Why do American comics have this thing where they seem to emphasize way too many random words that don’t make any sense and I spend the whole time reading up and down in a lilting mental voice
IN THE DAYS OF HAND-LETTERING AND POOR PRINTING, IT WAS IMPORTANT TO MAKE THE LETTERING EASY TO READ, SO IT WAS DONE IN UPPERCASE LETTERS. THIS TENDED TO MAKE THE TEXT HARD TO READ. SMALL PUNCTUATION MARKS WERE HARD TO SEE, IF THEY PRINTED AT ALL.
LETTERERS – THOSE UNSUNG HEROES – LEARNED THAT BY VARYING THE WEIGHT OF THE TEXT AND USING EXCLAMATION POINTS AND DOUBLE-DASHES, THEY COULD MAKE THE COMICS EASIER TO READ, WHILE EXPRESSING EMPHASIS TO ENHANCE THE ACTION-PACKED DIALOGUE!
IN THE HANDS OF A GOOD WRITER AND LETTERER TEAM, THE EMPHASIZED WORDS ARE NOT RANDOM, BUT INSTEAD WORDS THAT WOULD BE STRESSED IN NATURAL SPEECH. THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE STRESS CAN CHANGE THE MEANING OF THE SENTENCE!
YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT COMIC BOOK LETTERING GRAMMAR HERE!!
