. Equal weights and straight lines are unnecessary, this is cartooning for the stoned? Yet, it is still made legible with a laborious knockout highlight.

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* that is lazily stated, for the lack of a better term. But, its unedited inclusion feels truer to their Damn the Man times and publishing, which did not care about such information like: ©1975 and ™ Larry Todd and Last Gasp Eco Funnies?

Posted at 2:50pm and tagged with: lettering, comic, connecting, script, 1970s,.

December 7th 2010

2 notes |#

At first this was a throw away, revived for the sake of variety because I hadn’t played with a stereotypical flared lock up from the late 60s and it was bound to happen eventually. Best be done with it sooner than later. Little was considered, I offer no insight. This is sugar and soda and empty calories lettering, until I did some research. I just assumed the Modniks were created to compete with Archie and the gang a few youth trends later down the comics audience’s evolution. What I found was an educational publisher notorious for missing the mark (Mods in 1970 were already outmoded) and being the pride of grandmothers, masking facts and history lessons with aching forced attempts at relating to kids with trend packaging. Most grievous, the artist did not know the difference between a cello and an upright bass. The cherry of a postscript is that the title flopped then was converted into a masculine street racing comic. Same characters, new title Modwheels, new art, same bobbing heads atop the logo formatting. How Puzzling.

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Posted at 1:43am and tagged with: lowercase, flared, connecting, comic, 1970s,.

November 4th 2010

1 note |#

The proto spandex’d hero. The aspect ratio is odd, so I’ll guess it’s the title panel to the one of the original 1936 newspaper strips and not any of the licensed serialized books, TV, comics, and Billy Zane films which flooded the market for mysterious vigilantes. The slant, the contrast, and the Formula 1 racetrack “E” just have style. Believe that this hero rides a stallion bareback and carelessly sports striped underwear because of that fashion-forward lettering. Softened edges made by a dull pen or inky press are sharpened in the digital version to regain the seeming crisp intent. Bottom edges now flare just slightly to the right for momentum’s sake. Spacing has been opened to rein in the rogue “E” of the source.

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Posted at 1:19am and tagged with: lettering, comic, sans, caps, italic,.