Comicraft
Company type | Lettering and logo design |
---|---|
Industry | Los Angeles, California |
Key people | Richard Starkings, John Roshell |
Website | http://www.comicraft.com |
Comicraft is a
History
The company was founded by Richard Starkings in 1992. Starkings had been working for Marvel UK for five years, but left London for New York, circa 1990.[1] Lettering large numbers of pages overnight for Marvel editor Gregory Wright, Starkings decided to move away from the New York Marvel offices to California, partly hoping that the increased distance would mean increased deadlines.[1] A year later, Starkings (now based in Los Angeles) was asked to letter issues of Marvel's premier title Uncanny X-Men.[1]
Unable to meet the deadlines of then-editor Bob Harras, he considered faster methods of lettering, and turned to computers.[2] Digitizing his lettering in readiness, and joining with designer John Roshell, Starkings unwittingly found that the formation of Image Comics created a perfect opportunity for his innovative lettering practices.[2] The 'superstar artist' status of the Image founders, and the money they were able spend on production allowed Image to attract letterers from DC and Marvel, creating a vacuum made all the more stark by the concurrent comics boom inspiring companies to increase output.[2] Although meeting resistance in some quarters (most famously from Harras at Marvel), the higher-paychecks offered by Image allowed some letterers to produce less work, further snow-balling the demand for Starkings' services.[2]
For a name Starkings recalled a friend's carpentry business being called "Proudcraft", and the two settled on Comicraft.
Active Images
A sub-company, "Active Images" was initiated in 1995
Clients
Comicraft's work and fonts have appeared in hundreds of products produced and distributed by all four of the major American comics companies:
Many of the company's fonts, created by Starkings and designer Roshell are commercially available to individuals and institutions as
Bibliography (selected)
Comicraft has produced a 64-page book detailing the basics of lettering comics:
- Comic Book Lettering: The Comicraft Way ISBN 978-0-9740567-3-9[6]
Comics and books either lettered by, or featuring fonts created by, Starkings/Comicraft include:
- Batman: The Killing Joke (DC) (By Alan Moore and Brian Bolland) — hand-lettered by Starkings pre-Comicraft, when he was still in England.
- Spider-Man Blue (Marvel) (By Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale)
- Marvels (Marvel) (By Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross)
- Astro City (WildStorm) (By Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross)
- Battle Chasers (WildStorm/Image) (By Joe Madureira)
- Danger Girl (WildStorm) (By J. Scott Campbell)
- Batman: Hush (DC) (By Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee)
Almost every book published by
- Jess Nevins' Annotations on Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; "Heroes & Monsters" and "A Blazing World"
Notes
- ^ a b c Starkings, Richard. "The Secret Origin of Comicraft" Part 1. Accessed February 10, 2008
- ^ a b c d e f Starkings, Richard. "The Secret Origin of Comicraft" Part 2. Accessed February 10, 2008
- ^ 1994 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners Archived 2008-01-07 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed February 10, 2008
- ^ a b ComicBookFonts: More Information. Accessed February 10, 2008
- ^ AboutUs.org: Active Images. Accessed February 10, 2008
- ^ Comic Book Lettering The Comicraft Way
- ^ Active Images.com. Accessed February 10, 2008
References
- Ihnatko, Andy. "Web Can be Font of All Fonts" Chicago Sun-Times (May 24, 2007).
- Benjamin Ong Pang Kean. "The Starkings Way: Talking Letters & Fonts with Richard Starkings"[permanent dead link] (April 15, 2005).
- Thomas, Michael. "The Invisible Art in Plain Sight: A Look at the Art of Lettering" (June 9, 2000).