Volume 6 Page 18
Posted July 17, 2019 at 12:01 am

Panel 3: One interesting thing that’s specific to this volume is the fact that I was clearly trying to (hand-)letter my dialogue with a smaller font size—an important idea, given the degree to which the dreaded threat of “overdialoguing" looms over this often too-wordy volume. In fact, I only wish I could letter my current-day word balloons with text this small, but nowadays I’m lettering with much softer pencil leads—5B, the softest available—than I was back then. (My oft-ailing drawing hand requires me to use such soft leads in an attempt to reduce the stress of penciling.) Combine these chalkier, “smear-ier” leads with my increasingly crappy up-close vision, and we have a recipe for lettering that’s just too damn large. 

Yes, in theory I could learn to letter Empowered with a software-based font, but my hand lettering is an integral, even critical part of the series’ format. For one thing, lettering directly on the page saves me a helluva lotta worktime with all the backgrounds I don’t have to draw, due to the word balloons helpfully covering up panel space.

-Adam Warren

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