Todd Klein's Blog, page 62

GASPAR SALADINO in TOMAHAWK

All images © DC Comics. From TOMAHAWK #111, July-Aug 1967

Western fighter Tom Hawkins first appeared as a backup feature in STAR SPANGLED COMICS in 1947, with his boy sidekick Dan Hunter. In 1950 they gained their own title that ran 140 issues until 1972, making it DC’s longest running western. Gaspar Saladino lettered just one story in the book, and did this one fill-in cover for regular cover letterer Ira Schnapp before taking over the cover lettering himself in 1968 when Ira left the company. His blurb has the jagged, amorphous shape he sometimes used then, and the open letters are clear even with a dark color around them, though the bottom strokes of each E in VENGEANCE seem too thin.

From TOMAHAWK #115, March-April 1968

This is Gaspar’s first issue as the regular cover letterer, though the Ira Schnapp logo would remain for a while. The top blurb fits above it well. Gaspar’s flaming open letters were usually the best, but here they’re a bit hard to read with flames inside the letters.

From TOMAHAWK #118, Sept-Oct 1968

Gaspar knew when and how to let display lettering break over a balloon border. Here it also serves as a story title, evidenced by the small quote marks, which make no sense as part of a word balloon, but few readers would notice that. They’d be looking at the great Neal Adams art.

From TOMAHAWK #119, Nov-Dec 1968

Another Adams cover where Saladino uses most of the open sky for his dramatic blurb.

From TOMAHAWK #121, March-April 1969

On this Adams cover, Gaspar adds drama with his large display lettering in a burst.

From TOMAHAWK #126, Jan-Feb 1970

This blurb would have worked as a word balloon from the gunman, but Gaspar made it a burst instead. Possibly it was still meant to be from the gunman, but he forgot to add a tail.

From TOMAHAWK #131, Nov-Dec 1970

With this issue, Joe Kubert took over as editor and cover artist, switching the focus to the previously unseen son of the original title character. Stories by Robert Kanigher and artist Frank Thorne focused on the poor treatment of Native Americans. Gaspar did a new logo, and his lettering has the size and energy he was using with Kubert on war titles.

From TOMAHAWK #133, March-April 1971

It seems likely that Kubert, not a bad letterer himself, laid out what he wanted Gaspar to do. Here Kubert did the rocky shape around the lower blurb.

From TOMAHAWK #137, Nov-Dec 1971

This poster caption might all be by Kubert, or penciled by him and inked by Saladino. I’ll credit it to Gaspar even though I’m not sure.

From TOMAHAWK #139, March-April 1972

The penultimate issue has fine brushed sign lettering that’s unmistakably by Saladino.

From TOMAHAWK #107, Nov-Dec 1966

Here’s the one inside story lettered by Gaspar, with great display lettering and sound effects.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 111, 115-140. That’s 27 in all. The story above was 17 pages. 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 TEEN TITANS

All images © DC Comics. From TEEN TITANS #4, July-Aug 1966

Before the New Teen Titans, there were the original Teen Titans. After tryouts in both SHOWCASE and THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, their title ran 43 issues from 1966 to 1973 and was revived for ten more issues from 1976 to 1978. This article also covers the unrelated (except by title) TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT, really about the New Teen Titans, but it seems to fit well here alphabetically. Gaspar Saladino lettered covers for both series, but no stories. His first cover, above, was a fill-in for regular cover letterer Ira Schnapp, and there were two more of those before Saladino became the regular cover letterer in 1968 when Ira left the company. On this cover, the peeled-back corners revealing the lower right blurb are clever, but they might have been done by cover artist Nick Cardy. The logo is by Schnapp, but I think Gaspar did the top line as well as the balloon and corner blurb.

From TEEN TITANS #6, Nov-Dec 1966

Gaspar’s top blurb on this cover fights for attention with the “go-go checks” around it, and I think wins.

From TEEN TITANS #10, July-Aug 1967

Only the lower blurb here is by Gaspar, but he’s beginning to go his own way creatively with the oddly-shaped border and energetic lettering.

From TEEN TITANS #14, March-April 1968

From this point on, Gaspar did most of the covers, and he and Nick Cardy made a great team. I’m not sure how involved Cardy was in the lettering, but it seems likely he might have roughed in both the upper blurb and the tombstone inscription here. Saladino brought it home.

From TEEN TITANS #15, May-June 1968

Another case where Cardy may have roughed in the blurb, but Gaspar gives it a slightly psychedelic rock-poster look likely to appeal to teen readers.

From TEEN TITANS #17, Sept-Oct 1968

That approach was carried further for this issue with a similar one-shot logo by Saladino. DC’s attempt to use hip teen language was as lame as usual, but the lettering and art are fine.

From TEEN TITANS #22, July-Aug 1969

By this issue the book had a more modern logo by Saladino, and his dramatic lettering adds much to the Cardy cover art.

From TEEN TITANS #23, Sept-Oct 1969

DC was also trying to figure out why Marvel comics were so popular so they could something similar. Could this be Wonder Girl taking a Mary Jane Watson approach in her dialogue? Gaspar’s character logo is great.

From TEEN TITANS #30, Nov-Dec 1970

A Woodstock-like concert would appeal to kids, right, even if they called the music “noise”?

From TEEN TITANS #36, Nov-Dec 1971

More fine Saladino lettering on the tomb, and the balloons are also intriguing.

From TEEN TITANS #40, July-Aug 1972

Despite my sarcasm about the writing, Cardy and Saladino’s covers were all wonderful. I like the odd shapes of the story title letters on this one.

From TEEN TITANS #46, Feb 1977

Moving ahead a few years to the relaunch, Cardy is gone, and the covers are not as good, but Saladino’s lettering on this one works well.

From TEEN TITANS #50, Oct 1977

Gaspar’s final cover lettering was for this issue’s arrow captions and character labels, though the ones at the top are type.

From TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #1, Aug 1986

This series was a spinoff of THE NEW TEEN TITANS, giving individual characters from that series a chance to shine. Saladino did the bottom blurb in contrasting styles and the top left banner, though the creator credits are type.

From TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #3, Oct 1986

Look closely at these two Saladino blurbs. Each line is a different size and slightly different style, subtle touches that make them work better.

From TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #9, April 1987

This burst blurb uses a variety of styles that all work together well.

From TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT #12, July 1987

This blurb has an Indiana Jones feel to match the situation.

To sum up, these covers have Saladino lettering:

TEEN TITANS: 4, 6, 10, 14-33, 36-41, 43-46, 50

TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT: 1-4, 9, 11-13

That’s 42 in all. Other articles in this series and more you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in TEEN TITANS appeared first on Todd's Blog.

And Then I Read: THE DANGER BOX by Blue Balliett

Cover illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline

I’ve enjoyed several books for young readers by Balliett, including her award winner Chasing Vermeer, and the sequels The Wright 3 and The Calder Game. Each of those books had a famous artist and one of their works at the center of mysteries and suspense. This book has some similarities, but here the famous person is a scientist, Charles Darwin, and the mystery and suspense surrounds a stolen notebook that comes unexpectedly into the hands of a boy in a small Michigan town. The boy’s name is Zoomy, and he has many challenges in his life, including very poor eyesight that makes everything in the distance into blurry Deeps, as well as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that causes him to act strangely and sets him apart from other kids at school. Zoomy lives with his very understanding grandparents, and together they discover something that helps the boy: writing in notebooks, keeping lists and crossing things off when he’s done them. Zoomy has many such notebooks, and the mysterious old one is right up his alley. Despite the very difficult to read handwriting, it’s much like his own, full of lists and crossed-off items. A few key words like Galapagos put Zoomy and his friend Lorrol on the research trail toward tying the notebook to Darwin’s famous voyage that led to his groundbreaking discoveries about evolution. There’s a problem, though, the man who was carrying the stolen notebook before it was stolen from him by Zoomy’s father, has traced it to the small town of Three Oaks where Zoomy lives, and he will do anything to get that notebook back, no matter who it hurts or what it endangers.

I liked this book even more than some others by Balliett, partly because of the great characters, and partly because the story seemed to flow more naturally from the characters and situations, rather than being as plot-driven or even contrived as some of the others. I recommend it highly.

The Danger Box by Blue Balliett

The post And Then I Read: THE DANGER BOX by Blue Balliett appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in TARZAN (DC)

All images © DC Comics. From TARZAN #208, May 1972

In 1972, DC Comics was granted a license to publish stories about all the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. Previously that had been with Western Publishing, and when DC took over they continued the numbering on TARZAN and the book about Tarzan’s son, KORAK. The latter title was renamed TARZAN FAMILY for its last seven issues, and I’ve covered both versions HERE. Tarzan was handled by editor/artist Joe Kubert at DC, and many of the covers used type, but some also had Gaspar Saladino lettering. Gaspar did not letter any of the stories, just some contents pages. On the cover above, only the word VENGEANCE is by Gaspar, though he might have set the line above it on DC’s headline machine. Saladino might also have lettered the number 2.

From TARZAN #209, June 1972

The story title on this cover is clearly by Saladino in his dry brush style, and he probably also lettered the 3.

From TARZAN #211, Aug 1972

Another handsome dry brush title. These were, of course, done in black ink and reversed by the DC production department, who made a negative photostat.

From TARZAN #214, Nov 1972

While the lettering in this blurb is also reversed, it was done by the color separators following the supplied color guide.

From TARZAN 218, March 1973

At first I thought the blurb on this cover was type, then noticed that the notch on the right side of the R was below the center of the middle stroke, a common style point for Saladino, and not something you would see in most fonts.

From TARZAN #219, April 1973

One thing I love about Kubert’s Tarzan was that he did adaptations of the Burroughs novels rather than just making up new stories. The large attention-grabbing blurb by Gaspar on this page promotes that.

From TARZAN #223, Sept 1973

The rough but square-cornered open letters in this blurb are a great example of the way Saladino added energy and excitement.

From TARZAN #231, June-July 1974

For a while the book became a 100-pager by adding lots of reprints, some unrelated to Burroughs. This cover is again a mix of type and Saladino lettering.

From TARZAN #237, May 1975

Back to regular size comics for this issue, with a stylish blurb by Gaspar, though Kubert might have done the shape around it.

From TARZAN #256, Dec 1976

Saladino’s final cover lettering was for this issue, near the end of the series. By this time Kubert was no longer involved, and DC would soon lose the Burroughs license to Marvel.

From TARZAN #230, April-May 1974

On the 100-page issues, Gaspar lettered some of the contents pages, like this one, a fine example of making lots of text interesting through changes in size, emphasis, and style.

From TARZAN #234, Dec 1974-Jan 1975

I like this one even better, though putting that much emphasis on the letters page is a bit odd. Probably Gaspar was just trying to fill the space.

To sum up, these covers have Saladino lettering: 208-209, 211-216, 218-221, 223-224, 228, 231, 237, 243-245, 256. That’s 21 in all. Below are the details of his inside page lettering.

#230 April-May 1974: Contents 1pp

#232 Aug-Sept 1974: Contents 1pp

#234 Dec 1974-Jan 1975: Contents 1pp

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

The post GASPAR SALADINO in TARZAN (DC) appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED

All images © DC Comics. From TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #33, Jan 1959

DC had many kinds of anthologies in the 1950s. Really almost all their titles were anthologies with several stories in each issue, but some were always about the featured character or had continuing backup features. Books like this one often had no continuing characters at first, and for some years. The title in this case is a great choice because it could encompass almost any kind of story, though the usual fare involved the supernatural, science fiction, and mild horror. Gaspar Saladino was not a regular letterer, but he did fill in for Ira Schnapp on covers occasionally, as above, and he took over as cover letterer in 1968. He also lettered a few stories, mainly toward the end of the book’s long existence. The title began in 1956, edited by Jack Schiff and/or his associates George Kashdan and Murray Boltinoff. With issue #105, the title changed to just THE UNEXPECTED, a shorter but still inclusive name, and it continued to issue #222 in 1982. On the cover above, Gaspar’s balloon lettering is typical for him, wider and more angular than Schnapp’s. The story title is kind of weak, but again not much like what Ira did.

From THE UNEXPECTED #107, June-July 1968

With this issue, Saladino became the regular cover letterer, as Schnapp was retired. The unusual logo is by Ira, but Gaspar did the line above it and the rest of the lettering. With Schiff retired and Kashdan no longer on staff, Murray Boltinoff was the editor until later joined by Jack C. Harris. The series had been the home of Space Ranger for a while, and here was trying a series featuring Johnny Peril.

From THE UNEXPECTED #108, Aug-Sept 1968

Peril was an odd choice, and he never did very well in any of the books they tried him in, and did not last long here either. This cover is certainly intriguing, and Gaspar’s blurb helps sell it.

From THE UNEXPECTED #110, Dec 1968-Jan 1969

With this issue the book gained a wonderful new Saladino logo that suited the contents much better in my opinion. His burst balloon adds to the drama.

From THE UNEXPECTED #113, June-July 1969

The contents returned mostly to a variety of scary stories with no continuing characters, but pushing the scary aspect to mirror what Joe Orlando was also doing in his titles like HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS. Cover art by Neal Adams helped unify the line, as did lettering by Saladino.

From THE UNEXPECTED #116, Dec 1969-Jan 1970

Here the top line has been replaced with type and the logo put into a giant word balloon coming from a shadowy host, again similar to what Orlando was doing, and echoing the approach of EC Comics in the early 1950s. A new version of the logo makes it more vertical.

From THE UNEXPECTED #120, Aug-Sept 1970

I like Gaspar’s spooky sign lettering on this cover, and his burst balloon is also effective.

From THE UNEXPECTED #126, Aug 1971

Gaspar did not do calligraphic script often, but when the story or editorial direction called for it, as here, he did it well.

From THE UNEXPECTED #129, Nov 1971

Many DC titles went through a variety for size and format changes in the 1970s, as this one did. Here a longer page count was achieved mainly through reprints, with a fine story title caption at the bottom to detail them.

From THE UNEXPECTED #139, Sept 1972

The sign lettering on this cover is terrific, scary but easy to read.

From THE UNEXPECTED #157, May-June 1974

Another format change almost doubling the page count through even more reprints, and the cover is now divided into panels, an idea I don’t like, but at least Saladino’s lettering makes it all exciting.

From THE UNEXPECTED #169, Oct 1975

Back to a smaller page count again, but all new stories, many of them written by former editor George Kashdan and current editor Murray Boltinoff. A fine triple banner caption by Gaspar.

From THE UNEXPECTEC #189, Feb 1979

The “DC Implosion” happened in 1978, but this title escaped it, and then grew in size again because it included inventory from cancelled titles THE WITCHING HOUR, THE HOUSE OF SECRETS and others. Again, the all-encompassing nature of this book’s title allowed it to survive and thrive for a few more years. This and a few other issues had wraparound covers with Saladino lettering on both, but on this issue it’s all on the front cover.

From THE UNEXPECTED #202, Sept 1980

This is surely the best-known cover of the series, frequently seen on social media, a favorite of the story’s author Michael Uslan, and its editor, Jack C. Harris. Gaspar’s caption is a clever mix of horror and humor styles.

From THE UNEXPECTED #220, March 1982

In my opinion, Saladino’s best cover lettering of all is for this issue near the end, with a great holiday blurb at the top, and an impressive display of style and variety on the sign. I think POST NO BILLS is by cover artist Joe Kubert.

From TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #88, April-May 1965

For the earlier version of the series, Saladino lettered just this one story, probably by the request of his friend Gil Kane. I love the title.

From THE UNEXPECTED #158, July-Aug 1974

When the series went to 100-page size in 1974, Gaspar did the contents pages. Lots of work, and the perspective is handled well.

From THE UNEXPECTED #161, Jan-Feb 1975

This one was easier to do without the perspective, and of course reversed white on black by the DC production department. Again, look at the variety of styles.

From THE UNEXPECTED #180, July-Aug 1977

When Saladino did letter stories for this series, and he did more of them in the late seventies-early eighties, he was usually teamed with veteran artists he’d worked with many times before, as here with Jerry Grandenetti. I think Jerry at least penciled the story title, as it’s not typical of Gaspar’s work.

From THE UNEXPECTED #184, March-April 1978

Another Grandenetti story with an all-Saladino title, and for the first time full story credits including Gaspar’s name in his preferred style.

From THE UNEXPECTED #206, Jan 1981

Here’s a short story from inventory left by the cancellation of TIME WARP, a short-lived science fiction anthology.

From THE UNEXPECTED #221, April 1982

And in the penultimate issue, Gaspar has fun with this Steve Ditko story. So much easier to letter than the stories he started out with in the early 1950s.

To sum up, these covers have Saladino lettering: 33, 107-127, 129-146, 150, 152-163, 166-171, 173, 175-176, 183, 189-192, 195-196, 199, 202-205, 207-208, 210-212, 214-216, 218-222. That’s a total of 87. Below are the details of his story lettering.

#88 April-May 1965: Beware the Weirdos 9pp

#158 July-Aug 1974: Contents 1pp

#159 Sept-Oct 1974: Contents 1pp

#160 Nov-Dec 1974: Contents 1pp

#161 Jan-Feb 1975: Contents 1pp

#162 March-April 1975: Contents 1pp

#180 July-Aug 1977: The Loathsome Lodgers of Nightmare Inn 7pp

#184 March-April 1978: Wheel of Misfortune 7pp

#191 May-June 1979: The Fine Art of Murder 5pp

#192 July-Aug 1979: Freak of Nature 8pp

#195 Jan-Feb 1980: Whose Face is At My Window? 6pp

#206 Jan 1981: The Iron Beast 3pp

#208 March 1981: Where Have You Gone, Solid Citizen? 8pp

#221 April 1982: EM, The Energy Monster 9pp

That’s 67 pages in all. Other articles in this series and more you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in TALES OF THE (NEW) TEEN TITANS

All images © DC Comics. From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1, June 1982

This article covers two series about the New Teen Titans, first the four issue miniseries as seen above from 1982, then TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS, a spinoff book running from 1984 to 1988. Gaspar Saladino lettered no stories for either, but many of the covers. For the miniseries, Gaspar contributed the burst blurb on each cover, like the one here left of the logo. I did the logos for the characters and the Titans logo. The great George Pérez artwork takes up most of the cover space, so the blurb is small, but works fine.

From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #2, July 1982

The same pattern is followed on all four covers, but Gaspar finds ways to make each of his bursts different by using subtle varieties of style.

From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #3, Aug 1982

The blurbs should have been bigger, but there just isn’t room.

From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #4, Sept 1982

The final Saladino blurb is more rectangular and not angled, the only real difference.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #41, April 1984

THE NEW TEEN TITANS, begun in 1980 by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, was a revival of the kid sidekick team from the 1960s, but with some appealing new characters added to the familiar ones. It was DC’s biggest hit of the early 1980s. In 1984 it became part of an experiment where a new higher priced title was launched on better paper with better quality printing, while the original title continued in the cheaper format under a revised name. That was TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS here, which picked up the numbering with issue #41 and continued to run new stories for about a year before becoming a reprint book for stories from the other title. It was a “hardcover/softcover” marketing idea. It worked for a while. The book lasted 51 issues, until 1988. The first cover has a fine arrow blurb and dramatic word balloon by Gaspar.

From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #42, May 1984

This storyline, one of the most popular of the series, ran several issues and into an Annual, all with similar lettering by Saladino.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #45, Aug 1984

A dramatic cover made moreso by Saladino’s balloons filled with effective display lettering.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #48, Nov 1984

The series had this fun unofficial crossover, pitting the team against another team much like The DNAgents from Eclipse, which ran a similar storyline.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #51, March 1985

Gaspar had begun experimenting with almost rectangular balloons in the late 1960s, and would go back to it occasionally, as here.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #56, Aug 1985

Two effective blurbs using arrows on this cover, though the one on the left is subtle.

From TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #62, Feb 1986

Now we’re into the reprints from the other title. Gaspar’s bottom blurb adds appealing style choices to his block lettering: some lower case letters, joined letters, and extended strokes all add interest.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #65, May 1986

On this cover, Gaspar also did the logo so it could follow the perspective of the balloon, not an easy task, but he makes it work well.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #71, Nov 1986

Saladino’s blurb here has the same words as the one he did for issue #12 of the other title, and while the style is similar, it’s clearly different. The other blurb could have been reused, but DC chose to have him do a new version.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #76, April 1987

Saladino’s scroll caption is elegant and effective, with serif open letters.

From TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #86, Feb 1988

Usually Gaspar’s burst balloons used straight-edged points, but this one uses rounded scoops for variety.

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

TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS (1982): 1-4

TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS (1984): 41-45, 48-49, 51-58, 60-62, 64-80, 85-87, Annual 3-4

That’s 44 in all. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in TALES OF THE (NEW) TEEN TITANS appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER S TITLES

All images © DC Comics. From SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE #5, June-July 1972

If you’ve been following this series of articles about Gaspar Saladino lettering in DC Comics, you may have realized that there were far more titles beginning with S than any other letter, and this post gathers all the ones with just a few instances of Gaspar’s work. We begin with cover lettering, and he did just three for the title above, which was retitled from SINISTER HOUSE OF SECRET LOVE with this issue, and ran 14 issues under this name. Then a new similar series began, SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE, which I’ve already covered. Gaspar did the logo and the bottom blurb using his scary styles effectively.

From SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE #17, April-May 1974

Type was often used on the series as well, but the word balloons and large bottom blurb here are by Saladino.

From SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE #18, June-July 1974

The last issue, and I think the best cover, with Saladino’s sign and bottom banner caption helping make it scary. I agree with the change from SINISTER to HAUNTED for the following series, it’s easier to understand.

From SECRETS OF THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1, Jan 1981

This was a three-issue miniseries, and for the logo I was asked to make my already too long title even longer. My solution was quite odd, what was I thinking? All three covers have lots of fine Saladino lettering, fortunately. On this one I particularly like his treatment of CLASSIC.

From SECRETS OF THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #2, Feb 1981

Block letters were called for on the book cover, but Gaspar always added a few unique touches to make them more interesting. Here it’s the joined TH and the very subtle extension of the right leg of the G.

From SECRETS OF THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3, March 1981

Gaspar’s top line here makes a great fuss over the predictable final issue of a three-issue series. The bottom blurb has an odd burst shape around it that almost looks like a large piece of ceiling plaster that Superboy is standing on, but it conveys the message.

From SPANNER’S GALAXY #1, Dec 1984

This six-issue series had Saladino cover lettering on all, here simply a single word at bottom right with thick rough edges to read well. The logo is another of mine I like better.

From SPANNER’S GALAXY #2, Jan 1985

Four words in this blurb, and Gaspar has made two of them stand out with special treatments. I suspect there should have been a comma after RIVERS.

From SPANNER’S GALAXY #5, April 1985

In this blurb, two contrasting styles work well together to add to the drama.

From SPIRAL ZONE #2, March 1988

This was a four-issue toy line tie-in, DC did a lot of them in the 1980s. Saladino lettered two of the covers. This one has great display lettering, though ZONE RIDERS is hard to read because of the dark color fill, not his choice.

From SPIRAL ZONE #3, April 1988

The second balloon on this cover is so unexpected and creative! If I were the artist, writer, or editor, I would have loved it. I love it anyway!

From STRANGE SPORTS STORIES #1, Sept-Oct 1973

Editor Julius Schwartz had tried to get this as a series in the 1960s with several SHOWCASE appearances, but was unsuccessful. Finally in 1973 it was given a chance, but only lasted six issues. My guess is that superhero readers weren’t interested and sports fans weren’t comics readers, or were also not interested. Gaspar’s impressive logo and large burst helped promote it, and he lettered all the covers.

From STRANGE SPORTS STORIES #3, Jan-Feb 1974

Fine burst blurbs on this cover, and the images are indeed strange.

From STRANGE SPORTS STORIES #6, July-Aug 1974

Perhaps the idea is too specific, and in these examples kind of silly. Saladino’s blurbs try to make it work.

From SWORD OF SORCERY #1, Feb-March 1972

This is a short-lived series I loved, from when DC was trying licensed characters from science fiction and fantasy like these from writer Fritz Leiber. Conan was selling well at Marvel, and DC thought this similar book might work, but it only lasted five issues. Again, Gaspar’s logo and cover lettering made it look intriguing.

From SWORD OF SORCERY #3, July-Aug 1973

Great covers, great stories, but they didn’t find an audience, at least not quickly enough, and DC was not patient at this time.

From SWORD OF SORCERY #5, Nov-Dec 1973

Perhaps the best of all, and the best Saladino caption too.

From SCOOBY DOO #1, Aug 1997

The first issue of this cartoon tie-in is an unlikely place to find Saladino lettering, but there it is, and I find the title wonderful. This was his only work for the series.

From SLEEPY HOLLOW (no number), Jan 2000

This was a horror film adaptation, a story loosely based on Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gaspar’s sound effects are amazing.

From SPEED FORCE #1, Nov 1997

Saladino lettered just the first issue of the Flash spinoff series, and once again hits it out of the park on the title.

From SWORD OF THE ATOM #2, Oct 1983

This was a miniseries that brought new attention to the Silver Age character The Atom by giving it a sword and sorcery feel. Gaspar lettered just the second issue. I’ll stop gushing over his titles with this fine one, and I’m finished anyway.

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

SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE: 5, 17-18

SECRETS OF THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: 1-3

SPANNER’S GALAXY: 1-6

SPIRAL ZONE: 2-3

STRANGE SPORTS STORIES: 1-6

SWORD OF SORCERY: 1, 3-5

That’s 24 in all. Below are the details of the story lettering covered here.

SCOOBY DOO 1 Aug 1997: 16pp (first story)

SLEEPY HOLLOW Jan 2000: 64pp

SPEED FORCE 1 Nov 1997: 14pp, 8pp

SWORD OF THE ATOM 2 Oct 1983: 23pp

That’s a total of 125 pages. 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 SWING WITH SCOOTER

All images © DC Comics. From SWING WITH SCOOTER #2, Aug-Sept 1966

This teen humor series attempted to draw in fans of British pop groups like The Beatles. The title character, Scooter, leaves one such group and lands in a small town in middle America on his scooter, where he settles and makes new friends. It did pretty well, lasting 36 issues. Gaspar Saladino lettered a few of the early covers like the one above, filling in for regular cover letterer Ira Schnapp, and he took over when Ira left DC in 1968, though some covers were lettered by others. He did no story lettering for the series. Gaspar’s wide, angular balloon lettering is the clue here, quite different from Ira’s balloon lettering.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #7, June-July 1967

As you can see on this cover, pop music was soon left behind for other kinds of crazy stories, as in the rest of DC’s teen humor line. I like Gaspar’s ZIP!

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #11, Feb-March 1968

Saladino’s large and expressive cry for help really sells this gag.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #13, June-July 1968

The art style was about to change after this issue, to give the book a similar look to Archie Comics teen humor. This cover still has that British band fashion look for Scooter.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #16, Dec 1968-Jan 1969

Now we’re into the Archie style, and any originality has been lost, but the book continued for a while, so some readers must have liked it. Saladino lettered most of the covers from this one on.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #20, Aug-Sept 1969

This issue was annual-sized with a fine new Saladino logo.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #22, Oct 1969

Another new Saladino logo tops this issue. Otherwise, the lettering on these was pretty easy, usually just one word balloon.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #27, May 1970

Gaspar’s big WOW makes this gag work. I’m not sure if he did the letters on the eye chart.

From SWING WITH SCOOTER #32, Feb-March 1971

Toward the end of the run the book was longer, padded out with reprints and teen heart throb articles. I like the Saladino banner under the logo for a second feature.

To sum up, Saladino lettered these covers: 2, 7, 11, 13, 16-29, 31-35. That’s 23 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: ALL THE SEAS OF THE WORLD by Guy Gavriel Kay

The latest novel by Kay shares the setting of several others by him, including Children of Earth and Sky, reviewed here recently, and A Brightness Long Ago, reviewed here in 2020. The setting is a world much like ours, but not ours, evidenced by its two moons and different but similar geography. A few other Kay books are set there as well, some at a much earlier time. The setting is similar to medieval Europe and the Middle East in our world. This book takes place before Children, but after A Brightness (sort of). It’s complicated. Suffice to say, these are all worth reading, long books of the kind that you hate to see end. The cast is large (there’s a full list at the beginning with explanations), the viewpoint characters are varied and diverse, the story takes place over a short period of time, but one full of era-changing events. There’s a small amount of fantasy in this one that barely affects the story.

It begins with a carefully planned assassination of the khalif or ruler of a city on the southern coast of the inland sea similar to our Mediterranean. A ship full of corsairs or pirates run by Rafel and his partner Nadia have been contracted to do this, hiring a third person, Ghazzali, to infiltrate the palace in Abeneven and poison the khalif. The plot succeeds too well, as Ghazzali not only poisons the ruler, but escapes with his two most valuable possessions. Nadia, learning this, realizes she must now kill the assassin to keep him quiet, and this sets in motion a chain of events that will bring Nadia and Rafel to many adventures and before several powerful leaders in Batiara, the story’s equivalent of Italy, changing their lives and fortunes, and eventually causing a war.

I love the writing of these books, even if the chronology is sometimes a bit confusing. Of the three mentioned here, I think Children of Earth and Sky is the most satisfying read, but I like this and Brightness nearly as much. Recommended.

All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

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GASPAR SALADINO in SWAMP THING

All images © DC Comics. From SWAMP THING #1, Oct-Nov 1972

In the 1970s, Gaspar Saladino’s reputation as one of the best letterers in comics was enhanced by his work on the first eight issues of SWAMP THING, work considered ground-breaking, and which garnered him his second SHAZAM award from the Academy of Comic Book Arts in 1973. Those issues had no cover lettering, so for a change I’m going to start with inside pages, and then discuss some later cover lettering, though most of the covers continued to have none. Gaspar was encouraged by writer Len Wein to add creative style choices to his lettering for this series. On the first page, above, the captions have rough edges and drippy lower borders, perfect for the subject. The logo is not as good as the one on the cover, so this might have been an earlier effort, perhaps pencilled by artist Bernie Wrightson.

From SWAMP THING #1, Oct-Nov 1972

The story title on the next page is all Saladino, and uses the dry brush technique he was so good at. For the first time we see the special style he gave to Swamp Thing’s thought balloons, wavy rather than bubbled shapes with a double border.

From SWAMP THING #1, Oct-Nov 1972

On this page we see a different style for the creature’s word balloons, heavy rogh borders with a double shape on the second one. Color in all the balloons adds to the strangeness, and the orange of the word balloons makes them seem stronger.

From SWAMP THING #1, Oct-Nov 1972

The impact of the lettering reaches a climax here with this amazing balloon, which could not be more dramatic and tortured. It’s just as important as the rest of the art, and if anyone wasn’t paying attention to the lettering before now, they couldn’t help noticing it here. I think Wein and Wrightson were both thrilled with what Gaspar did. When I was able to reunite Len and Gaspar at the New York Comic Con in 2014, Gaspar joked about what a pain the special styles were, but I think he was just as pleased to be part of this landmark book as they were.

From SWAMP THING #2, Dec 1972-Jan 1973

The title page of the second issue. Credits for coloring and lettering were not yet approved by DC management, even though Marvel had been doing it for years. That would finally come in 1977, colorists first, letterers a few months later. The treatment of FOREVER is wonderful.

From SWAMP THING #3, Feb-March 1973

The title on this story is even more creative, I like the lower case A in PATCHWORK.

From SWAMP THING #4, April-May 1973

Perhaps by issue #4, Wrightson had seen the advantage of leaving lots of room for Gaspar’s title lettering, and Saladino didn’t disappoint here, filling it well.

From SWAMP THING #6, Sept-Oct 1973

On this page, it’s hard to know who did what on the story title. I think the top line is by Gaspar and the bottom one by Wrightson. There’s lots of other extra lettering work here for Saladino, and as usual he handles it all with style and variety. Issues 9 and 10 had art by Wrightson, but were lettered by Ben Oda, I don’t know why, but perhaps Gaspar was too busy elsewhere. With issue 11, Philippines artist Nestor Redondo took over as artist, working there, and his issues were lettered mostly by Philippines letterers, Gaspar did no more inside lettering on the rest of the run.

From SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING ANNUAL #1, Nov 1982

Saladino’s last Swamp Thing story lettering was for this Annual, which was the official comic book adaptation of the 1982 Wes Craven film about the character. Gaspar and colorist Tatjana Wood were the only early creators involved.

From SWAMP THING #24, Aug-Sept 1976

Right at the end of the original series, Gaspar lettered this one cover in a style that’s more super-hero than horror.

From SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #1, May 1982

DC brought back the character for a new series in 1982, probably because of the upcoming film. Len Wein was the editor for a while, and famously brought in Alan Moore as writer with issue #20 for another ground-breaking run mostly under editor Karen Berger. Again, most of the covers had no lettering, but Gaspar did the addition to his original logo and the other blurbs on this first cover.

From SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #24, May 1984

Saladino’s super-heroic blurb on this cover is quite appropriate.

From SWAMP THING #53, Oct 1986

Later the title was shortened to just the character’s name again. The blurb above the logo here is by Gaspar, though it’s possible it was picked up from some other cover lettering job. I’m not sure, so I will count it.

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

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING: 1, 24, Annual 1

SWAMP THING: 53

That’s four in all. Below are the details of his story lettering on the original run.

#1 Oct-Nov 1972: 24pp

#2 Dec 1972-Jan 1973: 24pp

#3 Feb-March 1973: 23pp

#4 April-May 1973: 23pp

#5 July-Aug 1973: 23pp

#6 Sept-Oct 1973: 20pp

#7 Nov-Dec 1973: 21pp

#8 Jan-Feb 1974: 20pp

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING ANNUAL #1 Nov 1982: 41pp

That’s 219 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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