The People’s Publisher

So, how about that last post, huh? That sure got people talking. A couple people, anyway. And the question remains: What lettering approach did the creators of BLACK JACK O’BREEN and I finally decide on?

Well, you’ll have to read the book to find that one out. Ain’t I a stinker?

One more quick lettering thing before I move on–here’s a page from Stephen Cmelak’s KNIGHTCAP: NOVEMBER’S SONG, drawn and lettered by the incomparable John Keane. John’s got a bit of a weird sense of humour, sometimes. He realized there was something off-kilter about panel 2, and he left it this way anyway…

Yep, that dude’s butt is screaming.

John agreed to change the placement of the balloon tail in that panel, but there was a sadness in his voice as he agreed to do it, because more than any artist I know, John likes a good screaming butt gag. Who doesn’t, really?

Moving on. While the responses to last week’s post were all interesting, the one that’s stuck with me was this comment, from Mariathedreamer: “I think its (sic) a mistake to underestimate even the newer comic reader and certainly not the best strategy to cater to that newby reader.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I read it. I wouldn’t take any issue with it at all if the subject under discussion was, say, creating depth of character, or an intricate plot. Those are things editors or the companies they represent have been known to stifle, on occasion, something I believe is disrespectful to readers and creators both.

But that wasn’t what was under discussion–what we were talking about was placing word balloons in such a way that any English-speaking reader would intuitively know which one to read first, while retaining the storytelling flow and obscuring the least, or the least important aspects of the art.

And when it comes to that, I actually think that, yes, the best strategy IS to cater to the newbie reader.

Let’s say for the moment that my call on the lettering was correct for the reasons I believe it was correct (I know some of you disagree, but let’s pretend): it’s the optimal placement to allow a new reader to comfortably read the dialogue while taking in and appreciating the visual elements of the piece.

In that case, one could argue that my wanting that placement was an attempt to cater to the newbie reader. What I don’t see is why that would be a problem.

Is a veteran comic reader going to throw down the comic in disgust on seeing my pandering to someone who isn’t used to reading panel by panel? The dialogue’s identical. The only possible difference is the perceived cadence of the conversation–something that relies largely on the perspective of the reader and which I’m not convinced is controllable via balloon placement in any but the most extreme circumstances.

So I just made it easier for a new reader to enjoy the comic I edited, and I can’t imagine doing so lost me any long-time comic readers. I can’t imagine many long-time comic readers would give such a balloon placement much thought at all. Nor should they. The only time an average comic reader–whose primary requirement of a comic is that it be entertaining or otherwise worth the time and cost–will notice a balloon placement is if it isn’t working.

There are a lot more people who aren’t used to reading comics than are. If it doesn’t interfere with the storytelling goals of the creators, why not make a book as readable for them as possible?

As for the perils of underestimating the newer reader: when it comes to creating an accessible reading experience (strictly in the formal sense of, you know, actually being able to read the dialogue in the correct order without having to reread panels), I believe the mistake would be–no, I believe a recurring mistake among many comics editors today IS–to overestimate them.

Several years ago, I got to see comedian Steven Wright perform live in a theatre that seated around six hundred people. In the middle of the show, he told a joke. Well, he told jokes all the way through the show, but this joke landed differently than any of the other ones. I don’t remember the set-up or the punchline; all I remember is that it hinged on the audience knowing that French Post-Impressionist painter Henri de Toulous-Lautrec was short.

At no point during the joke did Wright actually mention Toulouse-Lautrec’s stature. As it happens, I was aware of this trivial tidbit of information. I got the joke, thought it was funny, and howled with laughter…

…Laughter that echoed through a hall that was otherwise dead silent. As far as I could tell, I was the one person in that 600 watching who understood why what Wright had said was funny.

As I see it, one of two things happened on that particular night with that particular joke. Either:

1) Wright overestimated his audience’s knowledge of French Post-Impressionist painters, and the joke failed because of it, or

2) Wright knew not many people would know about TL’s height, and told the joke anyway. Maybe because he thought it was funny, maybe because he wanted to reward those few audience members who’d know what he was talking about. Doesn’t really matter. It especially doesn’t matter to me, because I got the joke.

This means that either the joke failed (because it overestimated the audience) or it succeeded on its own terms, but those terms were created with a different motivation than comedians usually have with their jokes (to get the biggest laugh possible.)

Some comic creators might want to make a book so formally obscure that only a certain kind of reader will be able to follow it. I’d argue that James Turner’s NIL and REX LIBRIS have that sort of quality, as well as much of Dave Sim’s later CEREBUS work and now glamourpuss. Hell, I think some could lump THE HOLIDAY MEN in there.

If Mark and Jessica came to me and said, “Andrew, we don’t just want the books we produce to be solid pieces of entertainment, we want to make sure it’s not going to entertain a non-comics reader,” well, the first thing I’d do is tweak the lettering to make it harder for the non-comic reader to follow.

Actually, that’s not true. The first thing I’d do is try to contain my immediate negative reaction to the idea and ask why they’d want to do that.

I can’t imagine why a company that’s building a community around work that’s not in the traditional North American comic format or genre would want to risk alienating any potential new comics fan. There’s no readers to gain in such a move, and plenty to lose.

So, again strictly on a reading accessibility level, I see no harm in underestimating the potential readership. I do, however, see a great risk in overestimating the ability of non-comics readers to intuitively grasp what long-time North American comic readers have been trained to accept as natural. And I see my own annoyance when I as a reader encounter lettering that hasn’t been given proper consideration in regards to any reader, new or old alike. It’s exactly that sort of annoyance that I want to avoid with my Z2H projects.

Hey, who put this soapbox here? Never mind, here’s some BLACK JACK O’BREEN pencils from Frank Grau, Jr.:

Ever upward, heroes, ever upward.

Foley