Monthly Archives: June 2020

30Jun/20

One Shot: Bringing it All Together – Lettering Cures or Kills by Wes Locher

Craft of comic creating,

If sequential storytelling is the invisible art, then comic book lettering is an invisible-invisible art, viewable only through the MacGyver-esque day-saving bomb-thwarting tinkering involving lemon juice and a lighter.

For many fans, the “what” of comic book lettering is limited to the placing of dialogue, captions, and word balloons on the comic book page. However, in reality, it is so much more than that. For instance, it also involves placing sound effects.

But wait, there’s more!

Lettering is an art form in itself that requires not only a keen design eye but also a mastery of the language of comics. Letterers must view a comic book page as a whole, choosing where to place those word balloons and captions in order to successfully lead the reader’s eye across the page from the first panel to the last.

Think for a moment about the last comic you read. Did you have trouble knowing which word balloon to read next? If not, then you were blessed with professional comic book lettering. If you were lost on the page and had to take a wild guess, then you were a victim of amateur work.

In fact, a comic book can have PEN/Faulker-worthy writing and the most imaginative, beautiful art since Kirby, but it can quickly be destroyed by shoddy, unprofessional lettering.

Once all dialogue and captions are on the page the letterer is also responsible for adding in the sound effects that will breathe life into the title’s action sequences.

This doesn’t simply block letters thrown onto the page—oh no!—a letterer must ensure the sound effect sits appropriately with the art and visually represents the actual sound. The punch to the gut of the protagonist’s enemy might be called out as “Whud” in the script, but no matter the variation (thud, fwump, whumph, fud, tup, et al), the letterer must represent this hit so the reader both feels it and hears the sound in their mind’s eye.

This is known as onomatopoeia (which only took me six attempts to spell correctly) and indicates a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes.

These sound effects provide a soundtrack to the book and allow a letterer to show their creativity. Most letterers develop their own “signature” style for sound effects, using it as a way to differentiate themselves. After all, word balloons and caption boxes generally all look the same, and sound effects are crucial to adding a dash of fun to the letterer’s workload.

Next time you read a comic, ask yourself: “How was the lettering?” if you can’t think of anything negative, then you were treated to the best that the industry has to offer. And often, having nothing negative to say is the biggest compliment one can give a pro letterer.

It’s my hope that this brief overview provides you with a bit more information and understanding when it comes to the role and responsibilities of a comic book letterer. Perhaps you’ll even gain a bit of respect for the work once you’ve closed the back cover on your issue. Though it’s more likely, you’ll probably think, “Oh, yeah, someone placed the dialogues, captions, and word balloons on the comic book page. Neat.”

 

23Jun/20

Title Spotlight: The Scary Book

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Doom! Doom Upon Ye! The world is ending and . . . is that a giant lobster demon?!

     The Scary Book is a story where our heroes must unravel a shadowed mystery involving the dark powers of the occult. Unlike titles with similar subject matter, this story isn’t highlighted by abstract terror and gore, but instead by hilarity. Each issue is packed full of jokes, and references delivered in a consistently impactful tone. This four-issue series is a must-read for fans of dark comedies.

The story starts with Marty Applegate, owner of Applegate books, receiving a delivery of strange books he didn’t order. Even after getting his order fixed by swapping with the intended recipient of the strange tomes, one escapes their scrutiny and finds itself on Marty’s shelves. While Marty isn’t looking, a man named Caduceus purchases the book from the clerk. Shortly after that, pandemonium breaks out. 

As it turns out, that book was actually a book of spells penned by the devil himself, Lou C. Fer. He puts out a new batch of books on occasion so that advanced conjurers can give his demons work on Earth. Turns out Hell is even tiresome for the Demons, which is probably why they got a union organizer. The problem is that this book began making the rounds. All the major demons have been summoned out of hell and there is no one left to torture all the damned souls. Lou needs his demons back and in order to do that, he’ll need Marty to track down who bought the book and stop it from circulating.

In issue 2, we meet Marty’s cadre of book hunters as they travel through a world being torn apart as mass conjurings and spells are unleashed by even the most inept of magical practitioners. The first is Crimson, a cursed soul sent by Lou C. Fer to make Marty aware of his quest and assist him in completing it. Crimson sold her soul for beauty and has been stuck in hell to suffer the punishment for vanity ever since. The chance to work back on Earth finally gives her the opportunity to fully use the boon she received in her pact. The two of them enlist the help of Phillip Chandler, a private eye whose career earned him several films made about him starring himself. Phil proves to be an interesting addition to the team as he is mentally stuck in his role. He speaks as if he is providing narration and dialogue in a voice-over session. The trio follows the first clue to a cult performing a conjuration. 

That encounter sets them on the right trail. They trace the book back through all the hands that have held it since it was initially purchased. On the way, they encounter a whole slew of fascinating characters, unsavory beasts, and what street prophets believe to be the end of the world. Eventually, they get their confrontation with the book’s holder and things only get stranger from there. 

What really sets The Scary Book apart from other mysteries is the tone and voice in which the story is delivered. Even when compared to other comedies nothing really comes across as wholly unique but expected as The Scary Book. It sits in the intersection of three genres, comedy, mystery, horror, and behaves the way you’d expect a story in any one of those genres to behave but because it does all three so flawlessly, it is entirely its own story. It is somehow both paying homage to great assets each of these genres can employ at the same time as being irreverent to all the tropes that can make those same genres cheesy and silly. 

Writer Sidney Williams’s voice really comes across through the three main characters he employs. Marty delivers a classic dry wit that serves to give the perspective of the average person caught up in world ending nonsense. Pair that with Crimson who has experience with both mundane and the demonic and is just tired with it all. The color commentary and banter provided by these two immediately sells the reader on the intended atmosphere and gets them invested in the characters as people. Then there is Phillip Chandler who is a world unto himself. Not only does he only talk through first-person narration as if he were the voice-over of a hard-boiled detective movie, but he brings the same style of Hollywood flair to solving the team’s problems. While this is “the real world” for Marty and Crimson, this is just another shot for Phillip, so of course he attempts to handle every situation as over-the-top and high-octane as possible. 

With characters as loveable and strange as these, it’s no wonder that this universe is being expanded in the near future. Writer Sidney Williams has written a spinoff called Something Big! This story will follow Phillip Chandler and a new host of characters as they tackle a brand new case brought to Phil’s desk. This will, of course, be brought to you by Silverline Comics.

The Scary Book was written by accomplished novelist Sidney Williams, whose recent releases include Dark Hours and Disciples of the Serpent. Sidney has also written comics such as The Mantus Files, Marauder, and Sirens.

The The Scary Book was pencilled by Steve Willhite. Steve has also done work for titles like FUBAR and Jesus Hates Zombies. Steve also inked issue 4 of The Scary Book.

Issues 1 through 3 of The Scary Book were inked by Dan Schaefer who Silverline adepts would recognize from The Mantus Files and Cat & Mouse. Dan has also inked for The Green Hornet, New 52, and Predator.

Nick McCalip lettered issue 1 and pages 1 through 9 of issue 2. Nick has also lettered for The Mantus Files, Cat & Mouse, and Krey.

Debbie Woods lettered pages 10 through 24 of issue 2

Brad Thomte letters issue 3. Brad also lettered Switchblade, Marauder, Silverstrom, Pantheon, and Mouseguard: Tales of The Guard. 

Mike Belcher lettered issue 4. Mike is perhaps most well known for creating his own title Man in The Mask for AMK Comics.

16Jun/20

Craft: Sid VenBlue – The First Steps Are The Most Important

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Hello, Silverline Family! I had the pleasure of chatting with industry newcomer Sid VenBlu. Sid is a fantastic colorist working on Trumps. Already possessing an outstanding portfolio and it won’t be long before she has a fantastic career in comics. In the following article, Sid talks about the first steps she takes when she opens up a brand new page to be colored.

The first steps are always the most important ones.

Coloring sequential pages is a little more than just coloring in the lines. I learned that not long after I officially entered the comic book industry. Color has to contribute to the linework, making sure it doesn’t overpower it, but also adds to the storytelling. Coloring has to be able to give the proper environment and make sure that the reader focuses on the right spots in each panel such as where the light should shine brighter or shadows should cast deeper shadows.

But before jumping into adding any special effects and knockouts, it’s really important for me to understand what has to be done in the first steps after opening the comic page in the coloring program. More than once, I’ve found myself having to redo a whole bunch of work because I made a sloppy start in the file, so in order to avoid that I made my own system that I’ll explain.

Before anything I want to make sure that all my needed files are open, that being the script, page and one or two already colored pages (I use Clip Studio, but this can perfectly work with photoshop and other programs). Once I start working I do not want to cut my flow. It is also the same when making sure that you have all you need in your work area, coloring takes time and consumes pretty much my whole day, so If I want to get things done, I’d better not interrupt my workflow.

Now that I got all I need I analyze the page and notice the important parts of it. If the page has a big character reveal then that would be the most important panel and it’s what you want to highlight the most. In a layer below the inks I make a layer only dedicated to the flat colors, and for that, I use a sharp brush tool, with anti-aliasing to the minimum or just disabled, That way the edges of the colors will be sharp and won’t blend together, so I can grab the color I want to work on without missing pixels or having odd borders. Choosing the color palette right now is not my main priority, since what I want to do first is to figure out what should be brighter or darker depending on the focus point on each panel, and for that, you can go with just gray tones.

It’s also important to go from macro to micro. For example, divide the sky from the floor; then the people standing on the floor, then the clothes of the person and then the facial details, that way you make sure there are not loose pixels here and there, and it’ll help you keep track of the flats on the page. Once I consider the flats done and all the elements properly separated I can start the next step of coloring. More than once I’ve had to go back to the flats layer in order to better separate a character from the background. Doing this has helped me skip unnecessary steps more than once. 

Flatting can be a very tedious job, it takes time and figuring out all the different pieces of each page, as a colorist I am always eager to add the magic touches and those fancy glows over metal surfaces. But when having to work with several pages and open files, proper setup and flats are what has been keeping me from having to color pages all over again. 

These first steps are very important to me considering I am in my first steps as a colorist in the industry. Learning has been constant trial-and-error, but I’m always taking a step forward. 

09Jun/20

Silverline Creator Spotlight: Thomas Florimonte

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Each month we’ll be shining the spotlight on a Silverline creator and sharing their secret origin story, learning what makes them tick, and giving you the scoop on how they came up in the comics world.  

Up this time is Thomas Florimonte, a comic book artist who has worked for such companies as Marvel, DC, Gallant, Chaos, Malibu, and others…as well as Silverline Comics, of course. Tommy is also a partner in the premiere digital comic printer, Ka-Blam.

Now, without further ado, we present to you…

12 Questions with … Thomas Florimonte!

SILVERLINE: So, who are you and where do you hail from? 

Hi! My name is Thomas Florimonte, Jr. Although I never developed that sweet southern accent, I grew up in south Mississippi. I now live in the central Florida area with my wife Rene’. So I guess I’m officially now a Floridian.

SILVERLINE: What would you say it is you do here at Silverline?

Currently, I’m inking the upcoming title Trumps. BUT this isn’t the first Silverline-ish book I’ve worked on. Back in the day, I inked several of the original run on Cat & Mouse and Demon’s Tails. AND have worked with Roland Mann on so many books for Silverline, Malibu Comics and others. I give Roland, along with buddies Steven Butler and Mitch Byrd the credit of helping me break into the comic business and giving me some of my first paying work.

SILVERLINE: Where might Silverline readers have seen your work previously?

I broke into the comic biz way back in the early 90’s. In that 25+ years, I’ve racked up a long list of comic creator credits (writing, penciling, inking, coloring, publisher…) and have worked for just about every major publisher out there: Marvel, Malibu, Chaos!, Acclaim, Gallant Comics (to name a few), working on various titles such as Spiderman and Lady Death to Magnus Robot Fighter & Nightman… I’m still plugging away with my own creator owned projects through INFERNO Studios’ line of Kid Hero comics: Zomboy: Kid Hero, Lil Na’ & SoSo, Vinny: Things that go WOOF in the night… My latest projects include new issues of Mystery Girlz,  Zomboy: Kid Hero  (INFERNO Studios), Miniature Man (Gallant Comics / Inks) and a new upcoming project titled Trumps (Silverline / Inks). I also co-own and run the very popular comic printing company: Ka-Blam Digital Printing- The one stop print house for all comic creators. And also IndyPlanet– A online print-on-demand comics shop that works directly with Ka-Blam.  

SILVERLINE: When you’re not making great Silverline comics, what do you do in your spare time? What are your hobbies?

Other hobbies? Who has spare time?  My main time sink is keeping up with the day to day running of Ka-Blam Digital Printing. Oh- Did I not mention that I’m co-owner of the best print-on-demand comic printer in the world? I am, so when I’m not printing other people’s comics, inking the Silverline Trumps comic I’m working on my own creator owned Kid Hero line of comics from INFERNO Studios (www.infernostudios.com): Zomboy, Lil’ Na and SoSo, Mystery Girlz… Did I forget to say that what little time I have left, I spend it all with my wife and friends at the Disney Parks and riding my bike. I try to put in 10-30 miles a week on on my bike. More if I can.

SILVERLINE: Many creators at Silverline have been in the comics industry for years — what’s kept YOU plugging away at comics?

Always loved comics: Read them as a kid. Read them as a teen. Read them in college. Started making comics professionally right out of college. Started a business to print comics for myself and others shortly there after. Still doing it now. Doesn’t feel like a job. In fact, I’ve always said I doing my best not to get a real job.

SILVERLINE: What was the first comic you remember reading that made you think, “Hey, I could do this!”

Never thought that. But my first comics, though I didn’t know they were comics, had to be Sunday strips in newspaper. Loved reading Peanuts and all that stuff when I was younger.. But comics- I fell in love with Spiderman as a kid. Always have and still am. Doesn’t matter what it is- Spiderman and his bunch are my favorite. I read other stuff, both Marvel and DC, but Spiderman… That and Star Wars was what I nerded, before being a nerd was cool, out for. Anything and everything that had the web head or Darth Vader I could get my hands on, was mine. I’m so easy to buy for.
So when it looked like I was going to start making comics, in the back of m mind, my main objective was to work on the Spiderman comics. AND I did.

SILVERLINE: What’s on your playlist? Who/what music do you listen to, and do you listen to it while you work?

Music- NO. I watch TV when working on comics. I learned a long time ago that I could watch TV and work on comics at the same time. Not a problem.  I’ve also thrown in Podcasts. And now that I draw and ink everything digitally, I don’t spill ink all over the couch.

SILVERLINE: Who were some of your earliest influences on your art ?

I’m all over the place. I really don’t have one. Everybody I guess. I’ve had the knack of being able to analyze different styles then pick the stuff I wanted to copy. But I’d say, if there’s any one style I’m known for, most everyone likes the clean dynamic lines I get.

SILVERLINE: What was the first comic you ever worked on professionally?

While I worked on a TON of uncredited background work, my first published book was on Scum on the Earth from Aircel Comics (one of Malibu Comics imprints).

SILVERLINE: Can you still read that comic today without wincing?

Better yet. I still have several hundred copies of it in my garage AND also still have some of the original pages.

SILVERLINE: If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice that would help them better navigate the comics industry, what would it be?

I think I did pretty well: I got in young. Worked on a ton of books. Met a ton of people. Made just as many friends. Had a great time doing so. Fans liked my work. What more could I ask for? I’m still in the business. I always knew that only a few could be “Super Stars.”

SILVERLINE: After you die, would you rather your memory be memorialized with an overpass or a parking lot?

Die? Who’s doing that? Never going to happen. But… Overpass or Parking lot? Neither. I’d like a INFERNOCoaster. Yeah!!! Make a roller-coaster in my name. I’m going to start working on that now. Fun 🙂

 

02Jun/20

Silverline News: Double Feature KS ending in four days

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Close as of this writing!

The kickstarter for the Silverline Double Feature of Divinity #1 and Twilight Grimm #1 is close to making goal as I write this up. Currently, there are 134 backers pledging $5,576 making 92% of goal. If you’re reading this and haven’t backed, remember that the comics are done, we just need the funding to print and ship them to you! And of course, we know you’re going to love them. So get on over and pledge if you can: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rolandmann/silverlinedoublefeature1

Silverline Live now 3 times a week!

Yep, it’s true, and that’s our big news this week. Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3), longtime Silverline creator Sidney Williams will be talking with a good bit of the creative teams behind Divinity and Twilight Grimm. We have it on good authority that even R.A. Jones will be joining the group via phone! https://www.facebook.com/events/2660675587554560/

Then, Sunday night (June 7), Roland will talk with a host of those who weren’t part of the Wednesday chat. They’ll talk about crowdfunding in general. Then, on Monday night, the first Silverline Live: 1on1 will debut as Roland sits down to talk with Thomas Florimonte (who will be inking at the same while he talks!).

So, if you’ve got questions, post them on the Silverline FB group page. We’ve created event pages on FB as we’re going to try them out, see if they work to help generate questions before we go live.

Next Kickstarter

Kickstarter Exclusive cover by Steven Butler

We know the current one isn’t over yet, but we wanted to let you know that we already know what we’ll be kickstarting in July, after we’ve got fulfillment (or at least most of it) for the Silverline Double Feature #1 done. July will see two Sidney Williams written comics: the first is Bloodline, an adaptation of the short story written by Sid and Robert Pettit. Bloodline is penciled by Rob Sacchetto, inked by Terry Pallot, and colored by Jeremy Kahn. The other is Friar Rush #1, the first of a three issue mini-series. It’s penciled by Aaron Humphres, inked by John Martin, and colored by Rebecca Winslow. And oh—guess what, BOTH of these are already finished. RIGHT? Two months before we even crowdfund, these are done!

Don’t forget to like us, follow us, heart us, favor us, subscribe to us, and all those social media things! As always, thanks for your support!