Todd Klein's Blog, page 56

GASPAR SALADINO in HUMAN TORCH & HUMAN FLY

All images © Marvel. From THE HUMAN TORCH #1, Sept 1974

Here are two Marvel titles beginning with the same word but otherwise unconnected. THE HUMAN TORCH was an eight issue series reprinting Human Torch solo stories from STRANGE TALES and elsewhere. Gaspar Saladino lettered half the covers, beginning with the first issue, above. He was a good choice, as his flaming letters were always well done. I will look at THE HUMAN FLY later.

From THE HUMAN TORCH #2, Nov 1974

Gaspar also designed the flaming logo, and here his blurb fits well below it.

From THE HUMAN TORCH #3, Jan 1975

The large 2 in the top caption is typical of what Saladino often did at DC Comics, where reprints were also common.

From THE HUMAN TORCH #7, Sept 1975

For some reason, Marvel’s production people loved to create these black cover blurbs by reversing the lettering and/or filling black around open lettering. I think it was a particularly bad choice here on a sunny, fire-lit cover, and it makes Gaspar’s FIRE in the lower caption hard to read. It also hides the banner shape of the upper caption.

From THE HUMAN FLY #6, Feb 1978

This series based on a real stunt-man ran 19 issues in 1977-79. Gaspar lettered the first page of several issues and one cover. At the time, Marvel often hired Saladino to add his skill and talent to the first page of stories otherwise lettered by others, and the lettering style of the other pages is generally quite different. This dynamic, creative title is a good example of what he could bring to a book.

From THE HUMAN FLY #10, June 1978

The texture and coloring on this title makes it a bit hard to read, but it still works okay.

From THE HUMAN FLY #15, Nov 1978

This busy page has less room for lettering than most, but Saladino does his best through careful overlapping.

From THE HUMAN FLY #19, March 1979

Gaspar only lettered the final cover, his clever joining of the two H’s is the kind of creative touch he was known for.

From THE HUMAN FLY #19, March 1979

He also lettered the first page inside where his title is much larger and more dynamic, with brush lettering on HIGHWIRE.

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

HUMAN TORCH: 1-3, 7

HUMAN FLY: 19

Gaspar also lettered the first page of these issues: HUMAN FLY 6, 10, 15, 19, four in all. Other articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in ECTOKID

All images © Marvel. From ECTOKID #1, Sept 1993

Here’s another one I missed, part of Marvel’s Clive Barker Razorline imprint. Gaspar Saladino lettered all but one issue. Unfortunately I can only find images from five of his eight issues, so that will have to suffice. He lettered everything here except the character logo.

From ECTOKID #2, Oct 1993

Great title and credit block by Saladino here, he shows how to make it just a little scary with the knife-pointed M in MOTHER.

From ECTOKID #3, Nov 1993

The bottom right balloon here is in the old whisper style using a dashed outline. A bit hard to see on the dark color behind it, but it works.

From ECTOKID #6, Feb 1994

I think when digital coloring became more common (and I’m assuming this uses it), darker colors were tried just because they were available. Here they make the title hard to read.

From ECTOKID #9, May 1994

Here the text at the bottom is type, and not by Saladino, though he did the credits. In this case it promotes an “Ectokid Special” that never happened.

To sum up, here are the details of Gaspar’s story lettering.

#1 Sept 1993: 18pp

#2 Oct 1993: 22pp

#3 Nov 1993: 22pp

#4 Dec 1993: 22pp

#5 Jan 1994: 22pp

#6 Feb 1994: 21pp

#7 March 1994: 21pp

#9 May 1994: 21pp

The page count on issues 7 and 9 is a guess, but it should be right. That’s a total of 169 pages. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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And Then I Read: TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

I saw this book recommended highly by Kurt Busiek, and decided to try it. I’m glad I did.

As a child, Sadie Green is spending time in a Los Angeles hospital visiting her sister, who is being treated for cancer. She encounters a boy, Sam Masur, who is in the same hospital with a badly damaged foot from a car accident, and undergoing many painful surgeries. He speaks to no one, and loses his pain by playing video games. Sadie joins him and they gradually become friends. Later, they have a falling out and don’t see each other for years.

Later, while both are attending college in Boston, they meet accidentally and the friendship is rekindled. They both still love video games, and each is thinking about a career making them. Sam and Sadie decide to work together to create a new game, and after much labor, they succeed with the help of Sam’s friend Marx, who has the business acumen to sell their game and help them create a company to make more. While they share much while working together, Sam and Sadie still have a lot of barriers between them, and this book explores their journey, not only as game makers, but as people trying to understand each other and the unspoken bonds between them.

This is not the kind of book I usually read, but it’s well written, and perhaps I enjoyed it all the more as a change of pace. Then too, the creation of video games and the fantasy worlds in them, is not far from topics I usually read about, and it was interesting to learn more about that. The human stories are really the core of the book, and beautifully handled, with no easy answers but realistic ones instead. Recommended.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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SALADINO AT DC Updated

Image © DC Comics. From CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #12, Jan 1998

I thought I was finished with this topic, and for the last three months I’ve been working on Gaspar’s lettering for Marvel Comics, but as I researched that in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, I found quite a few books and issues from DC with Saladino lettering that I’d missed. So over the last two days I’ve been adding that material, hundreds of pages of story lettering, to my existing articles. In case any of you would like to see that, here are the posts that have added material:

OTHER A TITLES

OTHER B TITLES

OTHER C TITLES

OTHER D TITLES

OTHER E TITLES

OTHER M TITLES

OTHER N TITLES

OTHER S TITLES

OTHER BATMAN TITLES

OTHER SUPER TITLES

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN

FLASH (1987)

GREEN LANTERN

SANDMAN & SHADOW

WONDER WOMAN 1987

I’m constantly amazed at the amount of lettering work I’m finding by Gaspar, and now especially for the 1990s. He remained a busy and prolific letterer for over 50 years!

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GASPAR SALADINO in HERO, HAUNT & HOWARD THE DUCK

All images © Marvel. From HERO FOR HIRE #8, April 1973

Here are three H titles with a small amount of Gaspar Saladino lettering, combined to make the right size article. HERO FOR HIRE ran 16 issues in 1972-73 before being renamed POWER MAN. Gaspar lettered this one cover and several page 1 only assignments. One clue this lettering is not by Danny Crespi, who also did a lot of cover lettering at the time, is the thin outlines around the open letters, Danny usually did them thicker.

From HERO FOR HIRE #9, May 1973

This Saladino story title is almost humorous in approach, kind of odd for a superhero book, but it grabs attention. The sound effect is fine, too.

From HERO FOR HIRE #15, Nov 1973

This story title is more serious, but still has appealing bounce. Lots of lettering here.

From HERO FOR HIRE #16, Dec 1973

Perhaps the most impressive title of the lot, STILETTO could be a series logo.

From HAUNT OF HORROR #3, Sept 1974

One of Marvel’s black and white magazine-size titles, HAUNT OF HORROR lasted just five issues in 1974-75. Gaspar lettered the full story here, though letterers were not credited on these. His creative title is a good clue.

From HAUNT OF HORROR #4, Nov 1974

Another full story by Saladino with an impressive sound effect on this page. I think the inker, Wayne Howard, added the Zipatone pattern in the title and sound effect.

From HOWARD THE DUCK #5, Sept 1976

HOWARD THE DUCK was an odd but entertaining book that managed to combine a funny animal character (in appearance) with social satire and drama. He was a surprise hit for a while, and his initial series ran 31 issues from 1976 to 1979. Gaspar’s page 1 lettering puts the story title in a radio burst for extra emphasis.

From HOWARD THE DUCK #7, Dec 1976

Some of these issues were lettered by Jim Novak, beginning to absorb Saladino’s style, so it’s possible he might have done this page 1 himself, but comparing the other pages with this one, I feel this is by Gaspar. The creative story title is another point in his favor.

From HOWARD THE DUCK #27, Sept 1978

There’s no question on this story, as Saladino lettered the entire thing and gave himself a credit, just his first name as he liked to do it.

From HOWARD THE DUCK #30, March 1979

Again this could be Jim Novak imitating Saladino, but I feel it’s by Gaspar. Many subtle clues to that.

From HOWARD THE DUCK #30, March 1979

The second page of the story, the title page, is also by Gaspar, his title lettering is unmistakeable.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: HERO FOR HIRE #8, HOWARD THE DUCK #30, two in all. Below are the details of his story lettering.

HERO FOR HIRE #9, May 1973: page 1 only

HERO FOR HIRE #15, Nov 1973: page 1 only

HERO FOR HIRE #16, Dec 1973: page 1 only

HAUNT OF HORROR #3, Sept 1974: Last Descent to Hell 8pp

HAUNT OF HORROR #4, Nov 1974: Fright Pattern 5pp

HOWARD THE DUCK #5 Sept 1976: page 1 only

HOWARD THE DUCK #7 Dec 1976: page 1 only

HOWARD THE DUCK #27 Sept 1978: 17pp

HOWARD THE DUCK #30 March 1979: page 2 only

That’s a total of 36 pages. 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 GODZILLA

All images © Marvel, from GODZILLA #21, April 1979

Marvel licensed and created this comics series in 1977 to 1979, and it ran 24 issues. Gaspar Saladino lettered two covers (if I have that right) and a number of first story pages. I’ll look at the covers first. The one above has lettering that might be either by Saladino or by Marvel staffer Danny Crespi, but the style of THE in the last line points toward Saladino.

From GODZILLA #22, May 1979

The caption on this page is definitely in Gaspar’s style, his rough, textured letters for DINOSAUR are diagnostic.

From GODZILLA #3, Oct 1977

In the 1970s, Saladino was often asked to letter just the first page of stories otherwise lettered by others, I think Marvel felt his skills would help sell comics to browsers. He or someone added the name or names in the credits of whoever lettered the rest of the story, but their style was often markedly different.

From GODZILLA #12, July 1978

This strong title and the rounded E in MEGA point to Gaspar.

From GODZILLA #14, Sept 1978

This title goes further toward Gaspar’s scary style. You might wonder why if he did parts 1 and 3 of this story, he didn’t do part 2, but I think the way this worked was, Saladino made regular visits to the Marvel offices to drop off and pick up work, probably once a week (he did the same thing at DC Comics). He’d take whatever was offered, perhaps even sit down and letter a rush cover or two, and then head home to work on the rest. So, if art wasn’t ready on a book, he didn’t get that first page.

From GODZILLA #16, Nov 1978

I confess I’ve never seen the appeal of Godzilla (at least not since seeing the first film as a child), but Saladino’s titles work hard to make the stories seem exciting.

From GODZILLA #17, Dec 1978

I think writer Doug Moench was having a bit of fun with this title, a takeoff on “All Creatures Great and Small.” Gaspar’s lettering promotes the size difference.

From GODZILLA #18, Jan 1979

Gaspar put extra work into the Art Deco word MANHATTAN in this title, showing his talent and skill.

From GODZILLA #19, Feb 1979

Making Godzilla small just points out how silly he looks in my opinion.

From GODZILLA #20, March 1979

Lots of energy in this title and in the sound effects.

From GODZILLA #23, June 1979

Saladino’s final page 1, and his fine title had nowhere to go on this busy page other than over the monster, but it looks okay to me.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on two covers: 21 and 22. His page 1 only lettering appeared in these issues: 3, 12, 14, 16-20, 23, nine in all. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in GIANT-SIZE…

All images © Marvel. From GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #3, Feb 1975

In 1974 and 1975, Marvel flooded the market with these annual-sized comics under many titles, but all beginning with GIANT-SIZE. Some were all new material, some were all-reprints, many were a mix of both. Gaspar Saladino did cover or story lettering for quite a few, and I’m detailing that here. Rather than try to go chronologically, I’m going alphabetically by title. The cover lettering on the first one, above, is by Saladino, though the giant numbers are part of the cover art. WHO in the final balloon with a burst around it adds energy and drama.

From GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #3, Feb 1975

In addition to the cover, Gaspar lettered the lead story, using one of his pen names in the credits, L.G. Peter, which stood for the names of his children Lisa, Greg and Peter. I think he was still uneasy about getting credited at Marvel in 1975, thinking his main employer DC Comics might not like it, but a few years later he started using his real name.

From GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #4, June 1975

On the next issue he lettered just the first page, crediting Charlotte Jetter, who did the rest, but Gaspar’s style was quite different from hers, including the large, impressive story title. Marvel I think felt his work might make a few sales to browsers. It worked on me.

From GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS #3, Aug 1975

For this book, Gaspar lettered just two story pages, a sort of intro for reprints. The caricatures of editors Len Wein and Tony Isabella are amusing.

From GIANT-SIZE CONAN #1, Sept 1974

Also lettering many of these covers was staffer Danny Crespi, whose style was sometimes similar to Gaspar’s, but I feel sure that the creative touches on the word DRAGON here come from Saladino.

From GIANT-SIZE CONAN #1, Sept 1974

This is another case where Gaspar lettered the main story inside using a different pen name this time, L.P. Gregory, again made from the names of his kids. This is the pen name he used most often.

From GIANT-SIZE CONAN #2, Dec 1974

Another lead story lettered by Saladino using a third pen name, G.P. Lisa, thereby getting all three of his kids’ first names involved. I love the title on this one.

From GIANT-SIZE CONAN #3, April 1975

This cover lettering is generally more rounded than what Gaspar usually did, making it therefore more like that of Danny Crespi, but two style points direct it to Saladino: in the fourth line of the square caption, ISSUE begins with a serif I, something I don’t think Crespi did, and the word FEATURING is in Gaspar’s upper and lower case script, similar to his signature.

From GIANT-SIZE CONAN #5, Aug 1975

Lots of angular and rough lettering on this cover, with Gaspar’s rough burst around the second blurb. August 1975 was the final date for these GIANT-SIZE books, and this one is touted as an Annual, so I’m guessing the more frequent issues did not sell as well as hoped.

From GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS #4, April 1975

Another page 1 only lettering assignment for Gaspar with energetic treatment of DYING.

From GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS FEATURING THE CURSE OF DRACULA #1, June 1974

There was already a GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS, so this unwieldy title was used for Dracula, I don’t know why, but after the first issue it was simply GIANT-SIZE DRACULA. Lots of fine Saladino lettering, I particularly like the shape around FEARFUL FIRST ISSUE.

From GIANT-SIZE DRACULA #3, Dec 1974

This one is hard to call between Crespi and Saladino, and the reversed and filled around open letters in the caption don’t help, but I think it’s by Saladino.

From GIANT-SIZE DRACULA #5, June 1975

I’m sure this cover lettering is by Gaspar, there are many familiar style choices.

From GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING #4, May 1975

This title was the subject of much kid humor, no surprise, but had some interesting content including the first stories featuring Howard the Duck. The cover blurbs are again hard to attribute between Crespi and Saladino, but I’m leaning toward Saladino based on the styles used on the caption borders, and the squarish shapes of GORKO THE.

From GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING #5, Aug 1975

This lettering is definitely by Saladino. Many similarities to his DC covers.

From GIANT-SIZE MAN-THING #5, Aug 1975

A three-page introduction lettered by Gaspar, with a slight variation of a previous pen name, G.L. Peter this time, rather than L.G. Peter. He probably didn’t remember how he’d done it earlier.

From GIANT-SIZE POWERMAN #1, July 1975

Even if you didn’t know Gaspar had lettered the first page of this story, that amazing sound effect might have given you a clue!

From GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #2, Oct 1974

The reversed lettering that Marvel so often did, as in the top caption here, makes it harder to tell Crespi from Saladino, but the style of THE in the third line is diagnostic, and the bottom caption is more clearly by Gaspar.

From GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #5, July 1975

The almost rectangular balloon on this cover is something Gaspar sometimes did, but not Crespi as far as I can recall. Danny’s balloon borders were usually thicker than this, too.

From GIANT-SIZE SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #1, March 1975

This title is the height of absurdity! Three hyphenated words, way too long, and the logo is a mess! Thankfully, Gaspar’s cover lettering looks good.

From GIANT-SIZE SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #2, June 1975

The same is true here, with a fine curved banner under the logo.

From GIANT-SIZE WEREWOLF #4, April 1975

Fine Saladino cover lettering here, adding interest.

From GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1, May 1975

This famous cover, introducing a new X-Men team that became wildly popular, has cover lettering I’m not sure about. There are style points suggesting both Danny Crespi and Gaspar Saladino. The Grand Comics Database has it attributed to Gaspar, and it seems to me that writer Len Wein would have known who did it and corrected that if it was wrong, or someone would have asked him and gotten it right. This one is really a toss-up, but I will follow that lead and call it for Gaspar.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers, all titles beginning with GIANT-SIZE:

AVENGERS 3, CONAN 1, 3, 5, CHILLERS FEATURING DRACULA 1, DRACULA 3, 5, MAN-THING 4-5, SPIDER-MAN 2, 5, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 1-2, WEREWOLF 4, X-MEN 1. That’s 15 in all. Below are the details for his story lettering, again all titles beginning with GIANT-SIZE.

AVENGERS 3: 24pp

AVENGERS 4: page 1 only

CONAN 1: 24pp

CONAN 2: 30pp

DEFENDERS: page 1 only

MAN-THING 5: 3pp

POWERMAN 1: page 1 only

That’s a total of 84 pages. Other articles in this series and more you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER

All images © Clive Barker and Marvel. From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #2, 1990

Here’s one I missed earlier. Hellraiser began with the novella “The Hellbound Heart” by horror writer Clive Barker, then quickly became a long series of horror films. Marvel published this horror anthology comic through their Epic imprint, and it ran 20 issues from 1989 to 1993. Most issues had several stories usually with painted art by different creative teams. Gaspar Saladino lettered quite a few of the stories. The first one, above, has a very Gaspar story title. These were all likely lettered on vellum overlays either placed on the painted art if it was available, or more often on photocopies of the art. The lettering was then combined with the art photographically, or possibly digitally toward the end of the run, I’m not sure when Marvel started doing that.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #3, 1990

I’m showing two pages from this story. It again has a fine Saladino title and a credit using his full name.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #3, 1990

Another page to show more typical lettering. As you can see, some stories began with comics line art and then were colored in a painterly way perhaps using the blueline method. I think the art was often done larger than standard comics art, so when Saladino lettered it at his regular size it made that lettering seem a little smaller than usual, and there was usually plenty of room for it.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #4, 1990

For this story Gaspar used just his first name in script in the credits, as he liked to do. The title was probably at least penciled by artist Mark Chiarello.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #10, 1991

By issue #10 the credit boxes were set in type in a standard way, but here Saladino’s story title still grabs attention. The series title has been held in yellow, a poor choice and hard to read, but I think it’s also by Gaspar.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #11, 1992

The first of two stories lettered by Gaspar in this issue, the story title doesn’t look like his work, and I doubt it’s by artist Paris Cullins. Perhaps Gaspar did one they didn’t like, so someone else made this version.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #11, 1992

I think all the signs are by the artist here, but the title is certainly by Saladino.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #14, 1992

This title again doesn’t look like Gaspar’s work, but it could be. I never read any of these, interesting to see art by Colleen Doran on this story.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #15, 1992

The clock at upper left is by the artist, Saladino did the story title. I’m not sure about the series title now, could be by him, or someone else.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #16, 1992

There’s no mistaking Gaspar’s scary lettering style on this title.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #17, 1992

Some interesting special styles by Saladino on this page for a story with art by Alex Ross before I knew who he was. His impressive MARVELS series with Kurt Busiek came out two years later.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #18, 1992

The title of this story is straight from a soap opera and film, and Saladino has lettered it as he would have for a romance comic. It works well.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #19, 1992

One of two stories lettered by Gaspar for this issue, and there’s lots of his handsome script on it representing a letter written by the character. I doubt many could have penned it so well even back in the day. The story title doesn’t look like his work, and is unfortunately cut off at the right side.

From CLIVE BARKER’S HELLRAISER #19, 1992

The other story has a fine Saladino title, and all his lettering is effective.

To sum up, here are the details of his story lettering.

#2 17pp

#3 24pp

#4 21pp

#10 15pp

#11 6pp, 15pp

#14 8pp

#15 17pp

#16 13pp

#17 38pp

#18 7pp

#19 14pp, 15pp

That’s a total of 210 pages, a lot for Saladino on a Marvel series! More articles like this one are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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And Then I Read: THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN by Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe’s books that I’ve read so far have been a mixed bag for me. I liked “The Book of the New Sun,” a four-novel series which I reviewed in PART ONE and PART TWO, but did not at all like his novel “Peace.” This book is called a coda to Book of the New Sun, so I thought I’d try it. It follows Severian, the ruler or Autarch of Urth, which is our own world far in the future when our sun is dying. Severian has been granted a chance to travel through space to the distant world of Yesod to be judged. If he is worthy, he will be granted the power to bring a new sun to Urth, restoring vitality to the world, but at the cost of great cataclysms and calamities for the inhabitants.

Wolfe has an annoying tendency to bury or skip over the most important events of a story, leaving the reader puzzled and unsure what exactly happened, or at least this reader. It was so in Book of the New Sun a few times, but there was enough continuous narrative around those events to make filling in the blanks not too difficult. Peace was just the opposite, I never could figure out exactly what was happening, and the story skipped around continuously in time to add to the confusion. This novel is somewhere between those two poles, with more annoying guesswork and skipping around in time than Book. I enjoyed parts of it, but overall I can’t recommend it, and I found it frustrating and disappointing as a sequel. The book was nominated for several top awards, so I might be in a minority here, and if you’re interested, I suggest you try it for yourself.

The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

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GASPAR SALADINO in GHOST RIDER

All images © Marvel. From GHOST RIDER #3, Dec 1973

This title about a demonic biker ran 81 issues from 1973 to 1983. Gaspar Saladino designed the logo and lettered a few covers as well as many first pages inside the book. I’ll look at covers first. On the first one above, the curved arrow caption is something Gaspar liked to do. Marvel’s preference for reversing the lettering and/or filling in around open lettering makes that harder to identify here, but the balloon borders and lettering certainly look like Saladino to me.

From GHOST RIDER #4, Feb 1974

The display lettering in the last balloon here is in Gaspar’s style, the thought balloon shape with such large loops is not typical, but everything else here is.

From GHOST RIDER #7, Aug 1974

The other frequent cover letterer for Marvel at this time was Danny Crespi, but his work tended to be more rounded in general. These open display letters all have crisp, pointed corners, and the style of the I at the beginning of the first caption is also typical of Saladino.

From GHOST RIDER #11, April 1975

Again the reversed lettering on black makes this a bit harder to decide between Crespi and Saladino, but the styles in the bottom caption confirm it’s by Gaspar.

From GHOST RIDER #39, Dec 1979

The burst and blurb lettering on this cover is probably by Saladino, though Jim Novak is a possible guess. I’m leaning toward Gaspar. Novak was the best Saladino imitator, but he hadn’t quite gotten there yet by this time.

From GHOST RIDER #2, Oct 1973

Marvel often had Saladino letter just the first page of stories otherwise lettered by others in the 1970s, I think because they felt his superior skills and dynamic styles would help sell comics to browsers. Most often it was done for letterers whose work was less energetic, like Charlotte Jetter here. Gaspar always credits that other letterer, and their styles are usually quite different. The bold, exciting title here is the kind of thing Marvel wanted.

From GHOST RIDER #7, Aug 1974

There wasn’t always room for such a large title, but all of Saladino’s work projected confidence and energy, as here.

From GHOST RIDER #15, Dec 1975

The addition of a typeset intro at the top of many Marvel titles at this time took away some lettering space, but Saladino’s title at the bottom is full of motion, urging the reader on to the next page.

From GHOST RIDER #16, Feb 1976

Here there was room for a large top title, and Gaspar does the first word in rough brushwork to add contrast and interest.

From GHOST RIDER #18, June 1976

A brush was used again on THE in the title for contrast, and notice the style of the block letter R in RUN, where the indent on the right side is below the center of the middle bar, a Saladino style preference.

From GHOST RIDER #19, Aug 1976

These title letters are very Saladino, with a rough, heavy border to help them read against the art except in the center openings.

From GHOST RIDER #24, June 1977

Gaspar’s wide, angular balloon and caption lettering is always distinctive.

From GHOST RIDER #25, Aug 1977

This one’s a bit harder to be sure of, as the title is not typical for Gaspar, but the rest looks like his work, and he might have just inked in a penciled title on the art.

From GHOST RIDER #26, Oct 1977

In this title, the style of DOOM and the creative approach to DR. DRUID both signal the work of Saladino.

From GHOST RIDER #28, Feb 1978

The spooky style of ORB here is pure Saladino.

From GHOST RIDER #29, April 1978

Here’s one I’m not sure about. The title style is not one Gaspar generally used, but it does remind me of Jim Novak’s work. In the balloons, the letters are a little more rounded than what Saladino usually did, so I’m going to say this is by Novak, showing how similar his work could be to Gaspar’s at times.

From GHOST RIDER #30, June 1978

On the other hand, this title is pure Saladino, and his more angular balloon and caption lettering is also here.

From GHOST RIDER #31, Aug 1978

The same is true for this page 1 lettering, with Gaspar’s brush work on DEMON’S to clinch the deal.

From GHOST RIDER #32, Oct 1978

The simple addition of top and bottom bars to make the C in PRICE into a cents sign is typical of Saladino’s creativity.

From GHOST RIDER #38, Oct 1979

This carved rock title was probably pencilled in the art, but Gaspar makes it work well.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 3-4, 7, 11, 39, five in all. These issues also have his page 1 lettering: 2, 7, 15-16, 18-19, 24-26, 28, 30-32, 38, fourteen 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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