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| Shadowman #4 Cover B by Michael Walsh* |
In Shadowman #4, letter Clayton Cowles demonstrates his usual understated brilliance.
Shadowman's words, at least when he appears in his Human form of Jack Boniface, are set in a normal font that is pleasing to the eye. When he stresses words in a sentence, the words come in bold and italicized. Again, nothing that makes your eyes (tired no doubt from reading through your pile of new weekly comics) work overtime.
By contrast, Baron Samedi's ornate font is as flamboyant as his dress sense. Would you categorize it as Gothic, Victorian, or Italianate? Either way, the font communicates a sense of history.
Once Jack lapses into monologue-ing mode, Clayton Cowles shares Jack's thoughts with us as gently rounded narrative boxes. While the white font can be a little harder to read, I like how the black background reveals the loa inside him.
This sound effect is a lot of fun, and so effective too. We don't really need to see Jack glance up to know what he's hearing, or the direction the sound is traveling.
This character, whom you'll see more of the pages preceding the preview pages the good folks at Valiant Comics were kind enough to share with us, reveals his unbalanced nature by the style of his font. I like how the balloon background reflects his skin coloring.
Do the two SS's together suggest that the character is hissing like a snake? Maybe just a little?
One thing I always struggled to understand was the significance of Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou's colored font and sound effects in Max Bemis and Nathan Stockman's recent Savage series. Thankfully, Clayton Cowles' sound effects seem consistent from issue to issue. For example, consider the style, size, and coloring of these sound effects when you compare Shadowman swinging his scythe at an opponent in Shadowman #4 with the first issue.
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| From Shadowman #1 |
Such consistency helps unite these issues released months apart. Given the grotesque imagery involved in such moments, that's another source of comfort letterer Clayton Cowles affords readers in this fantastic horror series.
Dragon Dave
* No wonder Shadowman has a headache in artist Jon Davis-Hunt's cover. Somebody get Shadowman that aspirin, and hurry!
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