Van Horn's Lettering (and Disney lettering in general)

Danehog@aol.com Danehog at aol.com
Fri Mar 21 20:57:06 CET 2003


In a message dated 3/21/2003 4:42:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, cord at wiljes.de 
writes:

> William Van Horn's lettering is incredibly beautiful. In times where
> lettering is a nearly exctinct craft, replaced by cheap computer fonts,
> Van Horn's lettering is a shining example. In fact I believe he should
> be nominated as "best letterer" in the next Eisner Awards.

I agree completely! It's almost *disgusting* seeing computer lettering taking 
over the entire industry, with prime examples being most of Marvel's comic 
book line. Their comics have such a "cheap" feel to them now, as if they're 
processed in three and a half days. The computer-rendering lettering and 
computer-rendered balloons just generally fail to feel "complete" next to 
hand-drawn/inked artwork.

Van Horn's lettering is crisp, clean, attractive, and looks like it *belongs* 
in the stories.

While we're on the subject of Disney lettering, I liked Carl Barks' early 
lettering much better than his later stuff. The early lettering--with 
exclamation points actually being circles instead of dots--was just 
"bubblier," "crisper," and more fun to look at. I guess it's pointless to 
criticize lettering like this, but I thought I'd bring it up.

All the other elements of Barks' stories were seemingly perfect, so there's 
nothing I should complain about anyway!
-- 
Thanks for reading this nonsense,

Dane Martin
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