Editing Letterer (section)

== History ==

=== Origins ===
[[File:AmericasBestComics3006 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Lettered 1949 panel from ''[[America's Best Comics]]'']]
By the time comic books came of age in the 1940s, the huge volume of work demanded by publishers had encouraged an assembly-line process, dividing the creative process into distinct tasks: writer, [[penciller]], letterer, [[inker]], and [[colorist]]. By the late 1940s, it became possible to make a living just lettering comic strips and comic books for artists, studios, and companies that did not have the time or desire to do it in-house. The career of freelance letterer was born, and by the 1950s, letterers such as [[Gaspar Saladino]], [[Sam Rosen (comics)|Sam Rosen]], and [[Ben Oda]] were crafting full-time careers as letterers for [[DC Comics]], [[Marvel Comics]], and [[King Features Syndicate|King Features]].<ref>Klein, Todd. [http://kleinletters.com/LetteringTop.html "How it all began," Todd Klein: Lettering – Logos – Design.] Retrieved July 22, 2008.</ref><!-- [[Image:SandmanEndless.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Four panels from ''[[The Sandman (Vertigo)|Sandman]]'' #21, demonstrating multiple [[Harvey Award]]-winning letterer Todd Klein's different styles for members of [[Endless (comics)|The Endless]].]] -->

Letterer and logo designer [[Ira Schnapp]] defined the DC Comics look for nearly thirty years. Starting in 1940, he designed or refined such iconic logos as ''[[Action Comics]]'', ''[[Superman (comic book)|Superman]]'', ''[[The Flash (comic book)|The Flash]]'', and ''[[Justice League of America]]'', while also creating the distinctive appearance of DC's house ads and promotions. (Schnapp also designed the [[Comics Code Authority]] seal, which was a fixture on comic book covers from all major companies for over forty years.)<ref name="chill">Kimball, Kirk. [http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/376/ "The Big Chill," Dial B for Blog #376 (Oct. 10, 2006).] Retrieved July 21, 2008.</ref>

DC Comics used a stable of more than 20 letterers in the comics they published in the 1950s and 1960s (some of the letterers — like [[Jerry Robinson]] and [[Dick Sprang]] — were more well known as artists):<ref>"Letterer Index," DC Comics Artists. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120530054647/http://dccomicsartists.com/letters/letters.htm Archived at the Wayback Machine.] Accessed July 31, 2019.</ref> 
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[John Costanza]]
* [[Jon D'Agostino]]
* [[Ben Oda]]
* [[Jerry Robinson]]
* [[Joe Rosen]]
* [[George Roussos]]
* [[Gaspar Saladino]]
* [[Ira Schnapp]]
* [[Dick Sprang]]
{{div col end}}

Starting in around 1966, Ira Schnapp's classic, art deco-inspired look was replaced by the pulsing, organic style of Gaspar Saladino, who redesigned DC's house style for the [[counterculture]] era.<ref name="BDS">B.D.S. [http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/saladino.shtml Interview with Gaspar Saladino in "Silver Age Sage," The Silver Lantern: A Tribute to the Silver Age of DC Comics (May 25, 2007).] Retrieved July 18, 2008.</ref> Gaspar became the cover letterer for all of DC's books throughout the 1970s, and even "[[Ghostwriter|ghosted]]" as Marvel Comics' "page-one" letterer for much of the same period.<ref>[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/08/31/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-66/ Mark Evanier quoted in Brian Cronin's "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed" #66, Comic Book Resources (Aug. 21, 2006).] Retrieved July 20, 2008.</ref><ref name="Natural">Kimball, Kirk. [http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/489/ "Gaspar Saladino — The Natural,"] Dial B for Blog #489 (Sept.). Accessed May 18, 2011.</ref> Gaspar's work became so iconic that various independent comics publishers which sprang up in the 1970s and 1980s – such as [[Atlas/Seaboard Comics|Atlas/Seaboard]],<ref name="Gaspar Saladino — Atlas Shrugged!">Kimball, Kirk. [http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/497/ "Gaspar Saladino — Atlas Shrugged!"] Dial B for Blog #497 (Sept.). Accessed May 19, 2011.</ref> [[Continuity Comics]], and [[Eclipse Comics]]<ref>[http://www.comicvine.com/gaspar-saladino/26-4302/ "Gaspar Saladino,"] ComicVine. Retrieved July 20, 2008.</ref> – hired him to design logos for their entire line of titles.

From the 1930 through the 1990s (with a few exceptions), the letterer plied his craft on the same page drawn by the penciler. (The penciled art was then inked after the letterer has completed his work on the page.) At DC Comics during the "[[Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]]" of the 1960s, pencilers were required to "rough in balloons and sound effects" for the letterers to later go over. An accomplished letterer was able to adapt his or her style to the style of the art for that particular book.<ref>Letterer [[Clem Robins]], quoted in Kimball, Kirk. [http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/490/ "Gaspar Saladino — A New Star on the DC Horizon,"] Dial B for Blog #490 (Sept.). Accessed May 19, 2011.</ref>

=== Computer lettering ===
The evolution of desktop publishing powered by computers, especially those made by [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], began in the 1980s, and started having a gradual impact on comics lettering soon after. One of the first users of computer-generated lettering was writer/artist [[John Byrne (comics)|John Byrne]], who made fonts from existing lettering. (Incidentally, Byrne made use of existing lettering by other artists, such as [[Dave Gibbons]], without their permission.<ref name="computer">Klein, Todd. [http://kleinletters.com/ComputerLettering.html "Computer lettering," Todd Klein: Lettering – Logos – Design.] Retrieved July 23, 2008.</ref> Now Byrne uses a computer font based on the handwriting of letterer [[Jack Morelli]] – with Morelli's permission.)<ref name="FAQProcess">Byrne Robotics FAQ: [http://www.byrnerobotics.com/FAQ/listing.asp?ID=6&T1=Creative+Process Creative Process]. Retrieved December 2, 2005.</ref> Other early users of computer lettering were [[David Cody Weiss]]<ref name="computer" /> and [[Roxanne Starr]], who experimented in computer lettering with [[Bob Burden]]'s ''[[Flaming Carrot Comics]]''.

Computer lettering really started making an impact with the availability of the first commercial comic book font, "Whizbang" (created by Studio Daedalus) around 1990.

In the early 1990s letterer [[Richard Starkings]] and his partner [[John Roshell]] (formerly Gaushell) began creating comic book fonts and started [[Comicraft]], which has since become the major source of comics fonts (though they have competition from others, such as [[Blambot]]).

In deference to tradition, at first computer lettering was printed out and pasted onto the original artwork, but after a few years, as comics coloring also moved to desktop publishing, digital lettering files began to be used in a more effective way by combining them directly with digital art files, eliminating the physical paste-up stage altogether. [[Wildstorm Comics]] was ahead of the curve, Marvel came around a few years later, and DC held to traditional production methods the longest, but now nearly all lettering is digitally applied.<ref name="computer" />

In the early years of the 21st Century, the mainstream American comics companies moved almost exclusively to in-house computer lettering, effectively ending the era of the freelance letterer.<ref name="Contino" /> [[Chris Eliopoulos]] designed the fonts for Marvel's in-house lettering unit, and [[Ken Lopez]] did the same at DC.<ref name="Contino">Contino, Jennifer. [http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=36&t=001693 "ABCs with Orzechowski," Comicon.com: The Pulse (Dec. 30, 2003). Retrieved July 17, 2008.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926133441/http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=36&t=001693 |date=September 26, 2008 }}</ref> Since then the trend has swung the other way, with most comics publishers once again using freelance letterers rather than in-house staff. Nearly all use computer and digital comic book fonts.