What the Font?
A letterer’s journey
You’re going to see a familiar name throughout Cosmic Journeys.
Tom Lynott has, in a way, become Panelsmith Comics’ resident letterer. He has lettered 4 Cosmic Journeys stories - Alfie in Outer space, ROSE, Immigration Officer, and Time to Wake Up.
See what Tom’s up to on Twitter and email for all your lettering needs.
Let’s see just some of the things it takes to be a letterer.
What got you into lettering?
I took Comic Experience’s Introduction to Lettering class with Sean Rinehart in April / May 2021 just because it sounded like fun. I got an Environmental Science degree with an emphasis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in 2003 which is the closest I had ever gotten to doing graphic design work before I took the class. I found out I REALLY DIG lettering comics, and thus, here I am!
What’s your process for approaching a project?
1. I first glance over the script to get a feel for the story. Is it a horror story? Is it supposed to be a funny story? I typically have a general idea of what fonts I am going to use and the style of balloons and caption boxes before I see any art. That’s surprisingly the easy part.
2. After I get the art, either colored and done or inked, I copy and paste the dialogue / SFX / captions from the script and then beat the hell out of them until they take on a “nice shape”. OK, maybe not beat on them but I shape the dialogue so they have a nice “diamond shape” to them.
3. Next are putting balloons around the shaped letters. I’m getting faster at this and I like the way my balloons look more and more.
4 Next I create the tails coming off of the balloons. I still have a hell of a time creating decent-looking tails. Any professional letterer will tell you it takes about 500 tails before they start looking pretty good. I’ve probably created 400 tails over the last year so I’m getting there. If any letterer tells you that tails have NEVER been a problem and they “just came naturally to them” is a lying RAT BASTARD and shouldn’t be trusted!!
5. I save the fun part for last. After I have all of my dialogue and caption boxes looking pretty good I go to work on the SFX. To me, this is where I get to really do some art. SFX are just so much fun to do and can vary so much. If people look back at my work and say “You know, that guy laid down some pretty cool SFX” then I will have succeeded as a letterer. They don’t have to say that now, but maybe later.
How long does it usually take for each project?
I can letter and produce (resize pages, send them as clean PDFs, JPGs, or TIFFs) in about an hour.
One page = one hour
How many stories have you gotten published in other anthologies or as stand-alone comics?
As of this week, I have lettered 26 one and two-page comics for the Comic Jam. I have also written the scripts for three Comic Jam stories. I lettered my first Comic Jam story in September 2021.
I have had two stories published in two anthologies that were successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2022.
I recently lettered five of nine stories for a Comic Jam anthology. A Kickstarter campaign for the book is slated to go live towards the end of the year. I wrote the script for one of the stories too.
I lettered three stories for two anthologies, Containment Breach 2 and 3, published by Fugitive Poems that should be hitting Kickstarter towards the end of the year too.
I have lettered four stories for Panelsmith Comics so far.
Who are your influences?
Letterers whose work is beyond amazing: Tom Orzechowski is the man. He has been lettering forever and his work is incredible. My favorite is his work on Todd McFarlane’s “Spawn” during the 90s. Tom’s lettering just isn’t lettering on the page, it is full-blown art in and of itself.
Other awesome letterers - Rus Wooten, Todd Klein. These guys’ lettering is always, ALWAYS rock solid and flawless.
OK, I think I figured out who my biggest “influence” is. I have an anthology, Broken Frontiers, that was published by A Wave Blue World Inc. The production editor, Thomas Mauer, lettered five of the 27 stories in the book. I have little sticky tabs on the first pages of the stories that I really like the lettering for. I have sticky tabs on four of his five stories. He, like Wooten and Klein is a solid letterer but also a very versatile one. His style changes just enough to fit the story and it looks amazing. I still go to this book for inspiration when I start lettering a story.
What would be your fantasy collaboration team?
I really dig, like REALLY DIG Alexis Ziritt’s art. I have two, signed prints of his and three (one signed) books he worked on with Fabian Rangel Jr. I would be elated if I get tapped by Ziritt and Rangel to letter a book for them. Unfortunately (for me) their letterer for their Space Riders series, Ryan Ferrier, is a damn good letterer. It’s super tight and fits Alexis’ art really well. But hey! Who knows.
One last thing:
Another letterer, whose work I admire, is Justin Birch. I am familiar with the work he did for Rich Douek (Gutter Magic Tales, Road of Bones, Sea of Sorrows). He also lettered a story that will be in Panelsmith Comic’s Cosmic Journeys volume 1 coming out in September. I am really excited about this because I lettered a story that will be in this volume too. I feel like I’ve come a long way in that I took a lettering class in May 2021 and in less than two years my work will be in the same book as Justin Birch’s, a rock solid professional.
Tom’s lettering will show up throughout all volumes of Cosmic Journeys.
See you across the Cosmos!
