X-O Manowar #6 Spotlight: Lettering

 

X-O Manowar #6 Cover A by Rahzzah

I'd love to kick off this post by enthusing about Rahzzah's powerful cover, but as I already covered that in an earlier post, I'd better start by discussing letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou's contributions to X-O Manowar #6.

This issue unfolds through a series of vignettes separated by time. I really love the retro way Hassan clues us in on where the action is taking place, and when. Besides reminding me of the 1990s, in which Aric of Dacia first appeared in comics, I love the two-toned three dimensional letters. They remind me of the title sequence of a big budget movie.

 

The two points of jagged edging in the above dialogue balloon tell us we're listening to technological inventor Troy Whitaker over X-O Manowar's communication system. When compared with Aric and Shanhara's dialogue, what strikes me most is that Troy and Aric's lettering both look italicized for the most part. The letters of Shanhara's dialogue, on the other hand, stand upright.

I wonder if this suggests a certain apprehension on the part of both men, with regard to Shanhara?

 

Notice the jagged dialogue balloon when Aric grows frustrated with Shanhara? Hassan doesn't even attempt to make it look rounded. If Shanhara had a last name, like Smith or Stevenson or Hallum, I bet Aric would have said that too.

The yellow lettered sound effect conveys exactly how powerful a blast Aric is hurling at the nanite swarm. The jagged, red dialogue balloon, and the suddenly italicized lettering, reveal Shanhara's panic. The way the arrow from Aric's dialogue balloon snakes its way to him mimics the way Shanhara seems to be unraveling, leaving him defenseless.

Unlike Troy, Aric has no interest in Shanhara's inner workings. He has no desire to peer into Shanhara's code, or operating system, and fine-tune the way she works to suit him better. Like most of us, he's content to know how he can get Shanhara do to what he wants her to do, when he wants her to do it. 

Needless to say, Shanhara's loss of structural integrity, and the way she displays an "Update in progress--please wait" sort of message, knocks him for a loop. This seems very much like a Troy Whitaker innovation: the sort of message you'd expect to see from a computer system designed by a Human. As Shanhara is an artificial intelligence who was once a sentient alien being, this is another sign of how radically Troy's tinkering with her system has changed her.

Aric, it would seem, is not amused.

In X-O Manowar #6, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou reveals the state of Aric's continually changing relationship with Shanhara, as Troy Whitaker sends her on an evolutionary journey toward a completely different state of being. Well done, Hassan!

Dragon Dave