Last March, I sent you my first draft of Indoor Kid, the collaboration I have been working on with comics writer/editor/publisher Ellis Bojar. It attempts to fulfill his vision for an expansive designspace in the comic book lettering style: variable axes for weight, width, and slant, plus a special emphasis axis that enlarges letterforms from their vertical center without affecting the stroke weight. It has been so rewarding to see uses of Indoor Kid pop up over the past year, most recently in the latest run of DCâs Harley Quinn lettered by Lucas Gattoni. That gave me some momentum to dive back into the font, and one year later, Indoor Kid is back with a shiny new lowercase!
One year ago, I sent you my first draft of Indoor Kid, the collaboration I have been working on with comics writer/editor/publisher Ellis Bojar. It attempts to fulfill his vision for an expansive designspace in the comic book lettering style:
In keeping with Ellisâs love of the pre-digital era of comic books, Indoor Kidâs lowercase strives for a middle ground between the angular, handwritten captions of Willie Schubert and the rounder, looser style of John Workmanâs oeuvre. We attempted to mitigate the small size and repetitiveness of the lowercase with a large x-height and a fair amount of dynamic asymmetry in the gesturesâfor example, see how triangular the counterforms of b/d/p/q get!
It has been so rewarding to see uses of Indoor Kid pop up over the past year, most recently in the latest run of DCâs Harley Quinn lettered by Lucas Gattoni.
Traditionally-speaking, lettering in American comics is all-caps. Various explanations are offered for this conventionâdue to the lack of ascenders and descenders, capitals appear larger, require fewer alignments, and allow lines to be packed closer together. Thereâs also an argument that distinctive shapes of capital letters can withstand the poor print quality of early comics far better than the repetitive gestures of lowercase would.
Ellis first remembers seeing mixed-case text in Kevin Nowlanâs expressively angular lettering from Moonshadow, as well as in underground comics like Art Spiegelmanâs Maus. In Maus, it is frequently used to set the narration apart from the dialog, and there is similar precedent for using lowercase in captions, whispers, and gasps.