So…I deleted my Watchmen tweets because someone decided to jump in on the end of the thread & start tagging in just about everyone who's ever worked for DC. I thought deleting the 1st tweet would nuke the thread…but, no, so I had to delete a bunch of now-contextless replies. 1/ To be clear, though, I stand by everything I said in those original tweets. To wit: 2/

There are very few hard 'rules' for comic lettering, not least because you're always playing a hand the artist and writer have dealt you, but there's an awful lot of *preference*. For example, I've found myself leaning away from using connectors to link balloons… Hard Rule #1, if anyone's interested: READING ORDER. I don't care how much art I have to cover up, I will *not* leave a panel or a page with unclear reading order. My job is to serve the story, not work around poor planning by the artist.

Listen up, young freelancers! Gather round my camp fire and harken to a cautionary tale… …I spent 15yrs being a graphic designer, and the last 12 being a letterer. And I spent the bulk of those years sitting in the cheapest, shittiest office chairs giving not the slightest thought to posture or ergonomics…

https://twitter.com/TJPayne3333/status/1285251875907010561

I'm seeing multiple people posting a comparison of various face masks including their filtration rates and basically saying that if you're not wearing a surgical-grade mask, you're wasting your time. THIS IS NOT TRUE. 1/ It's scandalous that there is no clear guidance on this, but as best I can understand the current scientific thinking:
The risk of COVID transmission from surfaces is fairly low. The primary transmission method is person-to-person. 2/

Obviously missed this the first time around. I agree: $10/pg should be the absolute floor. Push for $15 every time and maybe we can get this up. I’ve NEVER taken a paying gig for less than $10 and I was a terrible letterer when I started!

https://twitter.com/adityab/status/1269501901864755201

As Aditya says, there are well-established letterers doing work for big companies on $20/pg and that’s not right.

Also, back end deals: I’ll only do back end for people I know and trust. Additionally, if you’re getting cut in for say 5-10%, ask for the same cut of the IP.

To friends in the UK who are currently home-working/furloughed/otherwise stuck at home:

There's a heatwave coming this week and you're all going to be stuck in non-air-conditioned homes as the temperatures rise. Here are a couple of handy hints… 1/ 1) Your home is designed to retain heat. If you try to cool it once it's getting warm, it's too late. Open any doors & windows you can first thing in the morning — the earlier the better. The cooler your living space is, the further into the afternoon it will remain tolerable. 2/

Start stocking up on food and essentials now. The Tories going willingly, voluntarily, push a no-deal Brexit through on the back of a pandemic.

news.sky.com/story/brexit-u… Forget 'Project Fear' if you listen to *anyone* who works in haulage or logistics, they'll tell you that this is going to be a disaster. We're looking at shortages of basic goods for six months, *optimistically*, from January 2021.

Going for a very old-school lettering vibe in next week's 2000AD. Takes a little longer, but definitely worth it. :-) I should have mentioned that the font here is @blambot's Out Of Line BB, which I love more than is strictly healthy…

blambot.com/collections/di…