Faster than a rolling "O"
Stronger than silent "E"
Able to leap capital "T" in a single bound!
It's a word, it’s a plan...it's Letterman!
Trying to get this latest issue of The Shaolin Nun completed and out to backers has been, to say the least, challenging. Although I had pushed to get the majority of the pencils done before launching the Kickstarter campaign, there were delays from Inks, Colors, and, finally, Letters.
Working on Shaolin Nun isn’t any of our day jobs (though I’d like it to be), so when life happens to your artists, you have to stay patient and give them the time they need. I mean it happens at Marvel and DC as much as it happens to us indie creators. But with each artist’s delays I was now looking at the one-year anniversary of the Kickstarter launch coming up.
All I was waiting on, at this point, were the Letters. Unfortunately, our letterer, had life and work stressors that pulled him away after 7 pages. Two weeks ago, I reached out to ask when he thought he was going to be able to get back to the lettering. His reply was that the best thing would be for him to set me up with his lettering workspace on Adobe Illustrator, and have me finish the issue.
A couple of hours of set up and instruction, and I was now empowered to start. My first page was intimidating, but then I reminded myself that I’m a professional graphic designer and this is really no different than creating a poster, there are just a few more rules I have to follow. But like writing comic book scripts, and using story structure, having rules often frees up my creativity (that sounds like a future newsletter).
Naturally, this is one of my wordier issues, along with a 4-page fight scene filled with sound effects. Still, I slogged through it and got the pages lettered and back to my letterer for review by the end of the week. He had notes, which I welcomed. I implemented his changes and got on with getting the book read for printing and digital distribution. And on the one year anniversary, I was able to do just that.
So I guess now I’m a letterer. I’m not sure I’m ready to letter someone else’s book yet, but I will take that job on my books from now on.
If you’re thinking of becoming a comic book writer I recommend learning this skill. My scripts are always tweaked when it comes time to fill the panels with dialogue. Sometimes it’s not until you see it rendered that you realize it would read and look better with less words, or different choices. Rather than having a back-and-forth, making my letterer crazy with changes, I can massage my dialogue and spend as much time as I need until it looks right.
The Shaolin Nun #4 is currently at the printer and will be distributed to backers in a month or less. The digital edition is ready now, and can be purchased at shaolinnun.com.
A quick note on Letterman. Those who are old like me and grew up watching “The Electric Company” on PBS may remember “The Adventures of Letterman.” In pulling that image, I read up on the cartoon and learned that Gene Wilder was the voice of Letterman, Zero Mostel was the voice of Spell Binder, and the narrator was Joan Rivers. Crazy, right?