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2020 Year in Review: Best Letterer

By | December 17th, 2020
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Welcome to the Multiversity Year in Review for 2020! While this has been, by many accounts, a terrible year, there were a number of fantastic comics released in 2020, and over the next ten days, we’ll be highlighting our favorites across 25 categories. If you want to give your thoughts on our picks or share your own, feel free to do so in the comments!

Best Letterer

It’s time to pay tribute to the unsung hero of comics, the letterer. In a lot of ways, letterers are like drummers. They need to be a steady presence that keeps the whole team together, but can often times be overlooked. Through their creativity and reliability, these are the letterers who elevated comics in 2020.

3. Stan Sakai

It is my absolute honor and privilege to share with all of you why we here at Multiversity love Stan Sakai.  And while we could write full-on Homeric epics about his multi-decade career, while we could drop many a love sonnet professing adoration for his greatest creation, Usagi Yojimbo, the peerless samurai rabbit, our focus will narrow just a bit to Stan Sakai, the letterer.

In fact, Stan Sakai’s career started in lettering, most notably as letterer for fellow icon Sergio Aragones’ “Groo the Wanderer,” which then led to an impressive 30+ year stint lettering Stan Lee’s “Amazing Spider-Man” Sunday comic strip.

Lettering, this essential but otherwise often ignored aspect of comics creation, is the vital connective tissue that brings words and pictures together. When lettering is noticeable, it can be a distraction to the eye, forcing focus away from both words and images. In the hands of a master, however, it brings a harmony between them, and Sakai most certainly is that.

But what makes Sakai a master? Indeed, it is the recognition that lettering is a tool like any other, and that with proper usage, can help guide the flow of a scene, dictate rhythm, and subtly influence the reader just as powerfully as an image can. In a book like “Usagi Yojimbo” where scenes are often dictated by the “space between” words, or actions, or moments, Sakai deftly uses his lettering skills to emphasize that space- a word slightly bolded, a large exclamation point of unspoken surprise, the tiny, chirping “EEP!” of the tokage lizards chattering in the background.

Capitalizing on having this tool in his arsenal is one of the many keys to Sakai’s longevity. It adds another dimension to his artistry, as well as brings additional depth to his storytelling. But don’t just take our word for it. This year, Eisner voters saw fit to award Sakai with his FIFTH Eisner trophy for lettering, as well as inducting him into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame. Becoming a cartoonist of Sakai’s status means a lot of things- staying consistent, producing compelling work, fostering growth of the medium, and doing all the little things right. “Little” things like lettering. With a humble bow and a tip of the cap to Stan Sakai, we happily place him on our list of 2020’s best letterers. -Johnny Hall

2. Rus Wooton

When I first started reviewing comics, I had nary a clue of the size and scope of a letterer’s work. I figured, “well, he just inks in the text and that’s that.” And it’s easy to take that attitude into the modern era since computer lettering streamlines that job.

But good lettering work, like a good spice blend on a meal, takes a comic from good to great. It adds a level of depth and complexity to a story. It brings out other senses on the page besides sight: touch, sound. And Rus Wooton is a letterer that draws out those extra senses with great care and skill. Take a look at his work on “Wonder Woman: Dead Earth” to see some perfect examples of how lettering can convey tone and voice for a character.  In his jagged, handwritten style for both Batman and Wonder Woman, you can sense their struggle between outward confidence of a leader and inward self-doubt about that confidence.

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And when a good chef finds that recipe that works, they’re not afraid to use it again in a different context, perhaps with a tweak or two. That lettering style from “Wonder Woman: Dead Earth” comes over to “Fire Power” with the same goal in mind: showing that tension between outward confidence and inward insecurity. It’s a little more refined to fit the needs of the particular story, but that basic structure remains.

Balance is also key in good lettering work. The star of the comic book is the pictures, so you don’t want words to dominate. And while Wooton achieves this on a page so that one doesn’t take over the other, he also knows when to let lettering rein free. A “BOOM!” or a “WRAAM!” in a fight scene not only takes over the page to give off the intensity for the moment, but bleeds into its negative space, letting you really feel the ripple effect of that scene.

If you think good lettering means good handwriting, think again. And then take a look at Rus Wooton’s portfolio to see just how much small touches can take a book to even greater heights. – Kate Kosturski

1 (tie). Clayton Cowles

Before I began reviewing comics, I never really paid close attention to the credits block of what I was reading. I knew some writers, began to recognize artists, but never paid attention to the other members of the creative team. As I started to look closer at the teams behind my favorite books, I began to remember the names of the forgotten heroes of comics. One name, in particular, comes up pretty frequently. If you read enough ongoing comics, chances are you’ve encountered the name Clayton Cowles. It’s no surprise that he has found his way to the top of the list again in 2020.

Cowles might just be one of the hardest working people in the industry right now, working with most of the major publishing companies and top creative teams. Good lettering is a tricky needle to thread, a job that if done well should feel almost mundane. Effective lettering tells the story without distracting from the visuals, but great lettering can help enhance the storytelling of a book by making you read the dialogue in a totally different way. In 2020, Cowles was once again able to prove why he’s great.

His skills are best showcased in “Strange Academy,” a book that certainly had some problems, but allowed Cowles to use his whole bag of tricks. By having a cast from all of the magical realms of the Marvel universe, Cowles plays with colors and fonts to give each student their own distinct voice and personality. In “Adventureman,” Cowles uses a similar technique, differentiating Claire’s narration of the world and the narration of her adventures as the Adventureman, with the simple use of a font that is Verdana adjacent. It gives the narration an almost old-time radio announcer feel. It’s simple and subtle, but when Cowles changes the font, it changes the voice in your head.

Those are just two examples. Cowles continued his work on the Eisner award-winning “Bitter Root,” has lettered for a galaxy far far away in “Star Wars,” gives a voice to Gotham’s Dark Knight in “Batman,” and the list just continues on and on and on and on from there. If you see Clayton Cowles in the credit block, you can be sure that it’s going to be a quality issue of your favorite comic. – Joe Skonce

1 (tie). Aditya Bidikar

Last year, Aditya Bidikar was our number two letterer of the year. This year he’s tied for number one. Did he improve a lot between 2019 and 2020? Arguably. But more to the point, a lot of people started to notice that Bidikar has been crushing it across the board. From his work in the experimental “Blue in Green” to his surreal superhero comics like “John Constantine: Hellblazer” to his absolutely bonkers experimental stuff in “Department of Truth,” Bidikar shows that he can masterfully adapt to any sort of project. A lot of his projects are very artist-oriented, which can sometimes be a strange fit for a letterer. After all, word balloons run the risk of covering up the rest of the gorgeous art. Bidikar employs multiple solutions to this dilemma. Sometimes it’s just a question of placement. If you neatly, skillfully spread the word balloons out, you can minimize the damage. But Bidikar isn’t just in the minimizing damage game. The reason you hire him is to turn the lettering into art. He is the master at borderless word balloons, bright sound effects that hang in the air, and words that contour to space as they kinetically fly through. That’s not unusual- lots of talented comic letterers employ those techniques.

To see the full range of what he’s capable of, I’d encourage you to crack open an issue of “Department of Truth.” That book is filled with psychedelic imagery, but the story is also told through email exchanges, redacted documents, and bizarre nightmares. Within a page, Bidikar may have to unleash several different lettering styles. Not only are these pages all gorgeous to behold but they always serve the story, calling attention to themselves when necessary or fading into the background if a more subtle effect is called for. He supports the story being told, which is the job of any comics creator, but he also can take center stage and wow us readers. Bidikar’s word compositions are a cut above, and that’s why he is one of our top letterers in 2020. -Jake Hill


//TAGS | 2020 Year in Review

Multiversity Staff

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