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A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of , calligraphy, letter size, and page layout all contribute to the impact of the comic-book-reading experience. The letterer crafts the comic's lettering: the story's title lettering, creator credits, and any specialized captions that appear on the story's first page. They also craft the lettering that appears in the , also designing the various onomatopoeia that appear within the comic book story. Many letterers also design logos for the comic book company's various titles.
Letterer and logo designer Ira Schnapp defined the DC Comics look for nearly thirty years. Starting in 1940, he designed or refined such iconic logos as Action Comics, Superman, The Flash, and Justice League of America, while also creating the distinctive appearance of DC's house ads and promotions. (Schnapp also designed the Comics Code Authority seal, which was a fixture on comic book covers from all major companies for over forty years.)Kimball, Kirk. "The Big Chill," Dial B for Blog #376 (Oct. 10, 2006). Retrieved July 21, 2008.
DC Comics used a stable of more than 20 letterers in the comics they published in the 1950s and 1960s (some of the letterers — like Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang — were more well known as artists):"Letterer Index," DC Comics Artists. Archived at the Wayback Machine. Accessed July 31, 2019.
Starting in around 1966, Ira Schnapp's classic, art deco-inspired look was replaced by the pulsing, organic style of Gaspar Saladino, who redesigned DC's house style for the counterculture era.B.D.S. Interview with Gaspar Saladino in "Silver Age Sage," The Silver Lantern: A Tribute to the Silver Age of DC Comics (May 25, 2007). Retrieved July 18, 2008. Gaspar became the cover letterer for all of DC's books throughout the 1970s, and even "Ghostwriter" as Marvel Comics' "page-one" letterer for much of the same period. Mark Evanier quoted in Brian Cronin's "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed" #66, Comic Book Resources (Aug. 21, 2006). Retrieved July 20, 2008.Kimball, Kirk. "Gaspar Saladino — The Natural," Dial B for Blog #489 (Sept.). Accessed May 18, 2011. Gaspar's work became so iconic that various independent comics publishers which sprang up in the 1970s and 1980s – such as Atlas/Seaboard,Kimball, Kirk. "Gaspar Saladino — Atlas Shrugged!" Dial B for Blog #497 (Sept.). Accessed May 19, 2011. Continuity Comics, and Eclipse Comics "Gaspar Saladino," ComicVine. Retrieved July 20, 2008. – hired him to design logos for their entire line of titles.
From 1930 through the 1990s (with a few exceptions), the letterer added their lettering, in pen and ink, on the same original art page the penciler drew. The penciled art was then inked after the letterer had completed their work on the page. At DC Comics during the "Silver Age" of the 1960s, pencilers were required to "rough in balloons and sound effects" for the letterers to use as a working guide. An accomplished letterer was able to adapt his or her style to the style of the art for that particular book.Letterer Clem Robins, quoted in Kimball, Kirk. "Gaspar Saladino — A New Star on the DC Horizon," Dial B for Blog #490 (Sept.). Accessed May 19, 2011.
Computer lettering really started making an impact with the availability of the first commercial comic book font, "Whizbang" (created by Studio Daedalus) around 1990.
In the early 1990s letterer Richard Starkings and his partner John Roshell (formerly Gaushell) began digitally creating comic book fonts for use on computers, and started Comicraft, which has since become the major source of comics fonts (though they have competition from others, such as Blambot).
In deference to tradition, at first computer lettering was printed out and pasted onto the original artwork, but after a few years, as comics coloring also moved to desktop publishing, digital lettering files began to be used more effectively by combining them directly with digital art files, eliminating the physical paste-up stage altogether. Wildstorm Comics was ahead of the curve, Marvel came around a few years later, and DC held to traditional production methods the longest, but now nearly all lettering is digitally applied.
In the early years of the 21st Century, the mainstream American comics companies moved almost exclusively to in-house computer lettering, effectively ending the era of the freelance letterer. Chris Eliopoulos designed the fonts for Marvel's in-house lettering unit, and Ken Lopez did the same at DC.Contino, Jennifer. "ABCs with Orzechowski," Comicon.com: The Pulse (Dec. 30, 2003). Retrieved July 17, 2008. Since then the trend has swung the other way, with most comics publishers once again using freelance letterers rather than in-house staff. Nearly all use computer and digital comic book fonts.
There are also still comics artists and inkers who prefer to have the lettering directly on their pages. First, it saves drawing time (not having to put art where a big caption will be); and second, comics tell a story, and a page of comics art without the lettering is only half the story.
Long-time letterer John Workman toes a middle ground between traditional and digital lettering. In addition to his "on-the-art boards work", Workman has been electronically hand-lettering by way of a Wacom tablet.
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