For most comic readers of a certain age, there’s a period where Chris Claremont’s X-Men was their favorite comic as a kid; the particular era of Claremont X-Men can vary – Is it the Romita Jr. stuff? The Jim Lee run? What about Paul Smith’s short tenure? – but one thing about Claremont’s X-Men remains consistent: The lettering.
As the page above shows – It’s from Marvel Age Annual #3, by Claremont, Marc Silvestri and Terry Austin, if you’re wondering – Tom Orzechowski managed to deal with all manner of wordy panels and overwriting with ease, making the most filled panels both easy to read and graceful in their design. There’s a rumor that Claremont used to pay Orzechowski extra from his own pocket to ensure that he stayed on Uncanny; I have no idea if it’s true, but if it is, it was certainly money well-spent. Orz’s lettering is my internal model for what good lettering should look like – attractive, clear and never, ever interfering with the artwork no matter how many damn words are going on in the panel.
February 23rd, 2012 at 9:21 am
Tom Orz is really the unsung hero of Claremont’s Uncanny X-men run. For over ONE HUNDRED CONSECUTIVE ISSUES, he somehow managed to keep all of Claremont’s verbose prose in check and make it entertaining to read. His sound effects were so playful. One of my favorite examples was the issue where Rogue goes FLYING thanks to the Juggernaut’s slap, and you get that fun “OWOWOWOWOWOW” that follows her on the way up.
http://i53.tinypic.com/9apij7.jpg
Artists came and went on the series, but Tom Orz’ lettering(AND Dan Green’s wonderful inking!) kept the series feeling consistent over the course of its many year tenure.
February 23rd, 2012 at 9:43 am
I know he has his haters these days, but for fans of a certain age, Chris Claremont’s run is the ONLY run of the X-Men that matters.
February 23rd, 2012 at 10:08 am
Jeremy hit the nail on the head.
February 23rd, 2012 at 10:43 am
Amen.
You know what the most frustrating part of going back to reread the Claremont/Byrne era of “Uncanny” is? The issues that Orz didn’t letter. Those feel ‘heavier’ somehow.
Orz injected life into the comic with his lettering in a way that few other letterers every have been able to. John Workman is first to come to mind there. I love Todd Klein’s work, too, but not in the same way…
February 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pm
A lot of comic writers from the 70s and early 80s were very verbose. Pretty sure it’s a combination of them a generation of writers who took comic books seriously and being frustrated novelists.