All images © Erik Larsen.

There are precious few mainstream comics being lettered by hand these days. One holdout is Erik Larsen’s SAVAGE DRAGON, lettered by hand for some time by John Workman, and currently under the talented pens of veteran letterer Tom Orzechowski. Tom sent me an email and some samples today, which he’s graciously allowed me to share. Tom’s fine craftstmanship is evident throughout, and now I want to start buying this comic! Tom says,

“I’m having an absolute blast lettering Savage Dragon by hand. Workman dropped off in mid issue (#136), just as the book was about to go biweekly. I figured it would take six issues to get my mojo back, and that was about right. My body copy is evolving into something different from where I left off, half a dozen years ago. The current look is less square than it had been.”

“I’m still experimenting with angularity. The bolds aren’t looking naturalistic, which tells me I’m still not in control of the body copy.”

“Erik’s tone evokes Marvel in 1966, so I’m doing titles with a Simek/Rosen kink, and sfx somewhere between Rosen and Costanza. Big fun!”

“I’ve lined up an Image GN with creators who are delighted with the thought of hand lettering, and I’ll be looking for more of this. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the pen and ink.”

Sounds good, Tom, and looks terrific to me. If you’d like to contact Tom, you can do so through his WEBSITE. As far as I’m concerned, Tom still has it!