Here’s the ballooning method we’ve used for the last decade or so, invented by Albert Deschesne: The Layer Method. It basically involves placing the balloon outline, tail and balloon fill on separate layers, so balloons can be copied and overlapped easily.

JG

Was going to respond to you in regards to balloon placement at The Engine but I’m not logged as a creator there and I’m uncertain how to quite go about changing up that status… but anyhow…

In my limited experience thus far… I usually do the placement. The sole exception has been Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe Declassified in which Larry laid out where the balloons were to go. For me it was a really eye opening experience… Larry has a very intuitive sense of storytelling and I learned a lot from it.

One other thing that has occurred is that on a rare occasion a new, young artist might typically take an issue or two before they realize they need to leave me a bit more negative space to work with.

Also just wanted to toss in that I’ve never lettered by hand and can’t imagine ever doing it… That said… I have nothing but total admiration for those who did it in the past and continue to do it today.

Of course, some might say that grown men running around in their pyjamas looks childish, but NO — THAT’S not the problem — it was THE LETTERING!

As Heidi noted earlier, what’s important is context. Lower case hand styled lettering in TINTIN books = easy on the all-ages eyes; scratchy lower case hand styled lettering in FROM HELL = slightly disturbing and adult.

The font in THE PROFESSOR’S DAUGHTER samples Heidi posted is actually a freely available hand lettering font which sometimes goes by the name Felt Tip, but goes by a whole number of other names as well. Ironically, as a pen letterer, you couldn’t letter for very long with a felt tip because, well… the tips turned to mush after about two pages!

jk, But seriously. More likely, Marvel wants to save time and money by not doing such basic things. bleah… :(

As far as majuscules vs. minuscules go, I don’t think I really have a preference. I sort of grew up reading Tintin, so minuscules always seemed pretty natural to me. Jason Lute’s works seem to flow naturally here by using minuscules. As well, many of the best webcomics (Penny Arcade and Questionable Content, as well as Stuart Immonen’s Never as Bad as You Think) use minuscules.

That said, majuscules obviously work fine as well (see 95% of comics). In the end, I think that so long as the text is both legible and fits the art and story it’s supporting, it’s good lettering.

I’m going to be doing this on my next creator-owned project. I don’t mind the look of computer lettering, but creating decent-looking balloons just drives me nuts.

As to sentence-case lettering, I have (forgive me) mixed feelings. I have certainly done it and I feel I have done it well, but I never felt it was more readable. In fact, I feel it slows down the reading a tad because the ascenders and descenders get in the way of the lines above and below. This is subtle, and certainly debatable, but I’ll stick with my instnct that it slows down the process.

I remember when Bill Jemas made the switch and one of the main reasons cited was that the reason for ALL CAPS lettering was now a non-issue: the printing process had improved so much that even the smallest derivation could be seen…therefore the blockiness of ALL CAPS wasn’t needed for readability. While true, I also believe, as a letterer, I can letter faster in all caps…hand lettering that is…so I’m inclined to believe the tradition probably started out of speed and convenience as much as readability.

In the end, there will always be a time and a place for sentence case lettering…but I, as both letterer and reader, will always prefer ALL CAPS.

Right now, I’m most impressed with Sean Phillips’ lettering job on CRIMINAL, where he draws his own balloons and then lays the lettering down on the computer.