Todd Klein's Blog, page 77

GASPAR SALADINO in CAPT. STORM

All images © DC Comics. From CAPT. STORM #1, July-Aug 1964

In the early 1950s, editor and writer Robert Kanigher had taken on the war comics genre at DC and made it a great success. In 1964-65, he tried this new war title and had less success with it, it lasted only 18 issues. Kanigher’s favorite letterer was Gaspar Saladino, and Gaspar lettered stories in ten of the issues as well as two covers, filling in for regular DC cover letterer Ira Schnapp. The first of those is above. Unlike others who occasionally filled in for Ira, Saladino did not usually try to imitate him slavishly, but used his own tried and true styles from the inside pages he’d been doing at DC since late 1949. His balloon and caption lettering is wider and more angular than Schnapp’s, and his open letter title is also more angular than most of Ira’s.

From CAPT. STORM #16, Nov-Dec 1966

Gaspar’s second cover is full of action and drama, and so is his large caption. I don’t know why this title didn’t last longer, but I don’t think it was due to the art or lettering.

From CAPT. STORM #1, May-June 1964

The first issue had a book-length story with great Saladino lettering. War stories were his specialty at DC, he seemed to like doing them, and editor Kanigher used him whenever possible, though by this time Gaspar was also busy lettering many of editor Julius Schwartz’ superhero titles. Note Gaspar’s distinctive R in KILLER with a right leg that seems to be attached to a P, in other words, with the notch below the center of the horizontal bar.

[image error]From CAPT. STORM #2, July-Aug 1964

Saladino’s sound effects were often large and exciting, as on this page.

From CAPT. STORM #4, Nov-Dec 1964

More impressive action and exciting sound effects here. Saladino’s balloon and caption lettering was wider and a bit larger than most other DC letterers of the time, but the artist has left room for it so it doesn’t feel crowded. The wavy borders on some captions are just a way for Saladino to add interest.

From CAPT. STORM #6, March-April 1965

Some artists preferred to add their own sound effects when doing the art, and I think that was the case on this page with artist Irv Novick, as the letter shapes are not typical of Saladino, though he might have inked them. Gaspar preferred block letters on many of his war story titles, as here, but he still adds variety with some solid black and smaller sizes. Again note his characteristic R.

From CAPT. STORM #11, Jan-Feb 1966

On the other hand, if there was a way to visually enhance the title with a lettering effect, Gaspar would go for it, as with HOT in this one. I don’t think anyone has done better flaming letters than him, you can see them being consumed and turning to ash.

To sum up, Saladino lettered two covers on CAPT. STORM: 2 and 16, and the following stories. Where he did only one of two, the story number is in parentheses. In some cases the second story might be a reprint he lettered previously, but that won’t count here.

#1 May-June 1964 25pp

#2 July-Aug 1964: 15pp (1), Private Diary 1pp

#3 Sept-Oct 1964: 9pp (2)

#4 Nov-Dec 1964: 15pp, 9pp

#5 Jan-Feb 1965: 25pp

#6 March-April 1965: 15pp (1)

#7 May-June 1965: 15pp (1)

#8 July-Aug 1965: 14pp (1)

#11 Jan-Feb 1966: 15pp (1)

#12 March-April 1966: 15pp (1)

That’s a total of 173 pages on this title. 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 CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW!

[image error]All images © DC Comics. From CAPTAIN CARROT #1, March 1982

By the 1980s, DC’s funny animal comics were mostly a distant memory, but Roy Thomas and animator Scott Shaw decided to try a superhero version with this new title, and it did okay, running to twenty issues. Gaspar Saladino lettered all the covers, many with lots of copy, and he seemed to be having a great time doing it. Gaspar had designed a logo for the book, but the creators weren’t happy with it and I was asked to do a revised version, as covered in THIS article. It’s a very long title, and all those telescoping lines were not a great idea, but it read fine. As was typical for Saladino, rather than using the logo for ZOO CREW in the balloon, he just did a new version.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #2, April 1982

Much of the humor in the book came from puns, which some people love and some hate. ARMORDILLO is a good example, and most of the character names used them. One thing Gaspar and I did not agree on is whether the I in a word like PIG-IRON should have serifs. Gaspar thought it should, I don’t. Of course he made it look completely correct and natural.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #3, May 1982

I particularly love Gaspar’s treatment of FROGZILLA here, picking up the spots from the character and making the letters uneven in an appealing way. So creative and clever!

From CAPTAIN CARROT #4, June 1982

The top lines on this cover are headline type created in the DC production department, the rest is by Saladino. His dry-brush texture on the word MUDD is amazing.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #5, July 1982

Not content to parody superheroes, this issue also takes on a popular adventure movie franchise with an appealing logo parody by Saladino.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #7, Sept 1982

Thomas was not afraid to make fun of himself, as in this parody of his own Conan comics. Both captions by Gaspar are perfectly appropriate and well done.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #14, April 1983

This issue covers a lot of bases as a parody of DC’s JLA crossover issues, even including funny animal versions of the creators at the bottom. Gaspar’s JLA logo parody is excellent.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #16, June 1983

I could show all the covers in this series, but I will restrain myself. Great lettering by Gaspar on each.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #18, Aug 1983

I was commissioned to design all those character logos for the Zoo Crew cast, the balloons and top caption are by Gaspar, and way better than my efforts.

From CAPTAIN CARROT #20, Nov 1983

The final issue shows the creators trying to gain readers by including other DC animal-related characters, but it was too little too late, I guess. Perhaps DC comics were just too serious at the time to interest readers in this kind of humor.

To sum up, Saladino lettered all twenty covers of this book. Other articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog with more you might like.

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FOUR MORE NEIL GAIMAN PAPERBACK COVERS

All images © Neil Gaiman and HarperCollins

In 2016 I was hired by publisher HarperCollins, by request of their author Neil Gaiman, to design covers for four mass market paperbacks for his books that would have new paintings by legendary cover artist Robert McGinnis. McGinnis had been a top cover artist and movie poster artist since the 1950s, and was now in his 90s. I was surprised to learn he was still with us, and willing to take on this project, but he was, and I was delighted to be involved. Neil and I had many email discussions on what he wanted, and he summed it up like this:

“What I’d love is if you can design the whole cover in each case, so all the lettering is of a piece, including the tag lines. The brief is, it’s 1966 and these are cult underground bestsellers, and you are selling them to the curious, I guess.”

We didn’t always stick to that concept completely, but it was a good starting point, and I think the four covers, above, came out well. I should add that I had no contact with McGinnis, just marveled at what he turned in.

In 2018 I heard from HarperCollins that McGinnis was starting on paintings for a second round of four books, and they wanted me to again do cover designs. The process went on from then to 2020, and gradually four more paintings and cover designs emerged that Neil and the publisher were happy with. For the first four, I had written a blog article about each one (links at the end of this post), but I neglected to do that for the second round. For one thing, I didn’t know when they were published, always tricky in these times, and I wasn’t hearing much from the publisher. The other day, Neil posted an image of the final printed book of the second four, making clear they were done and out, so here are details about all four.

First up in early 2019 was this one, and my initial idea was a hand-drawn title with lots of curves. I soon learned from Neil that McGinnis would be revising the art, but this version was fine to work out ideas for the title and text. It’s a long title, and I played with different ways of dividing it and how to emphasize the important words.

[image error]

Another version using only fonts.

This hand-drawn title followed the style of some of the 1950s-1960s paperback covers we were using for style ideas, and Neil thought it was a good direction.

Here’s the revised McGinnis art with, I think, a better look for the main figure, the other one was too fashion model-ish. The boy loses some movement, but the cat he’s holding is a nice addition. As I compare the two paintings now, I see that it’s completely new. I like the closeness of the ocean on this one. Neil usually supplied several possible quotes or statements to use as blurbs, while HarperCollins always wanted credits and accolades, so I tried to use some of each.

The hand-drawn title on this art is better than the all-type version, but we were still not sure about the way the title read, and it would be nice to have it larger.

A different hand-drawn title used bolder letters and read better, but might have gone too big.

Neil suggested framing the art on a black background to give the title and type more room, and I did a third hand-drawn title that worked well with that. The quote was dropped.

This is the best image I can find of the printed book, I’m not sure how accurate the brightness and colors are, but as you can see, it’s the same as the last design except that New York Times is italicized, and the art is a bit larger, cropping McGinnis’s signature, something I wish the publisher wouldn’t do, but otherwise it looks fine.

The second book, done in fall 2019, began with this title using fonts I have that Neil and I both thought worked well.

I also needed to add the subtitle and a quote, and here’s that version. Having AND twice in the title could have been awkward, but with the decorative version I found, it works well I think.

I also needed to try other type treatments like this one for comparison.

Another type treatment.

Everyone one liked the first title best, and this is the final version. The art has been reduced a bit, and I moved McGinnis’s signature up to clear the trim line.

This image of the printed book matches exactly, so I may have sent them my adjusted art file and they used it. Somehow we were able to get this approved with only the quote and no accolades.

The third book was worked on in spring of 2020. For the title, Neil and I agreed a fashion magazine would be a good model, and I liked this one the best:

I created the title above by hand based on this magazine logo. The rest is script fonts.

Everyone liked the main logo, but the quote needed adjustment and other versions were done.

Another style and placement for the quote, not so good. More versions followed.

[image error]

This is the image I found of the printed cover. The subtitle is red to read better, and the quote is now clear of the cat. The brightness of the image has been improved, I would have also increased the contrast a bit, but it looks fine. No accolades were used again.

The fourth book was worked on in the fall of 2020. I found a movie logo that I thought would work well as inspiration for the title:

I liked the faux wood block style where small wedges of color surround the letters, and I used the same idea in my title. I didn’t have any quotes from Neil when I designed the first version, so I made something up.

This version had Neil’s input, he nixed the “presents” after his name, and gave me several quotes to choose from.

Everyone liked the title and design, but HarperCollins wanted to add the accolade at the top, and several color options were tried. This is the final version I sent in.

[image error]

The printed cover image I found matches it exactly, and I think the painting is the most interesting one of the four.

This was again a fun project, and working with Neil is always a pleasure. Below are links to the articles about the previous covers.

AMERICAN GODS

STARDUST

ANANSI BOYS

NEVERWHERE

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And Then I Read: MOVING PICTURES by Terry Pratchett

The tenth Discworld novel by Pratchett is a book-length parody/satire of the Hollywood movie industry. In a remote coastal area of Discworld, an ancient gateway to the Dungeon Dimension is coming back to life after centuries of silence, drawing to it people and animals to create a new kind of entertainment, moving pictures, or “clicks.” Alchemists work their magic to invent the demon-run machinery, fledgling movie producers emerge, like the former sausage-vendor Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, actors perfect for film (with enhanced abilities from the Holy Wood site) like Victor and Ginger, and even a heroic dog star Laddie, become famous almost overnight when the new clicks begin showings in Ankh-Morpork. Things are not right, though, as Victor and another very smart dog Gaspode begin to understand. The entire clicks industry is a ploy to invade Discworld, but no one seems willing to listen to their warnings.

I didn’t like this one very much. Some of the characters and situations are entertaining, but the satire seemed heavy-handed, the author spent too much time making parallel versions of real Hollywood stars and situations, and the need to recreate the actual machinery of filmmaking with magic versions was awkward and difficult to accept, such as having demons inside the “clicks” cameras feverishly painting what they saw on each frame of film. The plot has some nice moments, but it’s too much in the forefront, and the characters are mostly pawns of it. Mildly recommended.

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GASPAR SALADINO in CAPTAIN ACTION and CAPTAIN ATOM

All images © DC Comics. From CAPTAIN ACTION #1, Oct-Nov 1968

These two titles are grouped to create an article of the right length, and have no other connection. This five issue series from 1968-69 is based on an Ideal Toys action figure of the same name. The action figure’s gimmick was costumes from superhero characters like Superman and Spider-Man, but that idea was not used in the comic, which was only slightly like the toy. The art by Wally Wood and Gil Kane was excellent, though, and the stories by a young Jim Shooter were pretty good too. Gaspar Saladino lettered all the covers, but none of the stories inside. Here the speech balloon and scroll caption have some appealing display lettering.

From CAPTAIN ACTION #2, Dec 1968-Jan 1969

There’s only a small amount of cover lettering on the second issue, and it’s less typical for Saladino, but probably by him. Since the explosion in the art gave him a perfect place for it, he didn’t need to do a border around it.

From CAPTAIN ACTION #3, Feb-March 1969

Saladino had begun doing nearly all the DC covers in late 1967, and by the time of this one was getting more comfortable in his role as the style-setter for the company. These balloons are creative and distinctive, more energetic than what his predecessor Ira Schnapp had been doing. The square balloon was an experiment he was trying occasionally, it didn’t last long, but I think it works fine. The balloon tail points at his eye rather than his mouth, but that’s probably a placement error by the DC production person who put the cover together, it should have been lower.

From CAPTAIN ACTION #4, April-May 1969

While these balloons are pretty standard for a cover, Saladino manages to inject some emotion into them through the slight bounce and uneven sizes of the letters.

From CAPTAIN ACTION #5, June-July 1969

This cover is effective, but the real destruction of the comic character came from cancellation after this issue. The comics lettering style of ending one balloon with an ellipsis (three dots) and continuing the same speech in another with an opening ellipsis is on display here. As far as I know this style was born in comics and only used there.

From CAPTAIN ATOM #1, March 1987

Captain Atom was created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko for Charlton Comics in the 1960s, and had a popular run there. When DC Comics bought some of the Charlton characters in the 1980s, this was one of them, but the version DC published bore little or no resemblance to or continuity with the Charlton version. Over time, the character proved to be popular, and his book had a long run of 57 issues. Many had no cover lettering, and only a few had lettering by Gaspar. The first issue was certainly enhanced by his captions, though his top line is hard to read because of the color choice.

From CAPTAIN ATOM #3, May 1987

Saladino’s blurb on this cover is again sabotaged by too-dark color in the open letters, making them hard to read, though perhaps on the actual comic it reads better.

From CAPTAIN ATOM #4, June 1987

Here’s a classic lettering problem, how to make the I in MIA read effectively in a vertical stack. I think Gaspar’s solution works pretty well, though it does take a moment to realize the words are filling out that acronym.

From CAPTAIN ATOM #10, Dec 1987

Gaspar’s blurb on this cover works okay, but the outline around NOT is too close, so that ink gain is filling in some of the white space around the letters. Or, it may simply be this is not a good scan of the cover, hard to say. I have to use what I can find.

From CAPTAIN ATOM #37, Jan 1990

By 1990, few DC covers had lettering by Saladino, but I think this is one, and it’s a clever use of the radiation symbol in each O. Note the typical Gaspar R with the right leg seeming to be attached to a P.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on all five CAPTAIN ACTION COVERS, and these CAPTAIN ATOM covers: 1, 3-4, 10 and 37, ten in all for these two books. Not much, but every one counts. Other articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog with more you might like.

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GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER B TITLES

[image error]All images © DC Comics. From BEOWULF #3, Aug-Sept 1975

This article catalogs Gaspar Saladino cover lettering from six titles that did not have enough of his work to warrant a separate article in my opinion. There were no stories lettered by Gaspar in these titles. For instance, the cover above is the only Saladino lettering in the short-live series BEOWULF. Gaspar designed the logo and lettered this caption, and probably also the blurb at the top, which was also used on later issues. Even as the main cover letterer for DC at the time, Gaspar wasn’t assigned to do every issue. Some used only type, which is true for this series, some had no cover lettering, and some were lettered by production staffers like Joe Letterese, John Workman from 1975-77, and myself starting in late 1977.

From BEST OF THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1, Oct 1988

Another short series that only had Saladino lettering on the first issue, in this case on the back of the wraparound cover. Without checking, I’d guess Gaspar lettered most of the original stories reprinted here from BRAVE AND BOLD’s early issues.

From BINKY #72, April-May 1970

BINKY is a bit complicated. It began as a long-running teen humor series called LEAVE IT TO BINKY in 1948. Most of the covers were lettered by Ira Schnapp, but after he was replaced by Saladino as the main cover letterer some time in 1967, Gaspar did some of them. I will index those when I get to the letter L in this article series. With issue #72, the title was changed to simply BINKY, but keeping the same numbering. Gaspar lettered that issue, above.

From BINKY #74, Aug-Sept 1970 and BINKY #76, Dec 1970-Jan 1971

Gaspar also lettered these two covers, and that was the sum of his involvement with this run, which ended with issue #82. (There are a few others he might have worked on, but there isn’t enough lettering for me to make a call on that.)

From BINKY’S BUDDIES #1, Jan-Feb 1969

Then there was this spinoff series of twelve issues in 1969-1970, for which Saladino lettered all the covers., as well as designing this and a later logo. Generally there wasn’t much lettering on teen humor titles, but DC did want their best letterer doing them all the same, and it must have been a welcome change for Gaspar from other genres that were often much wordier like war, superhero and mystery.

From BINKY’S BUDDIES #3, May-June 1969

Some of these covers are funny, and Saladino’s lettering is often crucial to the joke, as here.

From BINKY’S BUDDIES #5, Sept-Oct 1969

I like the way the big WOW! in this balloon has the rest of the dialogue running beside it, though I would have put HEAP on it’s own last like to make the oval balloon shape fit better. As usual, Gaspar’s solution works fine.

From BLITZKRIEG #1, Jan-Feb 1976

Another short-lived series of just five issues, one might expect to find Saladino story lettering in it, but I didn’t. He lettered this first cover, as well as doing the logo design. I’m not sure he lettered WE DARE TO BE DIFFERENT at the top, that looks more like the work of Joe Letterese, and may have been used on other titles. Note that the 1st Issue blurb is type, as is the subtitle under the logo.

From BLITZKRIEG #2, March-April 1976

Gaspar lettered both the top blurb and the balloons on this second issue cover. He also lettered the cover of issue #4, but not the others.

From BROTHER POWER THE GEEK #1, Sept-Oct 1968

Finally, we have Saladino’s cover lettering for one of DC’s strangest and shortest series, a mere two issues. This was the work of Joe Simon, his odd ideas about hippies that roped in the word GEEK at a time when its meaning was a circus sideshow performer who bit the head off chickens. Beware of the dangers of Hippie-land, kids!

From BROTHER POWER THE GEEK #2, Nov-Dec 1968

Even DC management must have had a hard time explaining how this book reached readers, but Saladino did his best on the covers, as always. I like the logo and the caption, but the title across the heads of children at the bottom was not a great idea.

To sum up, here are the covers with Saladino lettering:

BEOWULF #3

BEST OF THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1

BINKY #72, 74 & 76

BINKY’S BUDDIES #1-12

BLITZKRIEG #1-2, 4

BROTHER POWER THE GEEK #1-2

That’s 22 covers in all. Other articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog along with others you might like.

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GASPAR SALADINO in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

All images © DC Comics. From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #71, April-May 1967

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD went through three phases in its long existence, and Gaspar Saladino was involved in each of them. At its beginning in 1955, it was a historical adventure series with features The Golden Gladiator, The Viking Prince, The Silent Knight and Robin Hood. This lasted to issue #24 in 1959, and Saladino lettered many of the stories. With issue #25, the book became a tryout series for new projects, most memorably The Justice League of America beginning with issue #28. At that time, the book was in rotation among several editors, and Gaspar lettered the stories by editors Robert Kanigher and Julius Schwartz. With issue #50 in 1963, the book became a team-up series for any two DC characters, but generally the superheroes. By issue #75 in late 1967, it had morphed into Batman’s team-up book, with Batman always one of the team-up members. That version lasted until the series ended with issue #200 in 1983. For this era, Saladino lettered mainly the covers. Above is what I believe is Saladino’s first cover lettering for the book, though it’s possible those scratchy letters are the work of Ira Schnapp imitating Gaspar, as he did occasionally toward the end of his career. I can’t be sure, but I’m calling it for Gaspar, who sometimes filled in for Schnapp on cover lettering at this time.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #72, June-July 1967

The following issue’s cover is definitely lettered by Saladino, deftly fitting his work into the small amount of space available, and adding texture to the word PHANTOM for added interest. I also like the different size letters in the last two lines tucked under each other.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #78, June-July 1968

Beginning with this issue, most of the covers were lettered by Saladino. He had taken over the task of setting the design style for the company from Ira Schnapp, who was retired in 1968, and he approached his new tasks with energy and enthusiasm. At first, though, his efforts were sometimes tentative. On this cover, GUEST-STARRING BATGIRL at the top is weak, but I do like the bottom caption with texture in the word COPPERHEAD to suggest snake skin.

[image error]From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #79, Aug-Sept 1968

I like his cover work better on this issue, the burst balloon is strong and effective, though the tail is not as obvious as it could be, and should have been curved. In the caption, the K’s are unusual and add interest.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #82, Feb-March 1969

By this issue, Gaspar had designed a new very wide logo that made more room at the top for character logos while making the book title more obvious. The rectangular word balloon to Batman is something he was doing occasionally, I’m not sure it works well here. The caption lettering is fine, but the box around it seems heavy-handed. Still, it all reads well.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #86, Oct-Nov 1969

The art on this cover by Neal Adams is great, but it created a difficult layout for Gaspar once the logos were in place. He makes it work by putting a sharp corner in the balloon tail and a straight side on the burst balloon. If I were assembling this cover, I would have moved the art down, but then the circus audience is cut off, so perhaps this is the best option.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #98, Oct-Nov 1971

Artist Nick Cardy’s more traditional layout was easier to work with, even with a large scroll caption at the bottom. Covering Batman’s heel doesn’t seem awkward to me, and the lettering has nice variety.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #107, June-July 1973

Artist Jim Aparo also usually made things easy for the cover letterer. As a letterer himself, he understood how to leave open areas for it. Gaspar was never afraid of non-symmetrical balloon shapes when they worked best for him, and I love the burst.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #117, Feb-March 1975

At this time, one new story was backed by many reprints, and the cover, with an already too large trade dress (logos, etc.) was broken into boxes and captions. The overall look is crowded and without focus, but Saladino’s lettering is all fine and has appealing variety.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #143, Sept-Oct 1978

With the book back to normal size, the trade dress is smaller and looks better. One caption promises “a new full-length novel in every issue” in addition to a backup feature. This is stretching the word novel beyond the breaking point!

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #166, Sept 1980

Here the trade dress is larger again, but at least the cover art is mostly one large image. DC was pushing the new backup feature both at the top and the bottom of the cover, and throwing that word novel around too loosely again. Lots for Gaspar to do here, and it did it all well.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #198, May 1983

As the series neared its end, Gaspar was still creating clever and exciting cover captions like this one, which adds unusual shapes to the word PULSAR.

[image error][image error]Golden Gladiator, Silent Knight, and Viking Prince from THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #1, Aug-Sept 1955

Now we’ll look at Saladino’s story lettering and start back at the beginning. The book’s original editor and often writer was Robert Kanigher, and Gaspar was his favorite letterer, so he made him the regular letterer for the book. Ira Schnapp did the character logos, but the rest is by Saladino. I love the distinctive caption styles for Silent Knight and Viking Prince, but all this lettering looks good to me, even that crowded panel at the bottom.

[image error]From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #5, April-May 1956

Robin Hood joined the book with issue #5. I’m not sure if his character logo is by Schnapp or Saladino, but I’m leaning toward Schnapp. Beautiful scroll caption at the top.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #8, Dec 1956-Jan 1957

The character logo here is definitely by Schnapp. Saladino was already perfecting his approach to burning letters in the story title, and I like the large initial T in the caption.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #22, Feb-March 1959

This is a typically word-heavy page from The Silent Knight from the time, and it forced Gaspar to direct the reader’s eyes to the correct panels using arrows. This was not uncommon then, but never an ideal situation.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #25, Aug-Sept 1959

When the book shifted to new series tryouts, Gaspar was there to letter the ones from editor Kanigher, as here, with The Suicide Squad. The feature had six tryout issues in this title, but had to wait until 1987 to get a series. When it did, it was a long-running success now echoed in films. Again, the logo is by Schnapp, the rest by Saladino.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28, Feb-March 1960

Gaspar was already lettering editor Julius Schwartz’s other Golden Age superhero revamps like THE FLASH and GREEN LANTERN, so he was an easy choice when they teamed up with DC’s other heroes for this revamp of the Justice Society of America. Top logo by Schnapp, the rest is Saladino. It’s interesting to see that the magenta ink of the background stripes seems to be printed on top of the black title here, not the usual order. Black should have been last. Maybe things were done differently then.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #34, Feb-March 1961

Another Golden Age revamp from Schwartz with fine lettering by Saladino. Writer Gardner Fox and artist Joe Kubert were credited, but colorists and letterers would not be until much later.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #36, June-July 1961

I tend to think of Gaspar’s use of unusual balloon styles as beginning with his lettering for SWAMP THING in the early 1970s, but here’s an example in Hawkman from 1961. The alien’s balloons are surrounded by amorphous shapes made of two or more scribbly lines. It certainly suggests a different sound.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #45, Dec 1962-Jan 1963

Julie Schwartz loved this idea of STRANGE SPORTS STORIES with a science fiction twist, but readers did not seem to. It had several tryout issues, but did not gain a series until years later, and was not a success then. Notice Gaspar’s dry-brush lettering on the word HEADLESS.

[image error]From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #61, Aug-Sept 1965

When this series became a team-up book, Saladino continued to letter a few that were edited by Schwartz, but he was getting busier now, and did not have as much time for new story lettering projects. The strange flower-broadcast lettering on this page is clever.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #77, April-May 1968

This was the last book-length story in this series lettered by Gaspar for Schwartz, as he was now doing most of the cover lettering, logos and house ads as well as stories.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #114, Aug-Sept 1974

When the book became a much longer one with lots of reprints, Gaspar was hired to do some of the contents pages like this one and other short features. The art by Pat Broderick left him plenty of room.

[image error]From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #116, Dec 1974-Jan 1975

This is part of a three-page promotional feature with a handsome Saladino title.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #148, March 1979

Gaspar managed to work one more long Brave and Bold story into his schedule for editor Paul Levitz. At this time his word balloons were sometimes very wide with straight top and bottom edges. The story title plays up the final word. Strangely, Gaspar did not credit himself, though by this time that was the standard thing to do.

From THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #200, July 1983

For the final issue, Gaspar lettered some pages with art by Dave Gibbons that were meant to look like a Batman story from the past. Who better? It’s interesting that, when he started, Saladino was using scalloped balloon borders like these regularly, but here he’s exaggerated them to make them seem more quaint and old-fashioned I think. The use of underlining for emphasis was rarely done even in Batman’s earliest stories, but it does give this an old-fashioned look too.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these BRAVE AND BOLD covers: 71-72, 78-92, 94-108, 111-118, 120-122, 124, 127, 129, 143, 146, 148, 155, 161-162, 164, 166, 168-169, 171-178, 180-185, 188-195, 197-200. That’s 82 in all.

Below are the stories lettered by Gaspar with the feature names abbreviated after the first appearance.

#1 Aug-Sept 1955: Golden Gladiator 8pp, Viking Prince 8pp, Sea Rovers 2pp, Silent Knight 8pp, Laughing Arena 1pp

#2 Oct-Nov 1955: GG 8pp, VP 8pp, SK 8pp

#3 Dec 1955-Jan 1956: GG 8pp, VP 8pp, SK 8pp

#4 Feb-March 1956: SK 8pp, VP 8pp, GG 8pp

#5 April-May 1956: Robin Hood 10pp, VP 8pp, Hunting Hawks 1pp, SK 8pp

#6 June-July 1956: RH 8pp, GG 6pp, SK 10pp

#7 Aug-Sept 1956: SK 8pp, RH 6pp, VP 8pp

#8 Oct-Nov 1956: RH 8pp, VP 6pp, SK 8pp

#9 Dec 1956-Jan 1957: RH 8pp, VP 8pp, First Commandos 1pp, SK 8pp

#10 Feb-March 1957: RH 8pp, VP 8pp, SK 8pp

#11 April-May 1957: RH 8pp, VP 8pp, SK 8pp

#12 June-July 1957: RH 8pp, VP 8pp, SK 8pp

#13 Aug-Sept 1957: SK 8pp, VP 8pp, RH 8pp

#15 Dec 1957-Jan 1958: SK 10pp, VP 8pp

#16 Feb-March 1958: SK 14pp, VP 13pp

#17 April-May 1958: SK pp2-13 (12pp)

#18 June-July 1958: SK 14pp

#19 Aug-Sept 1958 VP 12pp, SK 12pp

#20 Oct-Nov 1958: SK 14pp, VP 12pp

#21 Dec 1958-Jan 1959: SK 14pp, VP 12pp

#22 Feb-March 1959: VP 12pp, SK 14pp

#23 April-May 1959: VP 13pp, Famous Sailing Ships 2pp, VP 12pp

#24 June-July 1959: VP 13pp, Viking Training 1pp

#25 Aug-Sept 1959: Suicide Squad 24pp

#26 Oct-Nov 1959: SS 16pp, 9pp

#27 Dec 1959-Jan 1960: SS 25pp

#28 Feb-March 1960: Justice League of America 26pp

#29 April-May 1960: JLA 26pp

#30 June-July 1960: JLA 27pp

#34 Feb-March 1961: Hawkman 25pp

#35 April-May 1961: HM 12pp, 13pp

#36 June-July 1961: HM 13pp, 12pp

#37 Aug-Sept 1961: SS 13pp, 12pp

#38 Oct-Nov 1961: SS 15pp, 10pp

#39 Dec 1961-Jan 1962: SS 12pp, 13pp

#42 June-July 1962: HM 25pp

#43 Aug-Sept 1962: HM 25pp

#44 Oct-Nov 1962: HM 12pp, 13pp

#45 Dec 1962-Jan 1963: Strange Sports Stories 11pp, 12pp

#46 Feb-March 1963: SSS 14pp, 11pp

#47 April-May 1963: SSS 14pp, 12pp

#48 June-July 1963: SSS 11pp, 15pp

#49 Aug-Sept 1963: SSS 13pp, 12pp

#52 Feb-March 1964: 3 Battle Stars 25pp

#61: Aug-Sept 1965: Starman & Black Canary 24pp

#62 Oct-Nov 1965: SM &BC 24pp

#77 April-May 1968: Batman & The Atom 24pp

#114 Aug-Sept 1974: Contents 1pp

#115 Oct-Nov 1974: Contents 1pp

#116 Dec 1974-Jan 1975: Contents 1pp, Dr. Fate & Hourman 1pp, Heroes Who Wouldn’t Die 3pp

#120 July 1975: The Beast That Battled Batman 2pp

#148 March 1979: Batman & Plastic Man 17pp

#200 July 1983: Batman pp4-19 (16pp)

That’s a total of 1,171 pages on this title, a solid body of work. Other articles in this series and more you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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Incoming: ECHOLANDS 6, ECHOLANDS RAW CUT 5

Images © J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman

The latest issue of this series I’m lettering has arrived, as well as the “Raw Cut” version of issue #5, which shows J.H. Williams’ art without the added coloring of Dave Stewart and with my lettering translucent so the art shows through. Alternate cover for #6 is by Francesco Francavilla, alternate cover for Raw Cut #5 is by Langdon Foss. Each issue so far has presented new lettering challenges, and here we enter the black and white world of Horror Hill for the first time. It’s been fun, and I think the story and art are worth your time. Look for them at your comics retailer, or use the links below.

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GASPAR SALADINO in BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY and THE BOOK OF FATE

All images © DC Comics. From BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY #5, May-June 1968

Once again I’ve grouped these two titles only because of their alphabetical proximity, they have no other connection. BOMBA was one of many short-lived series from DC at the end of the 1960s. It was based on a series of low-budget films, themselves based on a series of boys’ adventure books, and clearly an attempt to interest fans of Tarzan before DC got the license to do Tarzan comics. Saladino’s involvement was brief. He lettered this cover with a large, effective caption. The logo is by Ira Schnapp, who had lettered the previous covers.

[image error]From BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY #7, Sept-Oct 1968

He also lettered the final cover under a new logo he had designed for the previous issue. The cover art is interesting, but I can’t say the lettering is very successful. It all follows the same arc, but the vertical angle is different on each line, making it rather a mess.

From BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY #6, July-Aug 1968

One other bit of Saladino lettering is on the final story page of issue #6, a large Next Issue blurb. The rest of the story is lettered by someone else, I think Ben Oda. Perhaps this blurb wasn’t written yet when Ben did the story lettering, and Gaspar was available, so he was asked to do it. I actually like this Bomba logo better than either of the cover versions.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #1, Feb 1997

In the 1990s, Gaspar was not often asked to do cover lettering or house ads, as ideas about what DC wanted in those areas had changed, but he was still lettering stories regularly. This book was a continuation of FATE, and ran for twelve issues. Saladino lettered all the stories. On this page from the first issue is the credit box with his frequent credit of just his first name in upper and lower case, similar to his handwriting.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #3, April 1997

In 1997, Saladino turned 70 years old, and his balloon lettering had begun to show some subtle signs of age in its looser and more angular look, but his skill with display lettering was undiminished. The open letters in the top burst, and especially the large sound effect on this page attest to that.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #4, May 1997

Saladino’s huge title is the star of this page, and is beautifully done, with great contrast in the word WAR against the skillful block letters of the rest.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #7, Aug 1997

This page shows an example of Gaspar’s scary open lettering in the last panel. It works well at this large size against the busy background art.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #8, Sept 1997

At this time, more and more comics were being lettered digitally with comic book fonts. Here Saladino shows that he could do things by hand that would be difficult or impossible to do digitally. Even though the corner of the D in DEAD is cut off, it still reads fine.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #9, Oct 1997

Another clever story title that incorporates a visual tag in a way few others would have thought of, and perhaps no one else could have made work so well. The shape of the W in SWISS is particularly creative.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #11, Dec 1997

At the time, Lobo was writer/artist Keith Giffen’s most popular character, and I suspect he was brought into this title as an attempt to boost sales. His rude manner and lousy singing gave Saladino some chances to add humor in the lettering.

From THE BOOK OF FATE #12, Jan 1998

Perhaps it was too late, or it didn’t work, as this was the last issue, sporting another appealing title by Saladino.

To sum up, Gaspar lettered two covers for BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY, 5 and 7, and that next issue blurb for issue #6.

Here are the details of his work on THE BOOK OF FATE:

#1 Feb 1997: 22pp

#2 March 1997: 22pp

#3 April 1997: 22pp

#4 May 1997: 22pp

#5 June 1997: 22pp

#6 July 1997: 22pp

#7 Aug 1997: 22pp

#8 Sept 1997: 22pp

#9 Oct 1997: 22pp

#10 Nov 1997: 22pp

#11 Dec 1997: 22pp

#12 Jan 1998: 22pp

That’s 264 pages in all. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog with others you might enjoy.

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GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER BATMAN TITLES

All images © DC Comics. From BATMAN FAMILY #7, Sept-Oct 1976

This article covers four Batman titles that I thought didn’t have enough Saladino work for separate articles. First up is BATMAN FAMILY, which ran to 20 issues from 1975 to 1978. The title was a victim of the DC Implosion, but most of the features moved into DETECTIVE COMICS. Above is the first cover with Gaspar’s lettering. At the time there was no one really guiding cover design, and this one is kind of a jumble, with too much going on and no focal point, in my opinion. Gaspar’s two blurbs describe what’s inside at least. Earlier covers had lettering by others or used only type. From this point on, Gaspar lettered most of them.

From BATMAN FAMILY #10, March-April 1977

By 1977, the trade dress (all the information at the top) was simpler, and the cover design is much improved. The new DC Bullet by the Milton Glaser studio helps. Notice that the tail of the second balloon goes behind the ray gun, something letterers were told not to do if it could be avoided. It would have been pretty hard to avoid it here, and I think it works okay.

From BATMAN FAMILY #14, Oct 1977

Artist Jim Aparo did his own story lettering, but rarely lettered his covers. I like the diminishing sizes of these balloons, but covering Batgirl’s hand should have been avoided. That could have been a placement choice by whoever assembled the cover in the DC production department, cover lettering was done on separate paper and pasted in place, or often a photostat of it was.

From BATMAN FAMILY #17, April-May 1978

For a few issues, this title joined the Dollar Comics line with an expanded size and all new stories. I’m sure Saladino lettered the blurbs in the top banner, I’m less sure about the ones on the cover art, but he might have done those too.

From BATMAN FAMILY #20, Oct-Nov 1978

The final issue included a wraparound cover with Saladino lettering on both halves, but I’m just showing the front cover here with his fine rough open lettering for RAG MAN.

[image error]From BATMAN FAMILY #9, Jan-Feb 1977

Gaspar also lettered two stories inside the books, this one featuring Robin and Batgirl…

From BATMAN FAMILY #15, Dec 1977-Jan 1978

…and this Man-Bat story with early work by artist Michael Golden. Here Gaspar was able to list himself in the credits, something that became standard for letterers in mid-1977. I feel sure the story title was penciled by Golden and inked by Saladino.

To sum up, Gaspar lettered these BATMAN FAMILY covers: 7-12, 14-17, 20, eleven in all, or if you count the back cover of 20, twelve in all. He lettered these stories:

#9 Jan-Feb 1977: Robin & Batgirl 17pp

#15 Dec 1977-Jan 1978: Man-Bat 9pp

From BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #1, Aug 1983

Next up is this title, which ran 32 issues from 1983 to 1986, and then split into two new titles. One of them, ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS, continued with the same numbering until 1987 and issue #46. The other title began with #1 and was simply THE OUTSIDERS, and will be covered later, but I will include ADVENTURES OF here. Gaspar only lettered covers for this series, quite a few of them. The first, above, lays out the premise of the book in two well-made word balloons. Saladino also designed the logo and did the top blurb.

From BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #4, Nov 1983

Gaspar knew just when to add drama with a burst balloon, and his scroll caption is also great. I live the melting letters in the second line.

From BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #9, April 1984

The best part of this cover is the cocky word balloon at bottom right, probably written by series creator Mike W. Barr.

From BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #23, July 1985

The captions on this cover add a great deal to the drama and excitement, and I like the notched borders and subtle drop shadow on the lower one. That second caption would be a great addition to many other covers with heroes in trouble.

From BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #32, April 1986

The final issue of this series, as well stated by Saladino…

From ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS #34, June 1986

…but rolling right on with this new title. The reason was that THE OUTSIDERS would debut as a new series on higher quality Baxter paper with new stories, while ADVENTURES would also continue with new ones for a few months, then would reprint the stories from the other title. A marketing thing to increase sales, I guess. It only worked for a while. Gaspar’s caption has some interesting color holds, not something he would have been involved in, or known about until he saw the printed book, that’s the colorist’s choice.

From ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS #37, Sept 1986

I love the Saladino caption on this cover, the calm styles are a great contrast to the cover art. Sorry the image is a bit blurry, best I could find.

From ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS #40, Dec 1986

The cover copy is unclear here as to what’s exploding, but the word EXPLODE by Saladino is certainly exciting.

To sum up, Gaspar lettered these covers for BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS: 1-2, 4, 6, 9-13, 15-16, 19-23, 26-32 and these for ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS: 34-37, 40-41, 44, 46, for a total of 31 covers.

From BATMAN: BRIDE OF THE DEMON Jan 1991

In 1991 there was this stand-alone graphic novel of 92 pages lettered by Saladino. I think It was more successful than the earlier ARKHAM ASYLUM probably because the art was more typical comics art, something which Gaspar could handle perfectly. I love the sound effects and the old-style dashed whisper balloons in the second example.

From BATMAN ’66 #3, Nov 2013

In 2003, DC Comics moved to an all-digital workflow, and letterers like Gaspar Saladino who only lettered by hand were no longer able to get work from the company. Gaspar had no interest in digital lettering, and he turned 76 in 2003, so while he might still have been doing a little lettering here and there, he was essentially retired at that point after working at DC since late 1949. When this new series began, based on the 1960s Batman TV show, someone at DC had the brilliant idea of asking Saladino to letter some of the covers. He was able to letter with pens on paper, as he always used to, and DC scanned the result and incorporated it into their digital files. Gaspar had not been doing cover lettering at DC since the early 1990s, but his work here is very much like what he had been doing decades earlier, though there are some elements that show his age and declining motor skills. Still, I loved this work, and was so happy he was able to do it, and bring his DC lettering career into an incredible eighth decade. He did seven covers before health issues forced him to stop, and I’m just going to show them all here without further comment. Note that he did not do the blurb above the logo on this first one, but he did the one used on the other covers.

From BATMAN ’66 #4, Dec 2013From BATMAN ’66 #5, Jan 2014From BATMAN ’66 #7, March 2014From BATMAN ’66 #8, April 2014From BATMAN ’66 #9, May 2014From BATMAN ’66 #10, June 2014

My favorite of these seven covers is Saladino’s work on issue #9, I think it comes closest to what he was doing in the prime years of his cover lettering, from 1968 to 1978. Gaspar passed in 2016, and his legacy at DC has never been in doubt, but work on covers isn’t credited, so I’m happy to be able to do that in these posts.

Other articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog, along with more you might like.

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