24 Why are comic books written only in capital letters?

It’s not a universal rule, but it is the neutral place from which comics lettering begins creatively and for the audience. I am not familiar enough with the origin. However, lettering by hand is labor intensive, consistency & clarity are rewarded and a foundation in communication is essential.

If you are tasked with lettering by hand and you want it to be consistent, to keep the readers eye flowing through the work, you had better make it as easy on you and the reader as you can. Comic publishing came out of the tradition of sweat shops and production speed was critical. If you add serif to a font it can help with readability, as does proper use of capital and lower case letters. Cursive works to add fluidity and character. However, all three are more labor intensive, especially if you are looking for consistency.

In addition, each has the potential to undermine the arts own use of line quality. The lettering is there to help the reader understand the story, not to slow the pace of the story. A legible underwhelming consistency serves this purpose.

If the letters look the same most of the time, are quickly executed, tend to serve the pace and readability of a comic, then it creates aspects of a visual lexicon. Fluency in reading comics is about reading Sequential Art and this comes with a verity of elements. One being the letters. As soon as you set up the unassuming norm that doesn't effect the reader much, you can do things to the lettering to effect the storytelling.

By making a word in BOLD it creates an accent, weight or metaphoric opportunity. You can change the word balloon to infer new information. You can color code the word or ballon to create identity connections with characters. You can add in serif, lower case or cursive to introduce layered context. You can also completely create new typography that serves sound effects or titles.

The more you use these elements the more they loose their effectiveness in telling the story. If you are sparing (like with most of comics other visual elements) the more power and clarity they hold for the reader and the quicker you can produce a comic by hand.

Many comics lettering is now done on the computer. This changes the laborious aspects some (not as much as we hope sometimes), but it doesn't change the lexicon already established much and the need for clarity and carful use of visual elements.

It may not be the perfect font, but it’s a practical tradition that will remain, as long as it serves the story, audience and creative process.

I hope someone knows the origin of who and why.

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vocabulary:

labor intensive (time-consuming, burdensome, laborious)

the tradition of sweat shops

capital and lower case letters.

Cursive works to add fluidity and character.

line quality

not to slow the pace of the story.

legible (readable, clear)

Fluency in reading comics is about reading Sequential Art and this comes with a verity of elements.

As soon as you set up the unassuming norm that doesn't effect the reader much, you can do things to the lettering to effect the storytelling.

By making a word in BOLD it creates an accent, weight or metaphoric opportunity.

You can change the word balloon to infer new information.