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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Reading Comics

Design by Alex Camlin

Fans of comics and graphic novels will have to tell the rest of us if vertical text is commonly used in those media -- I just don't know.


The use of primary colors plus black and white works very nicely here, and the eye on the left is a great addition -- it underscores the graphic nature of the subject and it breaks the symmetry of the overall design. Nice.

Buy this book at Amazon.com

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice. I love looking at covers that were obviously painstakingly handcrafted. I love the vertical type.

Keith T. Garner said...

I think you were doing a shoutout to me. :)

In any case, I don't think vertical text is used in any great abundance. Obviously, there are times when it works from an artistic standpoint, but I don't think this was any particular homage to any particular comic. In fact, thinking about it, it would be annoying to read something that used vertical text in such abundance.

The yellow and red balls strike me as similar to caption dialog boxes, so there could be a call out there.

I suppose I could see this as a title splash in a comic, but there'd be more around it than a stark background.

Or maybe I'm just over thinking it.

Juan Carlos said...

mm I dunno, I think I kinda see the composition kind of akin to what Eisner did in The Spirit title splashes. http://wednesdayshaul.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/spirit4.jpg

But the form evokes to me little bit more Kirby or more probably Moebius with the airbrush look, etc.

Anonymous said...

Very fun and engaging. Speaks to the piece and makes for a good addition to the trend going on with these comic treatments to covers...

Anonymous said...

it looks just like the Eisner book only not at all

Readymade said...

Looks like Chris Ware's work. The colours used, the visual illusion and the prominent type.

I like that it's different from similar books on comics and graphic novels. Those usually have... well, comics and graphic novels on their covers. A bit boring.

Joseph said...

I couldn't find this in the bookstore last night, so I still don't have the designer's name. Agreed that it's probably Chris Ware's work, or someone working way too close to Chris Ware's style.

Anonymous said...

I like the way that the type treatment makes your eye read things in the right order, just like comic books do, even without the typical comic graphic art.

Trinankur said...

I think the lettering order is taken after Japanese Manga. The vertical writing style is apparently called 'Tategaki'. I guess the squarish lettering is also meant to echo this.

Trinankur said...

Another thing, the clouds in the background too look very much in the manga style... Somewhat close to what Osamu Tezuka would have painted.

Anonymous said...

the designer is Alex Camlin

Anonymous said...

I wonder if this was done in Illustrator... very cool with the 3D effect on the type. How it is not true to perspective, but works. Over the top bubbly fun... And the typface used in the second lower bubble is perfect...

Anonymous said...

Did you notice the optical illusion? First I thought "Comics" was elevated and "Reading" was sunk, but then they switched. I like it!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

i think the 3d effect isn't needed. it makes it kind of clunky. if it wasn't for that it would be realy good