My first "Helmet Thing" original comic art (please congratulate me)

In the early-to-mid-'90s, the Thing wore a helmet. This "battle damaged" Thing redesign made him, I suppose, both more extreme and more X-TREME, which fit for the time (though the helmet was originally designed by Jack Kirby and made a very brief appearance in the early issues of the Fantastic Four series). And while I hated the look at the time, I've come to feel a bit of nostalgic appreciation for it, though, to be clear, I NEVER EVER want the character to adopt the look again.

I've never been able to find any helmet Thing original artwork - at least, nothing I've been able to afford - but that streak came to an end recently when I managed to grab a page from Marvel's Cage series, which ran from 1992-93 and starred former FF member Luke Cage. Let's take a look at it! 

This is a great page for the following reasons: it's full of action, it prominently features the Thing, all of the dialogue balloons and sound effects are still pasted to the page, and most importantly, THE THING IS WEARING HIS HELMET.

Here's the cover to the issue from which this page comes. The Cage series ended with issue 20, so this is one of the final pages from the series.

In the issue, Luke Cage has been possessed by the villainous Bogeyman, and the Thing and the Human Torch set out to free him from the nefarious influence. The battle takes the three to the piers of New York City.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Bogeyman was meant to be Venom-like in its portrayal. The villain tries to possess the Thing, but OH-HO! It's not to be because of his VERY IMPORTANT HELMET! Nice!

The page is pencilled by Scott Benefiel and inked by Frank Turner. The letters come from John Roshell and Comicraft - the company had just been founded a year earlier. This is a very early example of digital lettering in the comic book industry. In this instance, the letters were printed, cut out, and pasted to the art board. I think it really adds something to the artwork, though I understand why it doesn't happen anymore. 

In the end, our Fantastic Four duo are victorious, mostly because the Thing punched a lot (and very well). I guess Johnny keeps Luke Cage from flying off into the stratosphere by flying up to grab him.

There's just one editorial note on this page, next to the last panel, and it's a note for the colorist to make Johnny's forearms blue, as he's turned off his flame to that part of his body as he grabs his pal Luke.

This is a really great page that makes a unique addition to the collection. It's my first page of original art with the Thing in his helmet! This is a reason to celebrate.

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.

Jim Campbell's lettering guide

As much as I rely on Comicraft's Comic Book Lettering guide as a manual on, well, comic book lettering, there's still some things that the book doesn't show, and thus, some things that drive me absolutely crazy.  One of those is the "radio" balloon, used sometimes when characters are heard talking from intercoms, phones, radios and the like.  I've managed to avoid making these balloons up until this point, but I'm working on lettering an Andromeda Jones story that needs to have them.  Here's what I'm talking about:

I've managed to find very few resources online that help with such tasks, so my friend Brant Fowler pointed me to a PDF file that should serve as a decent source for any would-be letterer.  It's A Guide to Comic Book Lettering with Adobe Illustrator by Jim Campbell, and you can download it here.

The guide goes over a number of common and not-so-common lettering techniques, some of which are different than what I use currently, some of which I've never had explained to me before.  Campbell's guide is made for Illustrator CS3; I use CS4, so there are some differences (Adobe recently came out with CS5, so the information is somewhat dated in some cases, though it's mostly still accurate).

In any case, this is a handy (and free) guide that I'd recommend that any comic letterer check out.  It's not a comprehensive guide and, as I said, there are some techniques that I do differently (mostly different ways to solve the same problems), but there are things that this guide points out that I've never read before, as because of that, it's a great resource to have around.  Check it out!

Here's a direct link: https://files.me.com/jim.campbell/qqt5ck.

Tools of the (lettering) trade

Lettering is one of those aspects of comic book production that people only notice if something is wrong with it.  The average reader doesn't pay a lot of attention to it - but it's crucial nonetheless.  I'm currently in the middle of lettering one of the short stories that'll appear in Teddy and the Yeti #3, and while trying to figure out what kind of speech balloon would work for the particularly hideous monster appearing within, I went to my handy source on all things lettering, Richard Starking's Comic Book Lettering: The Comicraft Way.

If I had to judge my lettering skills, I would say that they are adequate - serviceable but not advanced or flashy.  I decided to letter Teddy and the Yeti for two reasons: one, because it's my book and I can do as I please, thank you very much, and two, because it's cheaper in the long run (though buying Adobe Illustrator CS4 and several fonts isn't for the faint of heart).  Comicraft's guide to lettering is an indispensable tool in this regard, and any "trick" I'm able to pull off is a result of this simple-to-follow 64-page book.  I highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking to take on the unappreciated art form of comic book lettering.

Teddy and the Yeti #3 (one story within it, anyway) features the nightmarish villain "Craxl" (don't ask where I got the name from), and it was obvious that a regular speech balloon wouldn't do.  One of the pitfalls of lettering is trying to come up with a fancy new font and balloon for each new character - I'm of the mindset that less is generally more - but I figured that Craxl merited the distinction.  If you don't overuse it, it can be effective.

The result can be seen on the picture to the right, and I think it works without causing a distraction.  If anyone is interested, to create the balloon I made a simple ellipse shape, then converted it to guides.  I used the pen tool to create the jagged edge, connecting the lines when finished.  Some might prefer the edge to be uniform in its divots, but I think the random quality is an asset in this case.

The font I'm using is "killcrazy BB" from Nate Piekos's Blambot site - Blambot is another great resource for letterers, as the site gives away free fonts by the bucketload.  The pay fonts are well worth the price, too - Teddy and the Yeti's main font is called "silverage BB" and it has paid for itself time and again.

The lettering process takes up so much time in the overall scheme of putting an issue together - if I was more skilled at it, it would go more quickly, to be sure - but it's something that I find myself enjoying, especially when I can look at the final product and be satisfied with the result.