Todd Klein's Blog, page 54

GASPAR SALADINO in MARVEL PREMIERE Part 2

All images © Marvel. From MARVEL PREMIERE #6, Jan 1973

In Part 1 I looked at all of Gaspar Saladino’s cover lettering for this title, here I’ll examine his story lettering, and there was a lot of it: several full stories and many first pages of stories lettered by others. The first example, above, is a full story, and surprisingly Gaspar used his full name in the credits instead of a pen name, as he usually did at this time. Not sure why. At DC Comics, his main client, he was not yet receiving printed credit for his story lettering, and wouldn’t until 1977. The title on this story would be a strong clue to his work even if there wasn’t a credit.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #15, May 1974

Gaspar lettered the full story on this issue too, but here he’s using his favorite pen name, L.P. Gregory (for his three children, Lisa, Peter and Greg). In the title, I think THE FURY OF is press-down type, IRON FIST is an interesting character logo.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #16, July 1974

He also lettered the entire story in the next issue, suggesting these two stories might have been given to him at the same time. It’s a surprising amount of story lettering by Saladino at Marvel for the time. His title is strong and creative, though the style of DRAGON is one now frowned on by some. It’s interesting to note that most of the creators on these stories were already working at DC Comics, or would be in a few years.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #22, June 1975

More often, Gaspar was asked to letter just the first page of stories otherwise lettered by others, this is the first one of those on the book. I think Marvel felt his dynamic style and creative skill might sell comics to browsers looking inside before deciding what to buy, and the Saladino look did give Marvel a more cohesive feel for a while.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #23, Aug 1975

Gaspar’s stylish title with some Art Deco elements and the energy of brushwork on WARHAWK certainly added a lot to this page. Gaspar always put in the name of the letterer of the remaining pages when it was known, but comparisons show those generally looked quite different.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #26, Nov 1975

On this issue, Gaspar lettered the first two pages, perhaps to help with a tight deadline, as the rest were split between two letterers. It sounds like a job that had to go out the door to the color separator that day. I think the title continues on the next page, so that’s another reason.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #28, Feb 1976

Usually at Marvel the title and credits were on the first story page, but not always. Here Gaspar was given page 3 to letter because of the story title, which he handled well, and the credits are here too.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #31m Aug 1976

Here the story title is short, but enhanced by a large balloon with display lettering and a handsome banner caption. While the title itself is not so interesting, Gaspar’s lettering is full of energy.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #40, Feb 1978

Another full story lettered by Saladino, and he uses just his first name as a credit. He was becoming known to fans by this time, and it was enough. Great sound effect, though it’s a bit hard to see because of the coloring.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #44, Oct 1978

The character logo/story title here is very similar to the one on the cover, but not the same. It’s hard to know which came first, and I’m not sure if the cover one is by Gaspar. I like the creative touch of having the credits on a playing card.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #46, Feb 1979

I suspect this story title was pencilled by George Pérez and just inked by Saladino, as the letter shapes don’t look like something he would do.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #48, June 1979

This story title, on the other hand, is very typical of Gaspar, note the shape of each R with the indent on the right side below the center of the middle horizontal bar.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #49, Aug 1979

On this story title, Gaspar adds drama by increasing the letter sizes from start to finish.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #51, Dec 1979

Creative contrast works well in this story title, with the last and the first word matching, and that extra swoop of the W adding interest.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #53, April 1980

As we get into the 1980s, letterer Jim Novak was sometimes doing first story pages, and his style is quite similar to Gaspar’s, but I think this one is still by Saladino.

Details on Gaspar’s story lettering are below.

#6 Jan 1973: 20pp

#15 May 1974: 19pp

#16 July 1974: 18pp

#22 June 1975: page 1 only

#23 Aug 1975: page 1 only

#26 Nov 1975 pages 1 & 2 only

#28 Feb 1976: page 3 only

#31 Aug 1976: page 1 only

#40 Feb 1978: 17pp

#44 Oct 1978: page 1 only

#46 Feb 1979: page 1 only

#48 June 1979: page 1 only

#49 Aug 1979: page 1 only

#51 Dec 1979: page 1 only

#53 April 1980: page 1 only

That’s a total of 86 pages. More articles in this series and others you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in MARVEL PREMIERE Part 2 appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in MARVEL PREMIERE Part 1

All images © Marvel. From MARVEL PREMIERE #6, Jan 1973

Among the many Marvel Comics titles of the 1970s that began with the word Marvel, this is one that Gaspar Saladino did a lot of work for. It ran 61 issues from 1972 to 1981, and there’s enough of his work to warrant two parts. I’ll look at covers in this part and inside page lettering in Part 2. In the blurb above, only the top line is hand-lettered, the bottom line is type, probably press-down type, and in a style Gaspar seemed to be using a lot around this time, perhaps to add variety. I don’t like it as much as his own lettering. His rough letters with texture inside have far more energy. Danny Crespi also did letters similar to this at times, but I feel sure these are by Saladino.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #8, May 1973

Gaspar’s balloon lettering is generally wide and angular. Notice that his letter S often has a wide horizontal center stroke. His question marks, like the one in the caption, are also distinctive, though they don’t appear on covers that often.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #10, Sept 1973

Danny Crespi’s balloon lettering was also wide, but tended to look more rounded, and his open letters often did too. These have lots of sharp corners.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #12, Nov 1973

When Gaspar had room, his display lettering often used creative styles, as in the bottom caption here, though it’s unfortunate it covers some of the figure.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #15, May 1974

Another subtle Saladino style point is a letter I with serifs at the beginning of a word, as in the bottom burst here.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #16, July 1974

Like veteran Marvel letterer Artie Simek, Gaspar made balloon shapes that approached a rectangle rather than an oval when the words fit better that way. It’s seen here in the first balloon. When he wanted to emphasize open lettering, he gave it a second outline around the outside to add thickness, as seen here on DRAGON. Note that the inner shapes have only the single outline.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #18, Oct 1974

There’s another serif I in the round blurb here, and a smaller one in the bottom caption.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #20, Jan 1975

Marvel liked to reverse blurbs, as on the first one here, which sometimes makes it harder to detect style, but the letters of BATROC are very Gaspar.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #21, March 1975

Cover lettering requires skill in knowing what and how to emphasize things, the bottom caption here is a great example of Saladino’s ability to do that.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #22, June 1975

The small lettering on this cover is not clearly in Gaspar’s style, but his creative touches, like the mask and ties on the upper blurb and the style of NINJA in the lower one point toward him.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #23, Aug 1975

Death is one of the most frequent words on comics covers, and Gaspar always made it ominous and exciting.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #24, Sept 1975

Both blurbs are reversed here, but Marvel’s way of doing it was different from DC Comics. They reversed the small lettering, but simply filled around open letters with black, changing the letter size and structure in subtle ways. Here it all worked out fine and looks good except for the very thin section of the S in SUMMERKILL.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #29, April 1976

Writer/Editor Roy Thomas must have loved having Gaspar letter covers like this, where his style fit well with the 1940s feel of the image. Gaspar didn’t start lettering until late 1949, but he certainly absorbed the look of 1940s comics.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #30, June 1976

Gaspar was also a good match for the energy and excitement of Jack Kirby art, his lettering had the same qualities.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #35, April 1977

More dynamic lettering to match the energy in the art.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #36, June 1977

Not many actual 1950s comics had lettering this well done, in my opinion.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #37, Aug 1977

The Saladino lettering on the bottom caption here reminds me of similar work he did for DC Comics when he lettered covers there.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #43, Aug 1978

This relatively small lettering still has impact, helped by the energy of the shapes around the blurbs.

From MARVEL PREMIERE #55, Aug 1980

As the title entered the 1980s, Jim Novak was sometimes doing covers, and his work is very close to Gaspar’s at this point, so there are some I’m not calling either way, but this one is definitely by Saladino.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 6, 8, 10, 12, 15-16, 18, 20-24, 29-30, 35-37, 43, 55. That’s 18 in all. Inside page lettering in Part 2. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in MARVEL PREMIERE Part 1 appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in MAN-THING

From MAN-THING #1, Jan 1974

In addition to designing the logo, Gaspar Saladino lettered quite a few covers and one first story page for the series, which ran 22 issues in 1974-75. The circular blurb at bottom left here is clearly by him. Above the logo, he lettered only SWAMP-CREATURE, the rest is type. The character never achieved the same impact as DC’s Swamp Thing, despite good writing and fine art.

From MAN-THING #3, March 1974

Perhaps readers were less interested because the monster didn’t talk or seem to have human intelligence. Again, Gaspar lettered only SWAMP CREATURE in the top line, and did the bottom blurb with an interesting style choice for the open letters.

From MAN-THING #7, July 1974

MONSTER is typical Saladino scary lettering, and I like the energy of the balloon border.

From MAN-THING #8, Aug 1974

The open letter shapes on this blurb are again typical for Saladino.

From MAN-THING #11, Nov 1974

This one is a bit harder to identify, but the very square corners in the open letters of the first caption are more like Gaspar’s work than that of Danny Crespi, the other frequent cover letterer at this time. TO THE is type, perhaps press-down letters, something Gaspar used occasionally.

From MAN-THING #14, Feb 1975

Note the lower case THE in the bottom blurb, something Saladino often did. In the top line, SWAMP has been changed to SLIME. Not sure if Gaspar did that.

From MAN-THING #15, March 1975

I’m not sure about this one, it could be by Crespi, but the angular shapes in the open letters point toward Saladino.

From MAN-THING #16, April 1975

These two blurbs are firmly in Gaspar’s wheelhouse. The artful caption shapes with thin outlines are also typical of him, Crespi’s tended to be thicker.

From MAN-THING #18, June 1975

Another banner caption on this cover by Saladino.

From MAN-THING #19, July 1975

An unusual story title on Gaspar’s only inside lettering for the book.

From MAN-THING #2, Jan 1980

Marvel tried again with this new series, and Saladino lettered just this one cover for it. His fine logo was used again, which was not typical, often a new series got a new logo.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: first series 1, 3, 7-8, 11, 14-16, 18, second series 2. That’s ten in all, plus his single story page for issue 19 of the first series. More articles like this one are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER MARVEL F-L

All images © Marvel. From FALLEN ANGELS #4, July 1987

Here’s an article for a few Marvel titles that didn’t have enough Gaspar Saladino work to warrant a separate entry, I’ll cover them in alphabetical order. This X-Men spinoff was mostly lettered by Jim Novak and Bill Oakley, but Gaspar filled in on one issue. He’s used his favorite pen name, L.P. Gregory for some reason even though is style is easy to spot for anyone paying attention.

All images © Marvel. From GUNHAWKS #6, Aug 1973

The western title above ran seven issues in 1972-73, and Gaspar lettered most of this first story page except for the credits. DEATH in the title is very much in his style, GUNHAWK less so, but he was always trying new things.

From INTERFACE #7, Nov 1990

This series from the Epic imprint ran eight issues in 1989-90. Gaspar lettered none of the covers, just the story in issue #7. Since I can’t find any inside page images, I’m putting the cover here.

From KID COLT OUTLAW #186, Sept 1974

This title had a very long run of 225 issues from 1949 to 1979, and might be the only Marvel title to have survived from the Golden Age to the Marvel Age, as some call it, though in the 1960s and 1970s, the stories were often reprints. Surprisingly, Gaspar lettered just two covers for the series. AMBUSH in the top blurb is most typical of his work.

From KID COLT OUTLAW #187, Oct 1974

And the same word is here in a slightly different style. You can sense how repetitive some of the stories were. And it makes sense that Saladino didn’t do any inside page lettering, with so many issues being reprints.

From THE LEGION OF MONSTERS #1, Sept 1975

Among the black and white magazine-size titles Marvel tried in the mid 1970s was this book, which had only one issue. Gaspar lettered the title page only. MONSTER is in the style he used for a logo on the FRANKENSTEIN color comic, but redrawn. MASQUE is beautiful.

From LOGAN’S RUN #2, Feb 1977

Marvel’s comics version of this film ran seven issues in 1977, and Saladino did page one lettering on five issues, this is the first. His title is strong and effective.

From LOGAN’S RUN #3, March 1977

The best clue to Saladino on this page is the style of the R in SANCTUARY, where the notch on the right side is below the center of the middle horizontal stroke.

From LOGAN’S RUN #4, April 1977

Here a massive burst balloon contains the story title effectively, not easy to do. Note how contrast is achieved through solid black letters on BOX.

From LOGAN’S RUN #5, May 1977

On the other hand, this story title is poorly designed and not at all like Gaspar’s work. I’m guessing it was pencilled in by George Pérez and Saladino just inked it as is to avoid messing with the art behind it.

From LOGAN’S RUN #6, June 1977

Back to Gaspar’s style for this story title. Gaspar’s lettering is all fine here except in the last burst, where there’s too much space. Perhaps a word was removed after he did it.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these two covers:

KID COLT OUTLAW: 186-187

He lettered these entire stories:

FALLEN ANGELS #4 July 1987: 22pp

INTERFACE #7, Nov 1990: 28pp

And on one page from each of these issues:

GUNHAWKS #6 Aug 1973

THE LEGION OF MONSTERS #1 Sept 1975 (page 2)

LOGAN’S RUN #2-6, Feb-June 1977

That’s 57 pages in all. More articles in this series and others you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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And Then I Read: SNUFF by Terry Pratchett

Cover art by Paul Kidby

Commander Vimes, head of Ankh-Morpork’s police, the City Watch, has been forced to take a vacation at the country estate of his wife’s family. Vimes is completely uncomfortable in the country, even though he knows his son and wife will enjoy the change. Vimes tries to relax and explore the area of the estate, but then his policeman’s instincts begin to detect things of a criminal nature, and he is soon happily involved in new investigations along with local policeman Feeny Upshot, who Vimes is horrified to learn takes all his orders from the local Board of Magistrates rather than the laws of the land. Vimes changes Upshot’s way of thinking about his job, and they begin working together to find out what is happening to a local population of goblins that seem to be disappearing. When one is found murdered in an attempt to incriminate Vimes himself, the Commander becomes deeply involved in local politics and evil doings, including a wild ride down a flooded river where Vimes’ own life is in grave danger.

I continue to enjoy and admire Pratchett’s stories about Vimes and his police force, which over time have become stories about fighting prejudice and supporting inclusion, but are always funny and well worth reading. Recommended!

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

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Incoming: WONDER WOMAN EARTH ONE COMPLETE Trade Paperback

Image © DC Comics

Previously published as three hardcovers, this epic retelling of Wonder Woman’s origin and adventures by Morrison and Paquette has arrived in this new edition. I lettered each book in 2016, 2018 and 2021, and I enjoyed the writing, art and coloring. I recommend it!

The retail price is $39.99, and the release date is November 15. You can preorder at Amazon using the link below, or check with your comics retailer.

Wonder Woman Earth One Complete Collection

The post Incoming: WONDER WOMAN EARTH ONE COMPLETE Trade Paperback appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in LIGHT & DARKNESS WAR, MOEBIUS GNs

All images © Marvel and the respective copyright holders. From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #1, Oct 1988

This article combines Gaspar Saladino lettering work on a few titles from Marvel’s Epic line. This one ran six issues, all with great painted line art by Cam Kennedy, and all lettered by Gaspar. The images I have aren’t the best, a bit blurry, but you can still see how effective the lettering is. I love the rough balloon at the bottom of this page. I’ll show one page from each issue.

From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #2, Nov 1988

Here Saladino has used double-bordered balloons for this character allowing room for a color, though the color chosen tends to blend into the art.

From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #3, Jan 1989

Lots of radio or broadcast balloons on this page that work well.

From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #4 Feb1989

Gaspar was a good choice for the war theme, and he put his many years of experience doing DC Comics war stories to good use where it added to the story, like the dramatic balloons the last panel here.

From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #5, April 1989

Another special style is used on these caption borders, and the fill color helps distinguish them, though that wasn’t Gaspar’s choice.

From THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #6, Sept 1989

Thought balloons were on the way out by 1989, but still used here. The dark brown color in the caption makes it hard to read, again not Gaspar’s choice.

From MOEBIUS #2, 1987

French artist Jean Giraud was a superstar in the world of European comics. In the 1970s he began publishing groundbreaking work under the pen name Moebius that gained worldwide attention. Marvel published nine graphic-novel size squarebound collections of that work from 1987 to 1994. Giraud always lettered his work in a distinctive style, but of course in French, you can see a bit of it in the story title and signature here. For these reprints, lettering in English replaced the French in the original balloons, but often Giraud’s balloon shapes were retained, making some of them seem too empty and some too full at times, but generally it worked okay. (This was the same process used on his work and that of others in HEAVY METAL magazine. Some issues had one long story, but most were collections of shorter ones, and a variety of Marvel letterers worked on them. Gaspar did some of the stories, his first is above. I don’t know if he saw Giraud’s lettering, but what he’s done has appealing styles.

From MOEBIUS #3, 1987

On this story I’m not sure who did the title and top lettering, it’s probably partly by Giraud and partly by Gaspar.

From MOEBIUS #4, 1987

Another pen name used by Giraud was simply Gyr, as here. Did he do this title in English, or is it by Saladino or someone else? I don’t know.

From MOEBIUS #7, 1990

All the lettering on this page is by Saladino, I like the title.

From EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL: BLUEBERRY #2, 1989

Marvel also published five similar collections of Giraud’s work on the western strip Blueberry. Gaspar lettered just one story for those. Here you can see him struggling a bit to fit everything into the existing balloon shapes.

To sum up, here are the details of Saladino’s story lettering for these books.

THE LIGHT AND DARKNESS WAR #1-6: 28pp each

MOEBIUS #2: 9pp

MOEBIUS #3: 20pp

MOEBIUS #7: 2pp

BLUEBERRY #2: 22pp

That’s a total of 221 pages, a good amount of work for Gaspar at Marvel. More articles in this series and others you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in KULL

All images © Marvel. From KULL THE CONQUEROR #9, July 1973

After the success Marvel had with Conan, they tried another Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery character from the pulp magazines. They kept trying through several decades, but it was never as popular as Conan. The first Marvel series ran ten issues from 1971 to 1973, and this cover has the only lettering by Gaspar Saladino. The banner caption is full of his style points, including the lower case THE, and the way the word SCORPION is double outlined.

From KULL AND THE BARBARIANS #3, Sept 1975

Chronologically, the next Marvel book about Kull was this black and white magazine-sized title that ran just three issues in 1975. Gaspar lettered just the spread shown above for the opening story, his wonderful title dominates the pages.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #18, Dec 1976

Marvel brought back the monthly color comic with a different subtitle in 1973, and it ran 19 issues to 1978. Gaspar did several more page ones for the book, and also several covers, which we’ll look at in release order this time. Marvel often hired Saladino to do just the first page of stories, I think hoping his skill would sell a few more comics to browsers. His skill with flaming and icy letters is clear on this story title.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #19, Feb 1977

The lettering on this cover is again full of Saladino style, from the outline of the balloon to the creative display lettering.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #20, April 1977

In this story title, HELL is in Gaspar’s dry brush style. I like the extended leg of the A, simply there to add interest.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #22, Aug 1977

This one has some style elements also used by Danny Crespi, but the overall angular look of the balloon points to Saladino, as does the shape of the S in TALONS.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #22, Aug 1977

Inside the book, with more room, DEVIL-BIRDS is more interesting, complete with Gaspar’s texture in the letters.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #23, Oct 1977

The regular lettering in these balloons is wide and angular, with each letter S having a wide, almost horizontal center stroke, and the legs of each E tend to have a slight upward arch.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #27, June 1978

This bold story title adds interest with lower case I’s, a stacked LD and lower case THE. For a change the texture extends in both directions from the center.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #29, Oct 1978

Gaspar’s scary display lettering is put to good use on this cover, filling the space available.

From KULL THE DESTROYER #29, Oct 1978

On this final issue Gaspar lettered everything but the credits. Note the serif I in ISSUE in the bottom note, and the script ROY.

To sum up, Saladino lettered these covers:

KULL THE CONQUEROR 9

KULL THE DESTROYER 19, 22-23, 29

Five in all. Below are the details of his story page lettering.

KULL AND THE BARBARIANS #3 Sept 1975: pages 2 and 3 only

KULL THE DESTROYER 18, 20, 22, 27, 29: page 1 only

That’s seven in all. More articles in this series and others you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in KA-ZAR

All images © Marvel. From KA-ZAR #2, March 1974

This title ran 20 issues from 1974 to 1977. Gaspar Saladino lettered several of the covers, and several first pages inside. I’ll look at covers first. The one above has a handsome banner with Gaspar’s angular display lettering. On the circle caption above, note the three thin outlines used for the border. I don’t think anyone else was doing that, and Marvel’s production people often filled them in black.

From KA-ZAR #3, May 1974

Lots of Saladino lettering here, the curvy treatment of EL TIGRE is the most unusual.

From KA-ZAR #11, Oct 1975

When Marvel reversed Gaspar’s lettering, as in the top caption, it became harder to identify, but here the lower case small words are typical of him, and the bottom burst is too.

From KA-ZAR #15, April 1976

HELLBIRD is pure Saladino on this cover, the rest is his work too.

From KA-ZAR #16, June 1976

Gaspar was often asked to letter the first page of stories otherwise done by others, his strong titles and dynamic lettering might have been thought to sell comics to casual browsers. When he did them, he always credited the letterer of the remaining pages, as here, but their work often looked quite different.

From KA-ZAR #18, Oct 1976

This story title is a fine example of what to emphasize and how, with the smaller lower case adding appealing contrast to the larger open letters, and SAVAGE is the dynamic clincher.

From KA-ZAR #19, Dec 1976

Putting the title in an appropriate balloon shape was no problem for Saladino. Making it exciting was equally easy, or so it seems.

From KA-ZAR #20, Feb 1977

On the final issue, ASSAULT in the title is done with a dry brush, something Gaspar was good at, adding texture and variety.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 2-3, 11, 15, four in all. And I found page 1 only lettering on these issues: 16, 18-20, four in all. More articles in this series and others you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY and JUNGLE ACTION

All images © Marvel. From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #5, June 1973

Marvel’s first book with this title began as a horror/science fiction anthology, and later became the first home of Thor, who inherited the book and its numbering. From 1972 to 1975, Marvel relaunched it as a mostly reprint horror anthology again, and this version lasted 19 issues. Gaspar Saladino lettered several covers, but did no inside page lettering. This post includes JUNGLE ACTION, connected only by the letter J, and that will follow. The cover above has fine Saladino scary lettering, and a scroll touting one of the few new stories in the series. He also designed this version of the word MYSTERY in the logo.

From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #6, Aug 1973

The first balloon on this cover has Gaspar’s wide, angular lettering and his style of question mark, while the burst has his display lettering. There’s more in the banner caption at the bottom.

From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #10, April 1974

More Saladino display lettering on this cover. The lower case OF in the burst is typical of him, and if you look closely at the burst border you’ll see his rough edges around the outside to add energy, though they’re hard to see against the dark color.

From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #13, Oct 1974

This bottom banner is pure Saladino, with a variety of scary styles. He also did the caption at upper left, the type at upper right was added by someone else I think.

From JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #19, Oct 1975

By the end of the run the logo had reverted to the old Artie Simek one. The banner at the bottom of this cover is very Gaspar, he liked to use these kinds of angular letters for Egyptian subjects, as this seems to be.

From JUNGLE ACTION #7, Nov 1973

This title began as a reprint book for old jungle features, but with issue #5, it became the home of Black Panther, featured in new stories from issue #6 on. It ran 24 issues from 1972 to 1976. Saladino lettered several covers for the series. The one above is full of his exciting, energetic work. (The Grand Comics Database credits Gaspar as the letterer of issue #5, but I think that’s by Danny Crespi or perhaps someone else, not Saladino.)

From JUNGLE ACTION #8, Jan 1974

This one is harder to call, but I see more Saladino style here than anyone else who was lettering covers at Marvel at the time. The reversed lettering on the bottom caption makes it harder to identify.

From JUNGLE ACTION #9, May 1974

The uneven style of the open letters in the caption on the right here is very much in Saladino’s playbook.

From JUNGLE ACTION #10, July 1974

The rounded look of the open letters on this blurb suggest Danny Crespi as letterer, but a closer look shows they actually have lots of square corners, and are outlined in the way Gaspar liked to do them, first with a small pen point (still visible in the center openings) then outlined again around the outside to add more weight. The small letters above also look like Gaspar’s work to me, it’s too bad the entire blurb is so small.

From JUNGLE ACTION #17, Sept 1975

I hate the way Marvel kept making Gaspar’s banners solid black, it ruins the design, as here. His style is most obvious in the word DIE in the burst.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers:

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY: 5-6, 10, 13, 19

JUNGLE ACTION: 7-10, 17

That’s 10 covers in all. Other articles in this series and more you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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