Scott and I babble constantly, so let’s shine the spotlight on the other half of Team Robo for a change, shall we? Last time you met the colorist, now say hello to the letterer!
Jeff Powell – Totally Replaceable
I like to threaten Jeff with being fired or replaced a few times a week, but the truth is Atomic Robo needs this guy. Jeff has to cram my excessively wordy dialog into panels already jammed with Scott’s art and he has to anticipate how thousands and thousands of strangers will read a page so he can make it so intuitive that none of them realize he did anything at all. But his work doesn’t end there, no sir. Jeff designed both versions of the Atomic Robo logo (stacked and horizontal), and invented an exclusive font for our dialog (to debut in Vol 3). Jeff also formats all our pages for publication and has taken up doing the layouts for our trade paperbacks as of Vol 2 (buy it!). He also provides valuable feedback on the art and especially my scripts as he’s the only person besides me who looks at them for more than five minutes before they end up on shelves. What I love most about Jeff is that he’s a consummate pro. This guy will letter up a full comic and then turn around to make any change I care to mention. Sometimes it’s just a few tweaks, other times it’s a practical re-write (I think vol 2, issue 5 saw every line of dialog altered between Jeff’s first pass and the final product). And he does it without complaint or delay, and he makes it look as good and as natural as if the art had been drawn around it from the start.
Why comics?
I guess I’ve always had an affinity for comics. The very first comic I started reading as a kid was Marvel’s Transformers series. I was in grammar school and my mom would pick issues up for me on her way home from work since I was too young to walk there myself. I was always psyched when she would come home with a new issue. Like most parents, my mom would support anything that kept me quiet and out of trouble. When I was allowed to go on my own I would pick up whatever I found visually appealing and it snowballed into a closet full of long boxes.
What were you doing before comics?
Trying my best to get into comics.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
I find that it’s hard to get bored as a letterer. There’s always a new project to jump on, a new creative team to work with and different artwork to look at. When I was lettering on the art boards for Archie, I always loved getting that Fed Ex box of pages. I also like meeting with other creators whom I’d only speak to on the phone or correspond with via e-mail and hope they’re not freaks in person. One artist that stands out in my mind is Ron Lim. He’s one of the most upbeat people I’ve ever spoken with.
What do you goddamn hate about it?
My list of complaints is short a one. Most of the time there are minor annoyances. I think I’ve been lucky. I’ve definitely heard worse horror stories than I have to tell.
What should someone know if he or she is looking to get into your field?
With the advent of computer lettering everyone with a computer, a few graphics apps and an interest in comics thinks that getting into lettering (or coloring, for that matter) is a good idea and/or easy to do. I disagree. I never thought I’d be doing what I’m doing now. It kind of fell into my lap and I just ran with it. My penmanship and design sense were always (marginally) better than my illustration skills, I think, so it was a natural choice for me. I didn’t have a particular love for lettering in the beginning, but it grew on me. There are plenty of writers cum letterers who only do so because either they’ve had letterers bail on them in the past or can’t pay for the service. There’s a lot more involved than choosing fonts and copying and pasting. You can lead a horse to design applications but you can’t teach it aesthetics.
But, to answer your question, they should know how to load a gun.
Take us through how you tackle a typical page.
Sometimes I’ll read over the script ahead of time to see what’s involved but most of the time I’ll just dive right in. I start with dumping in the text, placing it into the appropriate panels and shaping it. Then I go through and add the balloons, tails, sound effects, random signs, etc. I work straight through an issue from beginning to end. I usually save title pages for last regardless of what page it’s on.
Let’s face it, we make comics, we’re nerdy. What’s your biggest nerd vice?
I like video games a lot, particularly RPGs. Orcs rule!
Atomic Robo: best comic or greatest comic?
C) All of the above. I mean, c’mon, It’s the only book I’ve worked on that’s used the word “Door!” as a sound effect. Seriously though, Robo is a ton of fun to work on. The more entertained I am while working on a project, the more of myself I put into it which I hope translates onto the page.
Brian
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