Every September 1st is a chance to celebrate Letterer Appreciation Day. It is the birthday of one of the greats in the craft, Gaspar Saladino, but it is a opportunity to honor and appreciate the talent and hard work of the most underappreciated member of the comic book creative team.
Lettering is the thread that binds the comic narrative together. It is often said that if you don’t notice the lettering, then the letterer did their job. While there is some truth in that, it dismisses the important role that a letterer plays in creative process. If the lettering doesn’t pull the reader out of the story, then the story flows better, but if the letterer adds to the narrative with creativity in font choices, balloon shapes, sound effects, then doesn’t that improve the book overall.
Letterers are responsible for placing word balloons and caption boxes on the pages. They often have to make difficult choices to ensure a seamless narrative for the reader. They create the logos for comic series, and they add dynamism to the page with sound effects. A good letterer can make a comic sing in special ways.
Today we celebrate the craft of lettering and the artists who are the least compensated for their effort.
We are speaking live with two fantastic letterers: Janice Chiang and Ariana Maher. You can find the live stream embedded below or you can watch it on the PCS YouTube channel here. It is also available at our Facebook page here.
Please enjoy the conversation:
You can find Janice on Twitter at @TheJaniceChiang
Ariana is on Twitter at @CommentAiry and at arianamaher.com
There are plenty of comic letterers to admire and celebrate. We listed some of them in the below thread on our Twitter feed.
Happy #LettererAppreciationDay. It is the day that we acknowledge and celebrate Comic Book Letterers. They are the most often overlooked member of the creative team, but without good lettering a book will suffer and great lettering elevates a book. Love a Letterer Today!!#comics
— Pop Culture Squad (@popculturesquad) September 1, 2022
