Todd Klein's Blog, page 134

And Then I Read: THE DREAMING #3

Image © DC Comics. Written by Simon Spurrier, art by Bilquis Evely, colors by Mat Lopes, letters by Simon Bowland.

Lucien the librarian is struggling to fill the void of authority left by the absence of Dream, and has allowed an old Nightmare to be released, Judge Ezekiel Gallows. He was created by Dream as a horror of the old west. Gallows suggests he would be happy to advise Lucien on the many problems he sees plaguing The Dreaming, and Lucien is willing to let him while he has a rest. Before long, the equally long imprisoned characters Brute and Glob are enlisted by Judge Gallows to help set things right, in a quest for justice and punishment, as he sees it. The inhabitants of The Dreaming watch nervously as Gallows confronts Dora, wondering if they will be the next target.

I’m really enjoying Simon Spurrier’s prose and dialogue in this third issue. I think he’s loosened up a bit and is making the series his own, and I like what he’s bringing. The art by Evely is quite excellent too, and also perhaps taking on a more personal vision of the characters, which works fine for me.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS 57

Image © DC Comics. Written by Dan Jurgens, art by Mike Perkins, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

Not only the end of the “Evil’s Might” story arc, this is the end of this GL series, though as I write this I’ve already reviewed the first issue of the next one and admired it greatly.

Hank Henshaw has been stymied in his attempt to completely control the entire Green Lantern Corps as well as the Guardians through infiltrating their power rings and central battery. Just enough of the group have avoided his contamination to keep him from achieving that control. In a rage, he’s off to Earth to destroy Coast City, as he did once before. Hal Jordan is determined that should not happen. I will leave it to you to decide which way that’s likely to go.

In all, I’ve enjoyed this arc, both the writing of Dan Jurgens and the art of Mike Perkins, not to mention the continuing excellence of Hi-Fi and Dave Sharpe, who have been on board for a long time. Much the best to go out on a high (if somewhat predictable) note, and there are a few surprises at the end of this issue.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: EDGAR ALLAN POE’S SNIFTER OF TERROR

Image © Ahoy Comics. First story written by Rachel Pollack, art by Rick Geary, colors My Michael Garland. Second story written by Stuart Moore, art by Ryan Kelley, colors by Rico Renzi, letters by Rob Steen. Additional material as listed above.

I’ve always had difficulty with things that are meant to be both funny and frightening at the same time. To me, if it’s funny it can’t be frightening. The most successful example I can think of is the film “Young Frankenstein,” which is not at all frightening itself, but is a parody of horror films I did find frightening as a child, yet a very funny parody of those films. This comic wades into that uneasy mix with portrayals of Poe, the author, as a sarcastic and humorous narrator of his own story, “Ligeia,” in the first tale. The original story may itself be a parody of German gothic tales of Poe’s time, but it has a chilling plot of death and return from death. The retelling by Rachel Pollack and Rick Geary is entertaining, but not very scary, especially when the drama is interrupted by clownish commentary by Poe, ruining whatever scary mood might have been developing. I never liked that sort of thing on TV either, where a horror host interrupted the film with silly jokes.

The second story begins with a TV reporter somehow back in time interviewing a drunk and disorderly Poe, then moves on to a modern parody of Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon.” That one didn’t work for me very well.

Perhaps the most fun I had reading this was the two-page Poe humor piece by British legend Hunt Emerson. That did make me laugh.

Mildly recommended.

MY COMICS LIFE-LIST 1977-78

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978. Image © DC Comics.

I’m a birdwatcher, or a birder as we like to say, and one of the things most birders do is keep a life-list. It’s a list of all the bird species you’ve seen in your life. Many birders keep other kinds of lists, but that’s the most common one. In a Facebook post recently, Paul Kupperberg was talking about all the comics artists he’d worked with in his career, many of them people whose work he’d grown up reading and admiring. That got me thinking. As a letterer for over 40 years now, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege of working with a vast number of writers, artists. colorists and editors. A letterer’s part of making comics generally takes the least amount of time, giving a letterer the chance to take on more projects simultaneously than writers and artists, for instance. So I had this idea…what if I made a life-list for comics? A list of the writers and artists I’ve worked with? It would be a pretty awesome list!

There had to be some ground rules. First, I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those just as, as a birder, I wouldn’t count birds I saw in a zoo. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I wouldn’t count would be relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist on story pages. It would leave out some creators I did interact with, but not many. I have a nearly complete record of all the comics work I’ve done on my website with only a few unidentified ones. If I used that as my primary resource, I thought it would still make a great comics life-list.

After each creator, I’m putting the first project I worked on with them, and tagging them as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), inker (i),  writer-artist (wa), colorist (c), letterer (L) or editor (e). I did not often interact with colorists in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. Editors will only be listed where I did not work with them in any other capacity. There is one story here I wrote but did not letter, so I have added the letterer of that one. I plan to continue to build my life-list when I have time, a year at a time, and eventually will post the entire list. I will base the date of first work with someone on cover dates of the issues, then alphabetically for ones with the same date, though they may not have been, probably weren’t, lettered in that order. Okay, here goes!

Dave Manak (wa) SICK #118 Dec 1977

Sheldon Mayer (wa) ALL-NEW COLLECTOR’S EDITION C-53, Jan. 1978 (lettering and inking on puzzle pages)

Tom DeFalco (w) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Win Mortimer (p) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Joe Giella (i) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Jerry Serpe (c) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Larry Hama (e) DC SPECIAL SERIES #9, March 1978 (Paradise Island Map)

Gerry Conway (w) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Al Milgrom (p) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Klaus Janson (i) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Joe Rubinstein (i) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Adrienne Roy (c) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Don Newton (p) DC SPECIAL SERIES #10, April 1978

Frank Chiaramonte (i) DC SPECIAL SERIES #10, April 1978

Bob Toomey (w) DC SPECIAL SERIES #12, Spring 1978

Vicente Alcazar (a) DC SPECIAL SERIES #12, Spring 1978

E. Nelson Bridwell (w) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Ramona Fradon (p) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Bob Smith (i) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Gene D’Angelo (c) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Ken Landgraf (p) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Danny Bulanadi (i) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Bob LeRose (c) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Michael Fleisher (w) JONAH HEX #12, May 1978

Jack C. Harris (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978

Steve Ditko (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978

Juan Ortiz (p) STEEL, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #3, June 1978

Bruce Patterson (i) STEEL, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #3, June 1978

Wyatt Gwyon (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #64, June 1978

Carl Gafford (c) WEIRD WAR TALES #64, June 1978

Bob Rozakis (w) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Dave Hunt (i) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Mario Sen (c) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Bob Layton (i) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

Paul Levitz (w) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

Joe Staton (p) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

David Michelinie (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Michael Golden (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Steve Clement (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Don Glut (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Cory Adams (c) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Paul Kupperberg (w) SUPERMAN FAMILY #190, July-Aug. 1978

Romeo Tanghal (i) SUPERMAN FAMILY #190, July-Aug. 1978

David Vern (w) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

John Calnan (p) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Dick Giordano (i) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Julius Schwartz (e) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Jack Oleck (w) UNKNOWN SOLDIER #218, Aug. 1978

Maurice Whitman (a) UNKNOWN SOLDIER #218, Aug. 1978

Mike Grell (wa) WARLORD #14, Aug.-Sept. 1978

George Tuska (p) WORLD’S FINEST #252, Aug.-Sept. 1978

Vince Colletta (i) WORLD’S FINEST #252, Aug.-Sept. 1978

George Kashdan (w) GHOSTS #68, Sept. 1978

Cary Burkett (w) GREEN LANTERN #108, Sept. 1978

Mike Vosburg (p) GREEN LANTERN #108, Sept. 1978

T. Casey Brennan (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #260, Sept. 1978

Jerry Grandenetti (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #260, Sept. 1978

Roger McKenzie (w) WEIRD WESTERN TALES #48, Sept.-Oct. 1978

Jack Abel (p) WEIRD WESTERN TALES #48, Sept.-Oct. 1978

Greg Potter (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Steve Skeates (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Arthur Suydam (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Frank Miller (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #68, Oct. 1978

Carl Wessler (w) WITCHING HOUR #85, Oct. 1978

Bill Kelley (w) ARMY AT WAR #1, Oct.-Nov. 1978

Scott Edelman (w) HOUSE OF SECRETS #154, Oct.-Nov. 1978

José Luis Garcia-Lopéz (a) HOUSE OF SECRETS #154, Oct.-Nov. 1978

Cary Bates (w) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Irv Novick (p) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Frank McLaughlin (i) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Tenny Henson (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #262, Nov. 1978

Esphidy Mahilum (L) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #262, Nov. 1978

Cary Bates (w) SUPERMAN #329, Nov. 1978

Kurt Schaffenberger (p) SUPERMAN #329, Nov. 1978

Frank Giacoia (i) SUPERMAN #329, Nov. 1978

Alex Saviuk (p) GREEN LANTERN #111, Dec. 1978

Len Wein (w) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

Murphy Anderson (i) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

Glynis Wein (c) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

There you have it to the best of my knowledge. More of these when I have time (and it took a lot more time than I expected!)

By the way, I’d be delighted to see the idea of Comics Life-Lists spread. If you’re a fan, not a creator, you could make one of creators you’ve met in person, corresponded with or bought something from. The possibilities are wide open!

 

Incoming: THE DON ROSA LIBRARY Volumes 7 & 8

Images © Disney.

I didn’t know about this handsome series until I received these two volumes from Fantagraphics last week. I lettered one story in each volume. The books are European album size I think, with pages 8.5 by 11 inches, therefore larger than any U.S. printings, and on much better paper with sewn bindings, too. I imagine Don’s epic “Life of Scrooge,” which I lettered, is in some of the previous volumes, I haven’t seen those. I love Don’s work, and loved working on his stories, but I remember the stories included here (“Vigilante of Pizen Bluff” and “The Quest for Kalevala”) well enough that I don’t plan to reread them. I will probably reread the other Rosa stories that I didn’t letter, I don’t remember them nearly as well. There’s lots of extra material including commentary by Don and plenty of his art that I haven’t seen before. At 224 pages each for $29.99, this seems like an excellent series, and one I would recommend as Christmas presents for young and old alike. Not sure when they are available, but check with your comics retailer or Fantagraphics.

Preparing Comics Scripts for Lettering

Image found online, © DC Comics.

Yesterday I was asked by Paul Kupperberg for recommendations and suggestions on this topic for a book he’s working on. I covered it in my book, but things have changed since then. Now that most comics lettering is done digitally, a whole new regimen of script preparation issues have emerged that often create problems for letterers. I posed the question to a group of other letterers, and together we came up with these recommendations.

1. Prepare your script in a word processing program that the letterer can access easily. Microsoft Word is the usual standard but RTF format from any word processor works well too. PDF format from Adobe Acrobat should NEVER be used. It prevents the letterer from copying and pasting from the script, the most common method of getting words onto the comics page.

2. Captions, dialogue and anything that needs to be lettered should be in sentence case, like this document, not all caps. Do not use a double space after a period. Do not use tabs. Each section to be lettered should be separated from the rest of the script so it’s easy to copy and paste. Such as:

1) BRAINIAC (SPECIAL STYLE):

I am the only solution to Earth’s problems.

2) SUPERMAN:

That’s what you think!

3) SOUND EFFECT:

WHAM!

3. The writer should decide which words to emphasize and indicate that consistently in the script. Bold italic is the best method, do not use all caps. Do not try to simulate special styles with different fonts in the script! Make suggestions for fonts if you like.

4. Internal dialogue captions (what used to be thought balloons) do not need quotes. Use quotes only when someone is off-panel and doing narration in captions, or when actually quoting what someone else said. Such spoken narration needs a beginning quote in each caption, but an end quote only on the last one in a series of continuous narration captions. Double/single quote rules apply to comics as well.

5. If someone is in the room but off-panel, let the letterer know which direction the balloon tail should go. Whenever possible, the character on the left should speak FIRST, the next one to the right should speak SECOND, and so on. Train your artists to do this and everyone will be happier!

6. Foreign phrases, movie titles, book titles, ship names and any other item needing special attention should be italic. Translated foreign languages should be inside lesser and greater symbols such as with an asterisked footnote such as: *Translated from French.

7.Make sure any notes for the letterer are pulled out and separate from panel descriptions so they aren’t missed.

8. If you are working plot-first, look carefully at the art when you are writing dialogue to make sure all the characters you asked for are present. Try to write to fit the space available for lettering. Large panels with open spaces are best for large or many balloons, small panels with little space should have little lettering.

9. Lettering placements are welcomed by some letterers (like me) as a time saver, are not wanted by others. Check with your letterer. The letterer should be given the freedom to make actual placement choices that differ from provided placements if they see a better way to do it. Placements can be done with markers on a printout of the art that is then scanned, or digitally. If you are providing placements, it’s recommended that you number each item to be lettered in your script, as above, and use the corresponding numbers in your placements.

10. Remember that the letterer is part of your team, don’t keep secrets from him. That mysterious character who turns out to be a returning villain? Let the letterer know when he first appears. It may be a secret surprise for the reader, but the letterer needs to know when you do in case it affects the lettering style. If your story has narration captions by a character who won’t appear until the last page, the letterer still needs to know who is narrating. Every narration caption should be labeled by speaker just as word balloons are. Or if it’s omniscient author narration, say that.

11. Perhaps most important of all, MAKE SURE THE SCRIPT IS A CLOSE TO FINAL AS POSSIBLE BEFORE SENDING TO THE LETTERER. It has become a common practice among newer writers to treat the lettering draft as a first draft, and then do major rewrites after the first round of lettering, or sometimes several rounds of rewrites. This is unfair to the letterer, taking up time they need for other jobs, and usually they are not paid for that extra work. Script and art editing and proofreading should be done BEFORE lettering, not after.

Thanks to Nikki Foxrobot, Ian Sharman, Hde Ponsonby-Jones, Bill Williams, Nic Wilkinson, Lucas Gattoni, Zen Hcmp, Annie Parkhouse, Lois Buhalis and Michael Stock for advice and suggestions!

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS #56

Image © DC Comics. Written by Dan Jurgens, art by Mike Perkins, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman, has destroyed the GL Corps by infiltrating the Central Power Battery and then the power rings. He’s holding the Corps and Guardians captive on Mogo, which is also powerless. Of the active GLs, Simon Baz has escaped captivity, after being tricked into releasing Henshaw on Earth in the first place. There’s one other he can turn to for help, John Stewart, who is in medical rehab. Will the two of them be able to free the others, something they themselves seem powerless to do?

I continue to admire the writing and storytelling by Jurgens and Perkins in this storyline. Clever ideas, exciting action, fine character moments, great art. Well done.

Recommended.

Incoming: DOOM PATROL Volume 2

Image © DC Comics. Written by Gerard Way, art by Nick Derington, Tom Fowler, Michael Allred and Dan McDaid, colors by Tamra Bonvillain and Laura Allred, letters by Todd Klein.

I had a bunch of incoming packages waiting when I got back from our Thanksgiving trip, and this is one. Writer Gerard Way captures the feel of the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol while going his own way, and Nick Derington, the regular penciller and cover artist, has a style which I find charming and fun while still nailing a wide range of material from dark to light. I had fun working on it. Should be out soon.

And Then I Read: THE WRONG EARTH #3

Image © Ahoy Comics. Main story written by Tom Peyer, art by Jamal Igle and Juan Castro, colors by Andy Troy, letters by Rob Steen. Backup written by Paul Constant, art by Frank Cammuso.

The biggest criminal villain on each of the two Earths in this series is called Number One. His primary sidekick is Deuce, seen above, the one from Earth-Alpha, the “nice” Earth. She’s one of the few people who have figured out what happened, and is trying to turn that knowledge to her advantage. Meanwhile, each of the Heroes, Dragonfly from grim Earth and Dragonflyman from fun Earth, are trying to adjust to their new switched worlds, with mixed results. One is too violent, the other too lenient and tender-hearted for their new roles. We haven’t seen much yet of the main villains, but it looks like that’s coming up soon.

The backup “Stinger” story is from the fun Earth, and it’s quite a funny story about a Sidekick Museum, and who gets celebrated there. The art is straight from old newsprint comics, nicely done. The three backup text features are worth reading, too.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: OFF ON A COMET by Jules Verne

Image found online, I read a digital version. “Hector Servadac” is the original French title.

I think rather than getting into the storyline, I have to say up front that this is by far my least favorite of the Verne novels I’ve read. The concept is based on ideas that were not scientifically believable even at the time it was written: that a comet could strike Earth a grazing blow, scoop off part of the Mediterranean Sea and a few islands and bits of coastline, with about sixty human inhabitants, as well as atmosphere, and go on its way without Earth even noticing or causing much damage at all to the removed parts. Once that is past, it takes the comet passengers half the book to figure out what has happened, even though they are clearly in a much different orbit, first roastingly close to the sun, then eventually in a deep freeze as far out as the orbit of Saturn, not to mention the much lighter gravity and odd appearance of the rest of the land, nearly all metal. When they at last contact an astronomer also scooped off, things become clear, and they survive the cold passage inside an active volcano. The end of the story is even less believable, and in fact comes off more like magic than science. (Verne’s original ending was nixed by his publisher as too grim.)

What really made this book difficult to read, though, was the mean-spirited depiction of a German Jewish merchant, who Verne gives every possible negative stereotype. This comes off as pure anti-Semitism, and I see no reason for it. Verne needed a contrary character to move the story along, but there was no reason it had to be so constantly hateful. The astronomer is also contrary, but is handled in a much more positive light, and there are other national stereotypes which are much more balanced.

Previously, I only knew the outlines of the story from the Classic Comics version, which of course dodges the stereotype issue. I enjoyed reading that as a child. I should have stopped there.

Vehemently not recommended.