Comments on: Punctuating Comics: Dots and Dashes http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946 Todd Klein on lettering, life, literature and more Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:45:55 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Todd http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946&cpage=1#comment-4094 Todd Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:33:21 +0000 http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946#comment-4094 Thanks, Dave, good point! Thanks, Dave, good point!

]]> By: Dave Bell http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946&cpage=1#comment-4093 Dave Bell Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:41:04 +0000 http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946#comment-4093 That last panel, the 1956 FLASH story, suggests to me that comics lettering is almost a distinct dialect. Think about how the waitress's hesitations and uncertainty would be depicted in a book, or in a movie. The picture is a frozen instant, and the lettering has to carry all the sense of timing, without the space for descriptive text that a book has. Almost everything that isn't in the picture has to be somehow presented as speech. That doesn't explain double-hyphens, but maybe that development of language tools for the medium has something to do with the more chaotic earlier usage. That last panel, the 1956 FLASH story, suggests to me that comics lettering is almost a distinct dialect. Think about how the waitress’s hesitations and uncertainty would be depicted in a book, or in a movie. The picture is a frozen instant, and the lettering has to carry all the sense of timing, without the space for descriptive text that a book has. Almost everything that isn’t in the picture has to be somehow presented as speech.
That doesn’t explain double-hyphens, but maybe that development of language tools for the medium has something to do with the more chaotic earlier usage.

]]> By: Bits and Pieces: Interviews and More « Speed Force http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946&cpage=1#comment-4078 Bits and Pieces: Interviews and More « Speed Force Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:31:13 +0000 http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946#comment-4078 [...] Klein, who designed the first post-Crisis Flash logo in 1987, looks at dots and dashes in comic lettering, and how the typewriter gave comics the double-dash (--) instead of the more standard [...] [...] Klein, who designed the first post-Crisis Flash logo in 1987, looks at dots and dashes in comic lettering, and how the typewriter gave comics the double-dash (--) instead of the more standard [...]

]]> By: Todd http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946&cpage=1#comment-4076 Todd Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:36:21 +0000 http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946#comment-4076 As it's what comics I grew up reading always used, it's hard to separate the history and the aesthetics, but trying to be objective, I don't think either looks better than the other really. As it’s what comics I grew up reading always used, it’s hard to separate the history and the aesthetics, but trying to be objective, I don’t think either looks better than the other really.

]]> By: Shawn http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946&cpage=1#comment-4074 Shawn Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:20:40 +0000 http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=1946#comment-4074 This begs the question, however. Does the double hyphen look better to you because that's what you're used to seeing -- that is to say, because it's traditional -- or because you feel that it has a better overall look on the page? Alternatively, is it possible that those are the same thing? It's strange to think about how much of language is just an agreed-upon set of conventions. This begs the question, however. Does the double hyphen look better to you because that’s what you’re used to seeing — that is to say, because it’s traditional — or because you feel that it has a better overall look on the page? Alternatively, is it possible that those are the same thing?

It’s strange to think about how much of language is just an agreed-upon set of conventions.

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