If you're a casual comic strip or comic book reader you've probably never considered the following. If you're involved in the industry then it probably stuck out like a sore thumb. What I mean is the lettering of the original Uncle Doug strip. This was my first attempt to ever letter a comic story and I learned a rather easy lesson thanks to my peers involving what is called crossbars. The Ninja Lettering MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/ninjalettering) has a great write-up about it and I quote:
- One of the most common mistakes that new and novice letterers make is the Crossbar 'I'. The Tameri Guide for Writers (http://www.tameri.com/dtp/typography.html) states that 'characters such as the capital H and lowercase t feature horizontal strokes. When the horizontal meets two vertical strokes, it is called a crossbar.'
Comic lettering site, Balloon Tales (http://www.balloontales.com/articles/glossary/index.html) says 'Crossbar 'I' is used for the pronoun 'I', as in 'I'm', 'I'll', etc., and for the pronoun 'I' only. The appearance of a crossbar 'I' in the middle of a word is the first mark of an amateur lettering job.'
I have seen this mistake made thousands of time and even by professionals. Make your work stand out by getting this little but important lettering tip right.-
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