FONT MATTERS: New Balloon Brushes

Nate Piekos' Blambot.com is a gift

I’m on the Blambot.com mailing list; if you’ve never heard of Blambot and you are in comics, drop everything you’re doing and go to the website immediately! There you’ll find countless comic book fonts, some of which are absolutely free to independent comic book creators; the designer, Nate Piekos, has generously made them available to all and sundry and, in my opinion, has incredibly raised the level of indie comics thereby!

He ran a sale on the American Independence Day weekend, which attracted my attention—because hey, cheaper fonts? Why not? (Whoever dies with the most fonts wins, and that’s a fact).

I purchased Blambot Balloon Brushes Vol. 1, and almost instantly it’s upped my game:

I’ve always said that one’s comic’s lettering is as much a character as any of the people drawn in it. Lettering is mood; it is intensity or gentleness, strong or weak, decisive or passive.

But now, the balloons themselves can add an extra layer of meaning and expression to my work. The tremulous lines of Ghost, (Skritchy Pen), the concentric waves of Miss Thing (Emitter), or the classic, Kirby-esque blobs of Xanthus (Cosmic Soup) have elevated my work and increased my ability to communicate the thoughts and feelings I’ve written.

This may feel like an ad for Blambot but it’s really a love letter to Nate Piekos for all that he does for Indie Comics, and a recommendation from me to you that, if you’re not already taking adventage of this man’s genius and generosity, then now is the time to begin doing so.

Happy Lettering!