Comic Book Lettering, Todd Klein on J.H. Williams III

J.H. WILLIAMS III, continued

As Promethea progressed, and Alan developed it into an explanation and exploration of his ideas about magic, the art of Jim Williams became ever more creative, as he tried to express the content of the stories in a new way with each issue. Probably the most challenging single issue for all of us (before the final one) was issue 12, where each page had to carry a number of different narrative threads in different formats: a scramble of the letters Promethea, a Tarot card, the rhymed commentary of Promethea's winged staff or caduceus, and a running story told by Aleister Crowley -- not to mention the angel and devil figures that moved up and down the pages when you flipped through them. J.H. made this even more challenging by creating a continuous piece of art that connected at each side of each page, and looped back to connect the end to the beginning; in essence making a circular piece of art 24 pages wide! Quite a remarkable accomplishment, and one that Alan and I enjoyed perhaps more than anyone, as we struggled to get it all to work. Really a remarkable achievement.

Promethea 12 page

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With issue 13 Promethea began a detailed exploration of the Kaballah, a magical concept that Alan used to further explore his ideas about the world and the mind. Each of the next issues up to 23 visited one of the levels of the Kaballah, and each was expressed in a different artistic style by J.H. to reflect that. Certain colors associated with each level were also emphasized. Below, from issue 14, J.H. and his wife Wendy meet Alan on the page, something that hadn't happened yet in real life.

Promethea 14 page

There were lots of lettering challenges on this epic journey. For instance, the Moebius-strip pages in issue 15, where the lettering had to be read in several directions. Alan and I had to rework this one to make it read as he intended it.

Promethea 15 page

But certainly the most challenging and time-consuming two pages of the Kaballah issues, and in fact probably of any in my career, were the all-lettering spread in Promethea 23. Alan's script provided a list of about 30 "prayers" or the equivalent, and his instructions were to get these translated into as many languages as possible and fill the two pages with them. J.H. gave me the idea he had in mind for the layout: circular balloons gradually reduced in size radiating from a central point on the left side, and the rest was up to me.

Promethea 23 pages

The first challenge was getting the translations, and I enlisted the help of Assistant Editor Kristy Quinn, her friends, and some online contacts of my own, as well as online translation programs like Babelfish to come up with versions of Alan's text, or parts of it, in over 50 languages. In some cases I had to invent shorter phrases or just use single words, and I added a few music examples as well. Once that was assembled, I began lettering, stopping often to consult the reference, as I was using languages and even alphabets that were new to me. The whole process took about two weeks. I'm sure there are mistakes, though I haven't been told of any thus far. So, my own personal prayer near the lower right has been answered!