The Great Letterers

[cyxodus]

Who does the industry consider to be the great letterers? Will Eisner is one.

[Jason Arthur]

If you go by the sheer volume of work that a letterer is given as your basis then you'd have to say Todd Klein, Clem Robins, and Richard Starkings.

Piekos is catching up.

-- J

[kdmelrose]

I'll add:

Dave Sim
John Workman

[Kep!]

There you have it, the big 6.

[L Jamal]

I love Dave Sim's lettering

[chris stevens]

i miss seeing john costanza's letters. his work on alan moore's swamp thing was as good as it gets.

lately i've found clem robins work on 100 bullets to be a revelation. i just started reading the book back in january and, clem, a public tip of the hat to you.

my all-time list would be something like this...

todd klein
john workman
john costanza
tom orzechowski

there's a lot of other great guys but those are my personal faves.
and if we include artists who letter themselves sometimes i love frank miller, dave gibbons, and farel dalrymple's letters. eisner, of course, was masterful and inventive, and even though i haven't read cerebus i know the same can be said about dave sim. and that saladino guy was halfway decent, too.

the best 'new' guy i've seen is kikuo johnson. his letters in 'night fischer' are so organic. beautiful stuff.

[Piekos]

Stan Sakai is in my top 2 favorites.

~N

[Kep!]

Stan Sakai is in my top 2 favorites.

~N
I've only recently discovered him and I have to agree he's fantastic!

[kdmelrose]

Stan Sakai was just nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Letterer (along with Jon Babcock, Chris Eliopoulos, Hope Larson, Troy Peteri and Willie Schubert).

[Jason Arthur]

Stan Sakai was just nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Letterer (along with Jon Babcock, Chris Eliopoulos, Hope Larson, Troy Peteri and Willie Schubert).

I have to sadly admit that the only one of those that I've heard of (other than Sakai) is Chris Eliopoulos.

-- J

[chris stevens]

never saw willie shubert, jason?

you must have.

john babcock, alas, i never knew you.

is anyone else, just from the sheer habit of fact, wondering 'where's todd klein?'

[Jason Arthur]

never saw willie shubert, jason?

you must have.

What would I know him from?

I don't read any Marvel...rarely read DC (other than some Vertigo titles), barely read Dark Horse...

Heck, I'm not much of a reader of the craft that supports me.

I get the feeling that Shubert must be one of the classics though, perhaps someone not working in the digital age of comic lettering?

I sadly only know of Gaspar because Clem pointed him out to me. Then I realized that I grew up looking at his work in some of the old Sgt. Rock and early Hellblazer books.

-- J

[Ron Phillips]

http://www.darkhorse.com/search/search.php?sstring=Willie+Schubert&match=all&scope=products

[Jason Arthur]

http://www.darkhorse.com/search/search.php?sstring=Willie+Schubert&match=all&scope=products

huh... never read a single one of those books before.

-- J

[kdmelrose]

Schubert was nominated for Walt Disney Comics & Stories (Gemstone), Babcock for Uncle Scrooge (Gemstone), Eliopoulos for Franklin Richards (Marvel), Larson for Gray Horses (Oni), Peteri for Necromancer (Top Cow), and Sakai, of course, for Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse).

[Piekos]

USAGI YOJIMBO is the ONLY book I have to read every month. Everything else is secondary.

Not only that, but Stan is perhaps the nicest guy in the business you'll ever talk to. When I was just starting out, he came back into Artist's alley to find me and say "hi". How many pros would do that for a nobody? He's one of my great inspirations not only in skill, but in attitude and humility.

~N

[cyxodus]

Growing up I didn't really notice lettering but looking back, I see that I gravitated to the works of Stan Sakai and Jim Davis.

[quantum1019]

I never really appreciated lettering when I was younger. Then one day I went to a con and asked Todd Klein to sign a book for me. Watching him make that signature was like watching Joe Kubert draw or watching a great hitter hit a home run. A simple name on a book page became a work of art. Klein is good!