My wife took me out for my birthday dinner to a restaurant in an 1880s Victorian home that has also been a mortuary in the past. Food was amazing. I fell in love with this staircase. (Yes, the place is haunted. I asked the staff.)

Front row for Spin Doctors last night. They played a fantastic show. If you only remember their hit album from the 90s, you’ve missed out on a lot of great music.

That reminds me a lot how asterix and obelix handles that

Ace in your face Friday

Lovely day and happy Friday. So far, I've designed a new credits spread for the upcoming 9th I Hate Fairyland TPB. This will be the first trade with artists Derek Laufman and Jay Fosgitt, and we've restyled the look to what I've been calling the "storybook" style guide.

The punctuation immediately following an emphasized word should also carry that emphasis. Standard practice.

If I have to suffer with it every minute for the rest of my life, I'm taking you all down with me.

If we’re on the phone, this is probably what I’m doing.

BETTER LETTERER batch 4 for you. And before the inevitable "that's not how I do it" replies, keep in mind that, by and large, this is how it's done in pro American comics (Marvel, DC, etc.) I've worked for all of them. More tips: blambot.com/pages/letter...

AMERICAN CAPER #1 is out today from Dark Horse Comics and Absurd Ventures. You like fucked-up characters and excessive violence? This one's for you. youtu.be/QNQd8ckBVrc?...

Had a dream that I went to see an animated adaptation of MCR's Long Live the Black Parade. It further developed the whole Draag plot line from the tour. The animation was just like the classic AKIRA movie from the 80s. I have to tell G about this! He'll get a kick out of it.

Lovely day. Spent Veterans Day cleaning my garage. Back at work today. Spent the last hour catching up on emails and various paperwork. (BLECH!) About to continue lettering American Caper #6. Listening to Southern Avenue in the studio.

Blambot's latest Indie font has arrived! PIXEL PANELS BB is a professionally pixelated comic book dialogue font that features Regular and Bold weights with barred-I correction and manga glyphs! Designed to look like vintage low-res game graphics! blambot.com/products/pix...

It just didn't nail the absurd humor. Like a good friend of mine recently said about the entertainment industry: "...They're all trying to imitate something better without understanding why it was better."

The new Naked Gun was mediocre at best. It had its moments, but the trailer gave away everything funny in the first act of the movie. Pretty disappointing. It just doesn't hold up against the Leslie Nielsen show and movies.

Ace in your face Friday

Blambot's latest Indie font has arrived! PIXEL PANELS BB is a professionally pixelated comic book dialogue font that features Regular and Bold weights with barred-I correction and manga glyphs! Designed to look like vintage low-res game graphics! blambot.com/products/pix...

I'm really thinking of just calling this new font by it's project name: Pixel Panels BB. It's not taken, and I'm tired of trying to come up with something else. Sound good?

Trying to create pixel art for the background of Project Pixel Panels's preview graphics and, boy...do I suck at pixel art. Need to rethink this.

Some BETTER LETTERER for you. And before the inevitable "that's not how I do it" replies, keep in mind that, by and large, this is how it's done in pro American comics (Marvel, DC, etc.) I've worked for all of them. More tips: blambot.com/pages/letter...

That's a wrap on Project Pixel Panels regular, which means both versions are now done. I need to come up with a permanent name and do some preview graphics before I can release it to you. Not sure how to do pixel art. Never done that before.

Some BETTER LETTERER for you. And before the inevitable "that's not how I do it" replies, keep in mind that, by and large, this is how it's done in pro American comics (Marvel, DC, etc.) I've worked for all of them. More tips: blambot.com/pages/letter...

That thing when you’re talking to someone about migraines and they go: “oh yeah, I get those” and go on to just describe a bad headache. Uh, no. Try pain so crippling you need total darkness, & puke your guts out for hours while begging an empty room for help, then get back to me.

I still have intense stress dreams about the five years I worked as a corporate graphic designer. I quit that shitty job to work full time in comics when I was 28...that was twenty-two years ago.

Legibility is fluid, and a point size in one font does not equal the size or legibility in another font. However, I find 8.0-9.5 is reasonable. Do print tests, and ALWAYS round up. Too many comics now are using tiny point sizes, and the average US comic reader possesses eyeballs over 40 yrs old.

First punch in the face of the day. Note that this SFX has a double offset black path. The thin one separates the letters, the beefier one is dropped behind everything to help differentiate it from a potentially busy background. (Ear Splitting BB font)

Lovely day. Overnight emails answered. About to start lettering new Minor Threats. Listening to Filter in the studio. Let's kick some comic book ass.

Thanks! Should be out in tomorrow’s mail. Enjoy!

FINAL DAY!! Blambot Halloween Sale! Save 10% at check out with code JACKOLANTERN from Oct. 31st to November 4th 2025! blambot.com

Lovely day. Weekend emails answered, and Monday morning clerical work done. Time to start working. First up, I'm lettering a new issue of American Caper. Listening to Queens of the Stone Age in the studio.

Decided I need to make more time to read for pleasure again. Got myself a nice iced coffee and a cat on my lap. And horror recommendations for me? Mostly a horror guy.

Blambot Halloween Sale! Save 10% at check out with code JACKOLANTERN from Oct. 31st to November 4th 2025! blambot.com

Blambot Halloween Sale! Save 10% at check out with code JACKOLANTERN from Oct. 31st to November 4th 2025! blambot.com

Ace in your face Halloween

Lovely day and Happy Halloween. Today marks 31 years ago that Concetta and I went on our first date (and yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary)! I couldn't do it without her.

Project Pixel Panels regular has all its glyphs and has been default spaced. Next will be kerning.

Break time. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

It's not "real" pixels. It's vector mimicry. You can't code fonts to actually pixelate. Fonts are not raster images.

Project Pixel Panels bold is done! Time to port the regular version over to Fontlab and get cooking on that one.

Either are now, technically, considered correct. Language changes and develops over time…that said…I’ll be on team “all right” forever.

I'm forever on the hunt for limited edition guitars, particularly when the price is right. A week ago, I spotted a 2023 Dealer Exclusive Fender American Professional II Strat with a 2-color ash body and a roasted maple neck. I called Fender and found out only 300+/- were made...

Happy black cat day! Black cats are still the least adopted cats due to persistent superstition, believe it or not. Ace was a year and a half old and had been sitting in a cage for nearly two months when we adopted him.

Started working on an informational post about lettering with a couple of visual aids, and then quit and dumped the whole file. I thought, "why bother? This is eating up my time, and I'm tired of the inevitable whiny replies from contrarians who have a tenth of my experience."

A rainbow over Blambot headquarters! Great way to end the week.

Ace in your face Friday

Setting up Class kerning (left window) for Project Pixel Panels bold. This lets me kern one glyph, and link the kerning of any similarly-shaped glyphs. i.e., I kern the default E and the software will kern all other variations the same way instead of me kerning them all separately. Huge time saver!

Lovely day and happy Friday. Lettering new Umbrella Academy and listening to the new Mammoth WVH album, "The End" which was released today and I have been looking forward to!!

Illustrator is the primary tool of the entire professional mainstream comics lettering industry. There’s literally a tool in Illustrator called the Pen Tool. I suppose you could use a mouse, but I’ve been using a stylus for 20 years. Would never go back.

You may have seen the scroll captions boxes I created for the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: The Fallbacks #1 from Dark Horse Comics. Here's how I made those in Illustrator!

You may have seen the scroll captions boxes I created for the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: The Fallbacks #1 from Dark Horse Comics. Here's how I made those in Illustrator!