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| Company type | Lettering and logo design |
|---|---|
| Industry | Comics |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder | Richard Starkings |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Key people | Richard Starkings, John Roshell |
| Website | http://www.comicraft.com |
Comicraft is acompany which provides graphic design andlettering services to various (primarilycomic book) companies.
The company was founded byRichard Starkings in 1992. Starkings had been working forMarvel UK for five years, but left London for New York, circa 1990.[1] Lettering large numbers of pages overnight for Marvel editorGregory Wright, Starkings decided to move away from the New York Marvel offices to California, partly hoping that the increased distance would mean increased deadlines.[1] A year later, Starkings (now based in Los Angeles) was asked to letter issues of Marvel's premier titleUncanny X-Men.[1]
Unable to meet the deadlines of then-editorBob Harras, he considered faster methods of lettering, and turned to computers.[2] Digitizing his lettering in readiness, and joining with designer John Roshell, Starkings unwittingly found that the formation ofImage Comics created a perfect opportunity for his innovative lettering practices.[2] The 'superstar artist' status of the Image founders, and the money they were able spend on production allowed Image to attract letterers from DC and Marvel, creating a vacuum made all the more stark by the concurrent comics boom inspiring companies to increase output.[2] Although meeting resistance in some quarters (most famously from Harras at Marvel), the higher-paychecks offered by Image allowed some letterers to produce less work, further snow-balling the demand for Starkings' services.[2]
For a name Starkings recalled a friend's carpentry business being called "Proudcraft", and the two settled onComicraft.[2] Overcoming the reluctance of the comics industry with such titles asGhost Rider 2099,Astro City andGeneration X, although unable to challenge the legendaryTodd Klein for the "Lettering" title, Starkings and Comicraft nevertheless managed to win anEisner Award in 1994, for "Best Publication Design" forBusiek andRoss'Marvels.[3] TheComics Buyer's Guide andWizard: The Comics Magazine also went against the Eisners, and named Comicraft the best letterer for 3 and 7 years in a row respectively.[2]
A sub-company, "Active Images" was initiated in 1995[4] as an online arm initially to "make Comicraft's library of comic book fonts commercially available", but in 2002 its role was expanded into the world of publishing.[4]Active Images publishes, among other titles,Richard Starkings' own comicsHip Flask andElephantmen.[5]
Comicraft's work and fonts have appeared in hundreds of products produced and distributed by all four of the major American comics companies:DC Comics,Marvel Comics,Dark Horse Comics andImage Comics; as well as for magazines and books produced byActive Images,Mad Magazine,Nickelodeon Magazine,Scholastic andTitan Books.[citation needed]
Many of the company's fonts, created by Starkings and designer Roshell are commercially available to individuals and institutions assoftware applications through theActive Images publishing company via their website,ComicBookFonts.com.
Comicraft has produced a 64-page book detailing the basics of lettering comics:
Comics and books either lettered by, or featuring fonts created by, Starkings/Comicraft include:
Almost every book published byMonkeyBrain features cover fonts licensed from Comicraft. These include:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
