Introducing...the McClellafont!

I've spent the past few months trying to shore up some of my comic book lettering skills. I've lettered in some fashion for years at this point, but there are still things at which I'm not really proficient. This is partially because I'm lazy, but also because comic book lettering is, in many ways, Wild West-like in how people approach it. There aren't a lot of definitive resources out there, and a lot of what I've learned has simply been through trial and error. Nate Piekos did us all a great favor in publishing his The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering late last year, and I used that as a motivator to finally get some answers to questions that I've had for quite a while. If you're interested in lettering for comics, this book is a great resource!

One skill that I never really thought I'd acquire is creating a font from scratch, but I recently came across the video below from Joshua Smeaton, which shows how he created a font using his own handwriting: 

This was enough for me to start working on a font of my own, and pretty soon I was writing out panagrams - sentences that use every letter in the alphabet. Rather than using a digital tablet or an iPad, I hand-wrote all of the letters so they felt more natural. My handwriting is not what I would call artistic or even all that good, so I tried my best to make everything legible while still maintaining my own style. I used comic book backers for this, so now I have a stack of these bizarre ramblings in my house. If anyone would just stumble upon them...well, I guess I have weirder stuff lying around as well.

The whole process has been long and involved. I scan the letters into Adobe Illustrator, where the program traces them and makes them individual objects. After choosing what I feel are the best letters, I bring the letters into Fontself, an Illustrator extension, where the work gets even more meticulous. Not only am I looking to create a regular, all-caps font that I can use in comics, but the completist in me has put in motion a lowercase version, too, complete with alternate symbols for almost every character. In addition to this, there are bold, italic, and bold-italic versions that many good fonts need, plus symbols and other letters that are more common in Spanish and European countries that I'm trying to incorporate as well.

In all, this has been a ton of work, but the results are, so far, fun and at least somewhat encouraging. The above balloon looks okay, I think, though I'm continuing to tweak things that I think could be better. I figure that I'll be at this particular task for another month or two before I finally put it to rest. But at the end, I'll have a font that is completely my own and not subject to any licenses or agreements, and hopefully one that I find some uses for, too.

I've named this particular creation the McClellafont, which is a bit self-centered of me, of course, but it's mine and I'm owning it. I considered different variations of spelling like "McClellaphont," "McClell-O-font," "McClellephant," and other, worse options, but "McClellafont" is what we're going with for now.

While I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the McClellafont, I went ahead and made a much simpler font using a similar method, based on the keystrokes of my much-ballyhooed 1930s Underwood typewriter.

For this one, I typed up a bunch of text, scanned the letters, *painstakingly* adapted them in Photoshop, and then brought them into Illustrator, where Fontself took care of the spacing and kerning. Manual typewriters have fewer keys than a modern keyboard (mine does not have a key for the number 1; you use a capital I as a substitute), so this one had fewer characters to use.

This font, which I am unimaginatively calling "Underwood 1930s," features a regular and italic version with numbers and all of the symbols that are included on the actual typewriter. The one exception is the exclamation point. If you wanted to exclaim something using this machine, you needed to type a period and then draw in the top line with a pencil or pen. I felt that I couldn't be without one (I get excited sometimes), so I created one using two existing symbols, and the result is what you see above. I made a few tweaks before I was happy with the final version, as seen below:

I can hear the clickety-clack of the keys and the thunk-thunk of the carriage as I read the words! I'm not sure how often I'll use these fonts, but it was interesting to make them and I'm happy I did it. I have plans for maybe one or two more before my font-creating career comes to a close. But maybe you'll see one or both fonts in a published comic book before too long.

"Son of Hitler" from Image Comics

I just finished lettering a new original graphic novel, "Son of Hitler", that will be published in late May/early June from Image Comics. This is my first published work of any sort through Image!

Before we step any closer, let's address the title, which is of course a bit provocative, and the content. The phrase "Son of Hitler" dredges up a lot of uncomfortable imagery, but the book is a spy thriller set in World War II and features a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. I'm sure the book title will raise some eyebrows, and understandably so, but let's put this story firmly in the category of "anti-Nazi" before we go any further.

The story is written by Anthony Del Col and Geoff Moore, and drawn by my pal Jeff McComsey. I've done a little bit of work for Anthony before, but I got involved with this project after Jeff asked me to add some lettering to it. Jeff and Anthony appeared at the Image Comics Expo a few weeks ago to talk about the book.

Image even ran a feature of it last month in their "Image+" magazine.

The issue includes a few different pieces on the book, starting with an interview with Anthony about his work and his previous career in the music industry.

And there's a nice spread with quotes from both Anthony and Jeff, followed by a short preview of the book, all of which has my lettering work on display, which is pretty neat.

The book clocks in at nearly 200 pages, so this was easily the largest single story that I've lettered. There were some sleepless nights as deadlines drew a bit closer, but I'm happy with the end result and I'll be looking forward to seeing the book in print.

Other than Anthony, everyone involved with the book had some iteration of the name "Jeff" - McComsey, me, (Geoff) Moore, and even one of the editors at Image who worked the title. Once I started lettering, Anthony sent me a message asking if I had a nickname or anything he could use to differentiate, other than my 10-letter last name. I guess I had to disappoint him, because nothing springs to mind, but I guess I'm open to suggestion.

This book will show up in comic shops soon! I hope you check it out!

Nuclear Winter!

Well, hello, Internet. It's been several months since I've posted anything. Has anyone noticed? Maybe Larry noticed. Anyway, I had to take a break for a couple reasons, both mostly accounting to the excuse "I'm busy". This isn't a great excuse, because I love you, Yeti blog. I think I've had this damn thing for nine years. But the spring brought about some new online classes that I signed up to teach, which meant a lot of content design, and it also brought some new comic book work, which is by far more exciting and enjoyable. I'll try to update more often, but maybe not as often as in years past, because a lot of my time is not going toward making comics, and that's, I guess, pretty neat.

So let's try to spend a few minutes going over what's going on here in whatever year this is now:

Probably the biggest news is that the first volume of Honcho is finished and has made its way back from the printer! It topped out at around 120 pages and, if I can say so, it looks really great. Everyone did a really nice job with it. Jeff McComsey and I are trying to find a publisher for a wider release, which I think the book deserves, so we'll see how that goes.

Free Comic Book Day 2017 has come and gone, and with it, a new issue of The Tick! This is actually the fifth year in a row that I've been able to write a story for FCBD, and as in previous years, I was able to travel to Boston to sign some books at a few different New England Comics stores. This will be a big year for The Tick, as the first season of the new television series officially premiers on Amazon's streaming service in August. I wrote a new story for this year's San Diego Comic-Con, where there'll be some surprises in store regarding the show and a few different items related to it. Let's take a tiny peek at one of the panels from that new comic:

How tantalizing! What could it mean??

I had a short story published by the newly launched AR Comics. Ian Nichols (who drew the above Tick panel) invited me to contribute to the geographically-named "New England Tales of Terror", which premiered at a local New England comic convention in February. My story was drawn by none other than Joe St. Pierre, formerly of Spider-Man 2099 fame, so I was pretty excited.

This hasn't been formally announced yet, so keep it to yourself, but I'm lettering an original graphic novel that has been picked up by Image Comics. I can't really talk about it at any length, but I lettered a pitch for the book in 2015 and we recently got the go-ahead to produce the full-length story. If all goes well, this'll be my first work under the Image banner, which is very exciting. I hope I'm not jinxing it by talking about it.

I'll be at Comic-Con in San Diego once again this year - my sixth year in a row! I'll have copies of Honcho with me along with the aforementioned new issue of The Tick. I'll be sharing a booth with the very talented Jennie Wood in the small press section. I'm a little surprised with how excited I still get for Comic-Con. I'm in full preparation mode over a month away. This should be a fun year. Oh, and if all goes well, I may have something that looks similar to this with me at the booth:

Let's keep our fingers crossed for this one.

How many new Thing items have I gotten since I last posted an update? LOTS, including this incredible (and ugly) bootleg Thing toy from Mexico. What's up with his mouth? Wow. Anyway, I've landed quite a few items that I would love to show off, if only I had a blog or something to post them to - oh, wait. I guess that's what this is for.

I'll post again soon. Not too soon. Soon-ish. We'll all do what we can. Take care, folks.

Upcoming convention appearances - Wizard World Pittsburgh, Baltimore Comic-Con and NYCC

My convention schedule has been fairly light in recent years.  I know some creators who travel all across North America throughout the year peddling books and other comic-related items - and I honestly can't understand how they have the money and mental fortitude to do it.  In any case, earlier this year I decided that I would try to get to a few more shows in the upcoming months.  My school schedule doesn't really allow for long trips outside of the summer, and the summer is swallowed up pretty quickly by Comic-Con in San Diego, but I've managed to get a few items on the schedule for September and October.

The first show is happening in...just a few weeks, it seems!  It's the inaugural Wizard World Pittsburgh show.  I'm not really sure what to expect.  Wizard World takes over for the former Pittsburgh Comicon, and it makes its move from Monroeville to downtown Pittsburgh, which is exciting.  Wizard World has a bit of a reputation for focusing on celebrities over creators, but so far I've had no complains about my interaction with the staff of the show.

They even put a link to my bio right on the front page, along with everyone else.  I, of course, forgot to include a reference to Imaginary Drugs, one of my two higher profile publications to date.  Oh well.

Next up, I'll be returning to the Baltimore Comic-Con for the first time in a few years.  This show takes place at the end of September, just two weeks after the Pittsburgh show.  Since expanding from their previous two-day format to a more traditional Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule, it's been more difficult for me to come to this show.  This year, however, I'm sharing a table with the very talented Jennie Wood, which allows me to be there just on Saturday and Sunday.  Jennie will be debuting the second volume of the popular Flutter series at the show.  I was lucky enough to get a chance to letter this new volume, so I'll be signing copies along with Jennie those two days.  Series artist Jeff McComsey will also be at the show, so it'll be a whole dang event.  Here's a visual representation of my lettering spree over the weekend:

We'll be at booth A223 for the show.  That's located in artist alley.

And just a few weeks after that, I'll be at the New York Comic-Con in New York City.  The plan right now is for me to be there on Friday and Saturday of the four-day convention.  I'll be wandering around aimlessly plenty of the time, but I'll also be making stops to sign books and generally gawk at the crowds at both the FUBAR and Flutter booths.

Oh, and Rafer Roberts will be giving out copies of the newest volume of Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom at the show.  I love these dang things.  I am going to snatch one up like nobody's business.

It'll be a busy few weeks.  Afterwards, I think I'll stay at home until February.  But we'll see.

The triumphant return of RANDOM NOTES!! Steel City Con, FUBAR, Kickstarter, Franks and Beans and more!

Selected short subjects:

- The latest of the installment of the Steel City Con was held at the beginning of April.  I'm continually surprised at how popular this show has become.  There are three shows a year and you'd think it'd suffer from fatigue by this point, but it seems to still be gaining steam.  It'll be interesting to see how it holds up after the Wizard World Pittsburgh show later in the year.

I was able to snag a few cool items from the show, including some Thing items and some comics.

All of these books were around 50 cents each, so I grabbed about 40 of them and spent way too much time looking through boxes...but there were some cool finds to be had, including Superboy #101 (in rough shape, but still), the last issue of Strange Tales vol. 2 (the only issue of the series that featured the Thing, a mainstay in the first volume) and the second issue of Simpsons Comics.

There was also a big Dukes of Hazzard presence at the show.  Larry wrote more about it on his blog, and you should check it out!

- I'm pretty sure this Thing magnet is homemade, but when I saw it at Pittsburgh Comics I had to grab it.  I can't quite place the artist, and it's driving me nuts.  Needless to say, I love it.

- The Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo came and went at the end of March, and it was better than I expected.  I managed to sell some books and buy a few that came home with me.  There was a lot of talent at this small show, which was encouraging.  I also met Don Simpson there, and we struck up a dialogue, at which point I learned that he...works at the same school that I do.  That is really bizarre.

Don is offering up a class for the fall semester in cartooning and character design.  This would be an awesome class to take.

- The second volume of Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey's is currently up on Kickstarter and it's nearing its goal.  This is a great book and a the kind of comic the industry needs more of.  Check out the campaign and pledge if you can!

And speaking of Kickstarters...the UHF movie campaign is nearing its end with some work to be done.  It's finished on the evening of Sunday, April 26th, so if you haven't pledged yet...there are only a few more days to do so!

Some of the rewards for the campaign are making their way to me, including these 8-bit pins featuring characters from the movie.

- I'm currently catching up on some lettering work.  Whenever I letter, I use a page from IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic as a template.  I type in "that's turtle power!" every time I start a new project to make sure that my letters are the size they should be.  This continues to amuse me, so I'm sharing it.

Just what am I lettering?  Among other things, some FUBAR for the By the Sword collection, including this short story titled "The Leper King", written by Mark Bertolini with art by Chris McFann.

- And lastly, there's a newly released, really short episode of Franks and Beans to watch!  This episode was originally released as a Vine, hence the brief time limit.  There's also a loop of the video (100 times, over and over) in case you want to feel the cold grip of insanity.

Wow, these random notes are fun.  Look for them again whenever the hell I feel like writing them.  See you then!

"Weird Al" Yankovic's "UHF" Six Panel Cinema

Back when the FUBAR 2 Kickstarter fundraiser was under way, I pledged much more than I had originally intended because one of the rewards was too enticing for me to pass up (I suppose that this is what makes some Kickstarter projects successful and others not).  The reward in question was a "Six Panel Cinema" page by none other than FUBAR head honcho Jeff McComsey.  The idea behind Six Panel Cinema is simple, yet brilliant - you take a movie and whittle it down to its six most important or memorable scenes.  Jeff has given a number of movies the six panel treatment, most of which can be seen here: http://sixpanelcinema.wordpress.com/

I jumped at the chance to choose one for myself, and it should come as no surprise that I chose "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1989 classic, UHF.  I'm a big fan of Al's and the movie is one of the highlights of his career.

After I paid up, I buckled down and watched the movie one more time, choosing the six scenes you see depicted in the image above.  It was tough going with only six - there are so many more important scenes (and I wanted to include a panel of the Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies music video, but alas...).  Other than a cameo in the last panel, I completely cut out Victoria Jackson's character, and that's a shame.  But I did manage to work in most of the other main characters and, ultimately, I think that I chose the most important scenes.  I'm very happy with the way this turned out.

I told Jeff that I wanted to letter the page when it was finished, and he was gracious enough to turn it over to me for that purpose - I had to be involved with the creative process in some capacity.  I also took the opportunity to hand draw the UHF movie logo.  I'm no artist and what I ended up with isn't perfect, but it's my honest best and a tribute to just how much I like UHF and how much of a fan I am of Al and pretty much anything he does (check out his great new web series, "Face to Face"!).

I also colored a version, using the original movie poster colors:

In the end, we used colors that matched the theme of the rest of the page, which was the right choice.  Jeff and I also chose Lee-and-Kirby-style nicknames from the movie.  I went with "roooad maps!" and Jeff took "dog snot" - I was tempted to use the entire "festering bowl of dog snot" line, but perhaps simpler is better.

This is the second comic featuring Weird Al I've been involved in.  Last year I worked with Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez in creating "Accordion Theory", which I mention at every opportunity.  I can't help it.  Whatever.

Anyway, this Six Panel Cinema will find its way over to my webcomics section before too long, where it'll live forever in reverence.  I hope that you, faithful readers, enjoy this short comic.  And if Al finds this via a web search for himself...hi, buddy!

FCBD Vic Boone!

The FUBAR/215 Ink Free Comic Book Day books are off to the printer in the next day or two, and I just finished lettering the second 215 story I worked on - a 12-page Vic Boone story.  Above is a few panels from the story, titled "Sea of Trouble", written by Shawn Aldridge with art by Jason Copland and Jeff McComsey.

Vic Boone, if you couldn't tell from the preview above, is a hard-nosed throwback character who...fights monsters and stuff.  This was a fun story to do, and it was fun in general just being involved with these books, which will include the "Apes with Uzis" story I mentioned a few days ago.

The Kickstarter campaign for these books was a complete success.  As I'm writing this, there are seven hours left to go and it's been funded almost three times over.  That's incredible, and it'll give us the opportunity to get these books into that many more shops for one of the biggest yearly events in comics.

This is just one of many projects that is coming to fruition right now.  Working on comics is a strange thing, because there are times of great stagnation, where nothing seems to be happening to any great degree, and there are times like now, where I'm getting art in left and right.  Time to ride the wave, I guess.

Apes with Uzis (plus the yeti crab!)

Free Comic Book Day is just around the corner, and the 215 Ink/FUBAR Press books are well on their way to being a part of it in stores across the country.  I'm in the process of lettering one of the 215 entries, an Apes with Uzis tale: the first part of a story titled "the Package".  The first few panels are above, written by Mark Bertolini and illustrated by Peebo Mondia.

As for the story...well...you'll just have to wait until the first Saturday in May to pick up the book.  Let this be said, though: it involves monkeys dressed up in clothes and riding motorcycles.  And I'm pretty sure that's a Tick shirt our protagonist is wearing on the first page.  So what's not to like?

Also, Henry at the very enjoyable "I Love the Yeti" blog posted this image yesterday, reminding us all that on March 22nd, 2005, the famed yeti crab was discovered.  The world is a better place for it.  Check out the blog at http://ilovetheyeti.blogspot.com/!

Franks and Beans: the Comic

Franks and Beans, the Internet comedy sensation show came about at a fairly unusual time: after moving to Wilmington, North Carolina, 600 miles from my hometown, I decided that it would be a good idea to create a show with my friend Larry, still living in Pennsylvania.  This, of course, made no sense at all, which just may explain how often logic comes into play during an episode of Franks and Beans.

The show is something I like to do and a creative outlet for some of my stranger ideas, and let's face it, it was only a matter of time before I did something comics related with it.  So I'd like to proudly present the two page comic, which is titled "Larger than Life".  Read it, won't you?  No, seriously, read it:

In this comic, I tried to keep the same feel of a regular episode of Franks and Beans while doing things that couldn't be done (without one of us striking it rich at random) in real life, thus the giant muscleman look for me and the wanton destruction that happens throughout; I also tried to squeeze as many jokes and references to actual episodes in these two pages as I could.  I'd like to think that I accomplished both goals.

Art for this beauty is by none other than Alan Gallo, who meticulously recreated Larry's kitchen on the page, not to mention capturing the likenesses of me, Larry, Larry's mom and superfan Mark Moncheck.  Colors were provided by Michael Wiggam, and it took me SO LONG to letter these crowded panels.

Beyond simply being a vanity project (which, I'll admit, plays a part in this comic's creation), Larry and I are going to include this as an insert in the third volume of Franks and Beans DVDs.  We're also going to print out copies of this comic, at full size, and hand it out at conventions.  I'm also posting it online for free.  The marketing push begins!  And this, apparently, is at the forefront as an advertisement.

Franks and Beans also has a new website...with exactly the same URL as before.  A while ago, when I was having trouble with the main Teddy and the Yeti website, the F&B site was experiencing the same problems.  It's since been wiped clean, and the long, tedious process of rebuilding it has begun.  As always, though, I've been given the opportunity to streamline and make some things better, so hopefully this is all for the best.

If you haven't (it's not like I haven't promoted it enough, a hem), check out the Franks and Beans website at http://www.franksandbeansonline.com and the F&B YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/FranksandBeansOnline.  They're both good AND good for you!

FUBAR: Life Preservers with Mario Wytch, Amy Corbin and Jeff McComsey

With the exception of one pesky "radio" balloon on the final page, I've just finished lettering the "Life Preservers" story for the full version of FUBAR, volume 2, and I thought I'd show a preview of it here. The full story clocks in at 11 pages in length, and one of the things I'm most happy about (though you can't tell it looking at the first two pages...) is that I don't, for once, overcrowd the pages with huge blocks of text...in many cases, the art tells the story.  I'm really happy with how it all turned out!

Mario Wytch is responsible for the pencils and inks, with an inking assist a bit later in the story from Amy Corbin.  Jeff McComsey came in to add greyscales and round the pages out into a complete product.  This story is set to see print this December - in fact, the book will be listed in October's edition of Previews magazine, so I should be able to pass along the order code sometime within the next few weeks.  And there will be signings.  Oh yes, there will be signings.

Now I've gotta see where I put that Comicraft lettering guide.  Damn radio balloons.

FUBAR: Run Silent, Run Dead

The first showing of FUBAR volume 2 is getting ready for the printer, and just as with the first volume, I am working on lettering a story in addition to writing my own.  The clip you see above is from a story titled "Run Silent, Run Dead", and it's written by Stephen Lindsay with nice, moody art by Daniel Thollin.

This beast clocks in at 16 pages, so the lettering on my end has been fast and furious, as the deadline approaches quickly.  It's almost certainly the speediest I've ever lettered anything, but I'm happy with the results so far (I've still got four pages to go), and beyond that, since I didn't write it there's less of a chance that it's unnecessarily wordy...so that helps.

This volume of FUBAR debuts in under two months at the Baltimore Comic-Con!