Ace lettering design company Comicraft, founded by Richard Starkings and John Roshell, are rightfully celebrating 30 years of operations with a ton of updates and offers this month.
Richard and John, the foremost pioneers of digital comic book lettering (does anyone remember that lettering was once transcribed onto pages of comic book art with pen and ink?!) have been counting down the days of #Comicraftober on Twitter and Facebook in preparation for a month-long celebration of their fonts and comic books this November.
Look for 30 free updates of classic Comicraft fonts — one for each day of November — for their many customers on comicbookfonts.com and everywhere else Comicraft fonts are available.
And because there are always new digital barriers to cross, November also marks the release of Remastered Print on Demand editions of books from Comicraft’s publishing catalogue on Comixology, including Elephantmen: War Toys and Tim Sale: Black and White.
A reminiscent Richard Starkings said “Thirty years! I remember clearly that day back in November 1992, when John Roshell reached for the phone in our makeshift studio in my Santa Monica apartment, hesitated and asked, ‘How should I answer it?’ My old Venice Beach roommate was a carpenter and called his business PROUDCRAFT, and so, quick as The Flash, I said ‘COMICRAFT!’ and a legend was born!”
“I’d been working with Macs and Adobe Illustrator for a few years, but Richard’s studio was the first place I set eyes on Fontographer,” says John. “The possibility that I could make fonts blew my young mind, and soon set me on the creative journey I’ve followed ever since, both for Comicraft and my personal foundry, Swell Type”.
“There was a lot of resistance to digital comic book lettering in the 1990s,” Richard acknowledged earlier this week on Twitter, but John Roshell and I built a business based on good will, hard work and honest enthusiasm.”
The Comicraft font library now has more than 300 families, and continues to grow and improve each month, embracing (and inventing!) type innovations like Color Fonts, Variable Fonts and Crossbar ‘I’ Technology.
Comicraft is also the publisher of Elephantmen, Ask for Mercy, Hip Flask, and Comic Book Lettering the Comicraft Way.
Our congratulations to Richard and team on reaching this milestone, after much hard graft across three incredible decades. All the very best for the amazing work you do, helping create comics across the globe!
• Comicraft is online at comicbookfonts.com | Follow Comicraft on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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