Black Rainbow Comics

Here are some thoughts on hand lettering for Black Rainbow.

1. I use a Micron Sakura pen size 1 or Faber Castell Ecco Pigment pen size 0.8 for lettering. They produce consistent, strong, non-bleeding black lines that maximize legibility.

2. I do feel self conscious about my chicken scratchy writing style. I have read that a strip’s lettering can make or break its professionalism. Yet I have resisted going to computer type because I feel because the lettering comes from my right hand it should naturally complement the artwork I produce with that hand. Also, because Black Rainbow comments alot on human flaws, I think it is fitting to have my flawed handwriting and artwork to go with it. My plan will be to wait for future audience feedback to decide. Hopefully, the hand lettering does not drive too many people away. Should readers feel that my hand writing is detrimental to the strip, then I may change to computer generated type. To note, Blambot offers some great free and for purchase type fonts. For Black Rainbow, I am leaning towards Ashcan if the hand lettering does not work out.

3. I like how I can manipulate the words and treat them like images that augment emotion and impact of the person saying them. I tend to go for that lo-fi junior high/high school bubble lettering aesthetic that girls used to write their notes with. I wonder what that says about me?

4. It hurts to hand letter when there is a lot of text.

5. Allot the proper space for all lettering before starting artwork.

6. I consider what the final composition will look like with the text, speech ballons, and artwork. I try to achieve balance of composition with all these elements.

7. I leave some white space around the mass of lettering within the speech balloons as breathing space.

8. The legibility of my hand lettering is quite poor when I reduce the size of my strips to more conventional single row 4 panel 750-850 pixels wide and 290-300 pixels  high dimensions.

9. At this point, I am unsure of how legible my hand lettering is for high resolution print output. I will be looking into that right away.

10. Check out this great article from Webcomics.com on the topic of hand lettering vs. computer font.

Below is a YouTube clip for hand lettering courtesty of Jen Breeden of Devil’s Panties. She uses Sharpies to hand letter. I found that they tend to bleed too much with the Strathmore water color paper I am using. But they definitely work for her.