Greetings weary Internet traveler. Welcome to Papercuts & Inkstains.  Feel free to pull up a pew, rest your weary bones and have a tall glass of organic comic-juice. 

I'm your barkeep, Rob, you'll know that though since you felt intrigued enough to sign up to this irreverent newsletter. Our specials this time and, well… Every time I send this out to you… are comic book lettering and design, and maybe a pinch or two of comic book writing. With added musings, tangential nonsense and probably a dollop of Warhammer 40k. 

Newsletter number 2. The dreaded second album. Or could the first newsletter be considered an E.P or Demo and this be the official inaugural outing? Who knows? I'm not here to discern the difference between recording a full L.P and writing what is tantamount to a stream of cognitive nonsense. I'm not a scientist. I'm a comic creator goddammit, and we don't deal in absolutes! We deal in funny pages and 9 panel grid structure, or so I'm told. 

So what's been going on since my first exciting dip into the waters of straight to inbox communication with you all? Well, the Broken Frontier comic awards of 2024 were announced and… I WON. Somehow. I'm still a little knocked for six by it. But I'm so thankful to everyone who voted for me,  to Joe Farrar for trusting me to tell an artless story via only lettering and to Andy Oliver for shortlisting me for the award! 

It's the first time I've had a body of work officially recognised as “award worthy” and it came entirely out of the blue. Just to be nominated was a huge boon, for sure, but to be up against Nate Piekos, Rus Wooten, Aditya Bidikar and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou was a win in and of itself. Those guys are a literal who's who of incredible lettering prowess. All have moved the craft forward in their own way, and then there's me. A guy who decided just before his 30th Birthday that comics was a passion he wanted to pursue. And then proceeded to go arse first into making comics. 

I learnt lettering out of necessity and a foolish confidence of “oh, that looks easy”. Well, dear reader. Easy it is not. I'm still learning. I'm still figuring out ways to speed up, to hone my eye, learning new techniques and methods and trying to carve my own little niche into the history of comic books in the only way I know how. Arse first. I'm lucky that lettering is my sole method of income. I'm also foolhardy/overly confident enough to think that lettering should be my sole method of income. Some months are easier than others. You get a steady drip of jobs that keeps the bills paid and the wolves from the door. Others, you have to be creative in the way you apportion your money. 

Being self taught can have its advantages. You don't get stuck following convention all the time, but this also puts you at a disadvantage as well as not all the information or skills you'd need are available to you. When I started out learning to letter, I used several guides I found online, one was Blambots “Better Letterer” guide which used to live on Nate's website, but has now morphed into the phenomenally successful “Blambot's Guide to Lettering” which I recommend none of you actually purchase and you just continue to hire freelancers like myself instead of taking things into your own hands. It's far safer, and much less financially dangerous on us jobbing letterers for you to do so. However, if you insist on LEARNING and IMPROVING your overall KNOWLEDGE, or whatever, of comics, then you could do far worse. I mean, if you really have some unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the Forbidden Funny Pages Fundamentals, you could also buy Shelley Bond’s Filth and Grammar and maybe even Scott McCloud's Making Comics, but I'm not your mum and I'm not giving you a syllabus. 

But, I want to give a special shout out to Jim Campbell’s lettering blog. Jim is an amazing comics letterer who has worked on so many brilliant books. Plus, he is also an absolutely wonderful person. I got the chance to properly have a pint with him at thought bubble this last year, and it was lovely to sit and swap lettering War stories, talk music, politics and just generally jabber away at one another for several hours. If you want to learn some solid, easy to grasp information about lettering fundamentals, then it's well worth your time having a read and familiarizing yourself with Jim's guides, if only to help you understand the process your Letterers go through when working on your books. 

So, whatcha been lettering?

I suppose a regular feature should be a lovely list of books I am currently lettering or have lettered and are now available to buy/order and perhaps any recent news articles about books which have just been announced.

SHENTU - Memories of Spring

W - Allen Wu A/C - Various

CLOSETWORLD

W - Matt Yocum A - John Amor C - Tamra Bonvillain/Febri Ferdian

Whatcha been up to, Rob?

I, once again, have mostly been working as of late, clad in an electric blanket and every jumper I can possibly find within the house.

I have watched the first two episodes of season two of Severance on Apple TV+. It continues to be the most intriguing show out there, and the first two episodes have been packed with twists and turns aplenty! I have also started Dark Matter, which so far, has been very engrossing.

I have been terrified of my looming ADHD assessment which I have waited 3 years for. It would be nice to get some answers as to why my brain works the way it does (and so actively against me).

I’ve lined up this months audiobook listening, a pair of Stephen King classics, The Stand and Misery.

I should probably get going on my Blood Angels army, they are simply sat, waiting to be built.

Lookie lookie, it’s GRIFF!

Not only do I letter comics, I also write them sometimes. And this year sees the first collection of Griff Gristle coming to kickstarter.

For those not in the know, Griff Gristle is our only protection from the nightmares of the deep and it seems as though the nightmares are rising. GRIFF GRISTLE: THE BOATMAN'S CALL is a 150+ page Supernatural/Adventure Graphic Novel that takes the tropes of the horror and supernatural genres and puts them all at sea… Collecting all of Griff's previous adventures, 'Here Be Monsters', 'The Siren's Song' and 'The Endless Voyage', plus all new, never before read short stories set within the world that Griff inhabits, THE BOATMAN'S CALL is packed to the gills with horror, humour, heart and high stakes! Below you’ll see Rory’s cover for the collection, minus any text or logos, as it is GLORIOUS! Below is a link which will take you to the pre-launch page so you don’t miss out on when we set sail!

And that is the end of Newsletter Two. It continues to be scattershot, just random nonsense that falls out of my brain, through the keyboard and into your eyes. I hope you enjoyed a brief distraction from the INFRINGING OVERENCOMPASSING DREAD that surrounds us all.

Until next time.

PORTFOLIO

BLUESKY

ALL CHIBI ARTWORK BY NATDRAWSSHIT