John August

Comics

Age of Monsters

Comics, Geek Alert

I helped make a new iPhone game that’s in the App Store starting today.

In a hurry? Here’s a link:

Age of Monsters – Rock, Paper, Scissors

(It’s free.)

The game hails from Massive Joe Studios, the tiny shop run by illustrator/animator/whiz Jeff Matsuda (‘The Batman’ cartoon) and the indomitable Mike Su. I got involved with them early on, back when it was just a stupid/great idea that they would have gone ahead and done without me anyway. But still — I helped where I could.

Here’s the trailer:

So, yeah, it’s the most absurdly over-produced version of Rock, Paper, Scissors you’ll ever see. Until the feature.

Comic book grammar

Comics, Formatting

comic bookNate Piekos has a great piece at Blambot explaining the grammar and tradition of comic book lettering. It’s worth a look for any screenwriter considering writing for the paneled medium.

Comic book lettering has some grammatical and aesthetic traditions that are quite unique. What follows is a list that every letterer eventually commits to his/her own mental reference file. The majority of these points are established tradition, sprinkled with modern trends and a bit of my own opinion having lettered professionally for a few years now. The majority of these ideas have been established by Marvel and DC, but opinions vary from editor to editor, even within the same company.

Many of the examples, such as when to use ellipses verus dashes, have parallels in modern screenwriting. But as a former font nerd, I was surprised I never noticed the rule about crossbar I, or the existence of breath marks. They were always there, but when used properly, completely disappear.

(Thanks to Daring Fireball for the link.)