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DC Comics Guides
DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics
Acclaimed artists Mark Chiarello and Todd Klein demystify traditional graphic storytelling in this practical guide. Chiarello explains the entire coloring process, from computer and software choice to creating color effects that give the action its maximum impact. Klein discusses whether to letter by hand or by computer—a hotly debated topic among working letterers—and demonstrates an array of techniques for creasting word balloons, fonts, logos, and much more.
The animated step-by-step instructions are informative, stimulating, and clear enough for even beginners to follow. In addition, every technique shown in this guide conforms to up-to-date industry standards. The perfect how-to on everything coloring and lettering, this one-stop sourcebook is packed with a wealth of tested techniques, practical advice, and professional secrets for the aspiring comic artist.
The animated step-by-step instructions are informative, stimulating, and clear enough for even beginners to follow. In addition, every technique shown in this guide conforms to up-to-date industry standards. The perfect how-to on everything coloring and lettering, this one-stop sourcebook is packed with a wealth of tested techniques, practical advice, and professional secrets for the aspiring comic artist.
144 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
About the author
Mark Chiarello
98 books16 followersMark Chiarello was born on Halloween in 1960. His book "Heroes of the Negro Leagues" (Abrams Publishing) was named the second best sports book of 2007 by Amazon.com. A graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, Mark was fortunate enough to have as roommates, Kent Williams, John Van Fleet, and George Pratt. He worked as an illustrator for DisneyWorld for a short time in the 1980’s, then went on to work for Marvel Comics and ultimately DC Comics, where he is currently Art Director.
Mark lives in Maplewood, NJ with his wonderful wife Catherine and wonderful kids, Jack and Rose, and his almost wonderful dog, oscar.
Mark lives in Maplewood, NJ with his wonderful wife Catherine and wonderful kids, Jack and Rose, and his almost wonderful dog, oscar.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 16, 2010
I scratched my head through a half dozen books about color written by fine artists, then found this one from a comic book artist and everything became immediately clear. Just needed to find someone who spoke my language.
January 15, 2012
Being a graphic designer, it reiterated some stuff I learned in college, but it also taught me some new things about scanning. Great read!!
April 20, 2019
This book offers a peek inside the art of coloring and lettering comics. It offers a lot of good advice for those looking to get a start in the field. This was published in 2004, so when it talks about computers and software, it is a little outdated. However, the basic tools in the programs mentioned (Photoshop and Illustrator) basically still function in the same way, so there is still a lot to learn here, especially for beginners to these software packages. The section on lettering also offers advice on how to do it by hand without a computer. It would be nice if DC updated this series every 10 years or so because this could use a new edition.
May 19, 2015
I think this book is indispensable, and it's definitely one to buy rather than borrow. I've read it cover to cover a few times, and I still learn something new from it each time (as my skill slowly improves); I also keep it close to hand so that I can refer to specific sections.
Chapter 5 is worth the purchase price by itself; even though the book is 11 years old, and there have been several new software releases since then, I still had to jump through the hoops before the computer colours would work correctly. Without that, I got a weird effect (in Photoshop CC 2014) where my drawings almost looked like a photo negative.
Personally, I found the colouring section more useful than the lettering section. Todd Klein covers three topics: hand lettering, creating your own font, and computer lettering with an existing font. Computer lettering is the only part that's relevant to me at the moment, but the rest of it may come in handy at some point; if nothing else, I now appreciate how much work is involved in creating a good font!
There were a few typos in the lettering section (e.g. "your" vs "you're", and "percemt"). That surprised me, because I'd expect someone who letters by hand to have impeccable spelling! However, these mistakes didn't detract from the points he was making.
Chapter 5 is worth the purchase price by itself; even though the book is 11 years old, and there have been several new software releases since then, I still had to jump through the hoops before the computer colours would work correctly. Without that, I got a weird effect (in Photoshop CC 2014) where my drawings almost looked like a photo negative.
Personally, I found the colouring section more useful than the lettering section. Todd Klein covers three topics: hand lettering, creating your own font, and computer lettering with an existing font. Computer lettering is the only part that's relevant to me at the moment, but the rest of it may come in handy at some point; if nothing else, I now appreciate how much work is involved in creating a good font!
There were a few typos in the lettering section (e.g. "your" vs "you're", and "percemt"). That surprised me, because I'd expect someone who letters by hand to have impeccable spelling! However, these mistakes didn't detract from the points he was making.
December 20, 2019
The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics introduces the reader to adding colors and text into your comics medium. This is usually the last step of the creative process, after writing, sketching, pencilling, and inking. Overall, good material and much to learn.
Best bit: the entire chapter on coloring. (Although there are better, deeper, more scientific treaties of the subject of color, this chapter addresses coloring for comics at the right level for a starter interested in this medium.)
Content: The book covers processes for coloring and lettering in both the physical and digital media, which results in four good chapters. The material on coloring is slightly longer — 80 vs. 70 pages — and seems much more creative.
Writing and teaching material: Overall, very good material on coloring and, in my view, merely competent material on lettering. Could have used more references, and more balanced treatment of the material (bringing lettering to the same level), but this is already quite useful.
Background: part of an ongoing personal project, I'm traversing the collection of DC Comics Guides, focusing on:
+ pencilling (The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics or The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics, or this read),
+ inking (The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics),
+ coloring and lettering (yup, The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics), and
+ writing (The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics).
Best bit: the entire chapter on coloring. (Although there are better, deeper, more scientific treaties of the subject of color, this chapter addresses coloring for comics at the right level for a starter interested in this medium.)
Content: The book covers processes for coloring and lettering in both the physical and digital media, which results in four good chapters. The material on coloring is slightly longer — 80 vs. 70 pages — and seems much more creative.
Writing and teaching material: Overall, very good material on coloring and, in my view, merely competent material on lettering. Could have used more references, and more balanced treatment of the material (bringing lettering to the same level), but this is already quite useful.
Background: part of an ongoing personal project, I'm traversing the collection of DC Comics Guides, focusing on:
+ pencilling (The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics or The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics, or this read),
+ inking (The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics),
+ coloring and lettering (yup, The DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics), and
+ writing (The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics).
May 12, 2012
I am a colorist who is looking to expand into the other side of comic book creation and picked up DC Comics Guide To Colioring and Lettering for the sole purpose of bettering my skills as a Letterer. What happened while reading this book is that I learned some valuable tips and tricks for coloring as well with regards to printing and outputting files, as well as some practical coloring techniques that I had never even thought of.
Onto the Lettering section of the book, I learned more than I could have hoped for. They tackle both traditional hand drawn lettering as well as Computer Lettering. Having read the book, I came away with a lot more information than originally intended. I highly recommend this as a Buy for anyone looking to get into either Coloring or Lettering or both. It's definitely a book that you will want by your side should you ever run into problems or questions.
5 Stars out of 5
You can find more of my Book, DVD, TV and Movie reviews at my Forum (Penny Can) at...
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Feel free to stop by and contribute your 2 cents.
Onto the Lettering section of the book, I learned more than I could have hoped for. They tackle both traditional hand drawn lettering as well as Computer Lettering. Having read the book, I came away with a lot more information than originally intended. I highly recommend this as a Buy for anyone looking to get into either Coloring or Lettering or both. It's definitely a book that you will want by your side should you ever run into problems or questions.
5 Stars out of 5
You can find more of my Book, DVD, TV and Movie reviews at my Forum (Penny Can) at...
http://pennycan.createaforum.com
Feel free to stop by and contribute your 2 cents.
September 18, 2012
Like everyone else, I found the coloring section to be simple and wonderfully informative.
August 17, 2020
3.5. This was a fascinating look at what colorists and letterers do in comics. Found this especially cool as a print-publishing nerd, although I skimmed the more technical PhotoShop/Illustrator step-by-steps.
October 21, 2017
A surprisingly unique approach to these ideas; detailed and pulled right out of current creator workflows.
December 19, 2016
As an amateur comics writer and avid comics reader, who has merely dabbled in image manipulation software enough to make broad and clunky requests of my illustrator, I do not feel completely qualified to judge this book on its methods.
I did find it very readable, very accessible, and very clear. I feel confident having read it that I would know immediately what the first steps toward colouring or lettering my own book would be should I choose to do it. That said, it was also very technical, and clearly for the reader interested in doing his colouring and lettering to business comic standards. For the dabbler, there isn't much here. Sharpies may very well be a perfectly acceptable way to colour a comic, and Bic pens may well letter them. You may even find success in webcomics with such methods and tools. But you will find no such encouragement here.
If you are looking to colour and letter four colour press, twenty-two page standard size comics in the classic comic style, and you are starting from scratch, this is probably the book for you. If you want to just have some fun making comics, and need some juicy inspiration and encouragement, look elsewhere.
I did find it very readable, very accessible, and very clear. I feel confident having read it that I would know immediately what the first steps toward colouring or lettering my own book would be should I choose to do it. That said, it was also very technical, and clearly for the reader interested in doing his colouring and lettering to business comic standards. For the dabbler, there isn't much here. Sharpies may very well be a perfectly acceptable way to colour a comic, and Bic pens may well letter them. You may even find success in webcomics with such methods and tools. But you will find no such encouragement here.
If you are looking to colour and letter four colour press, twenty-two page standard size comics in the classic comic style, and you are starting from scratch, this is probably the book for you. If you want to just have some fun making comics, and need some juicy inspiration and encouragement, look elsewhere.
December 13, 2013
For anyone interested in the art of Coloring or Lettering for comics, this book would have to be considered the definitive guide. Broken into two sections, each gives a copious amount of information relevant to the topic at hand. Unfortunately, since both topics share one book, the brevity of some subjects is sometimes disappointing. Todd Klein's instruction on lettering is quite interesting, though could easily be perceived as boring to those not interested in it. I would have liked to have seen Mark Chiarello take an inked page and do a step by step coloring of it... it would have easily added an additional star to my rating!
October 9, 2015
Cons:
If you have a graphic design background like I have, then you will probably know 90% of what was covered in this book.
Pros:
The rest of the info contained in this book is so rare and hard to come by that if you don't already work in the comic book field it is worth the money picking this book up because it will definitely help you reach the next level.
If you have a graphic design background like I have, then you will probably know 90% of what was covered in this book.
Pros:
The rest of the info contained in this book is so rare and hard to come by that if you don't already work in the comic book field it is worth the money picking this book up because it will definitely help you reach the next level.
August 6, 2007
The Best color theory book I've ever read! Its so simple and practical and applied. The lettering part is a waste of time.
May 7, 2014
Good book. Great series. I used this to help with a graphic novel I was doing for class. Very helpful
June 18, 2016
Each and every book in this series is jam-packed with useful information for anyone who wants to work on comics. I've gone through three of them so far. Moving onto Pencilling Comics after this.
November 30, 2011
Pretty good!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews