Lettering: Exotica Calendar for 1987

The Exotica Calendar for 1987 by Olivia DeBerardinis started at First Publishing. The publisher, Rick Obadiah, knew of me through Howard Chaykin who commissioned me to do the American Flagg! logo. I met Frank Miller once, in New York, before he moved to Los Angeles. During the Exotica project, I guess my name came up in regards to doing the title lettering and production for the calendar. Joel Beren, Olivia’s husband, discussed the project with me. It didn’t take much to convince me to accept the job, but it was a tight schedule to have the calendar, originally for 1986, printed in time for the 1985 holiday season.

Soon, a package arrived from First Publishing with Frank’s letter, transparencies of the art, layouts and reference material.

Frank’s letter to Rick.

Frank’s faxed letter to me. The last two sentences read: Please get in touch with First once you have an estimate of your fee, and please call me if there’s any trouble. I’ll rip their lungs out.

Some of Frank’s interior layouts.

Color comp of the front cover; the title was painted on acetate and has been flaking off.

Back cover

Photocopy of the alphabet reference

Frank’s title design

Reference for the letter “O”

Alternate letterforms and designs

Alternate letterforms and design

Tight pencil rendering

Tight pencil renderings of the title

Photocopy of pencilled letters partially filled-in

Photocopy of pencilled letters filled-in

A last-minute addition to the front cover was “Designed by Frank Miller”. I drew the letters “K” and “Z”, nearly completing the alphabet, missing the “Q” and “W”. The “Z” was used on another project.

The letters were drawn in pencil on tracing paper, which was placed on a light box. One-ply bristol board was positioned over the tracing paper then I began inking the outlines. The next step was filling in the black areas. I used white gouache to make corrections.

Photostats of the title and months; some words are missing letters because I cannibalized them to make words for another project. 

A variety type arrangements for the front cover.

This arrangement was chosen.

At the 2011 New York Comic Con, I finally met Joel and Olivia at her booth.

(Next Monday: “Napier Is...” advertisements)

Under Cover: Tales of the Dark Knight

Mark Cotta Vaz proposed to DC Comics a book celebrating Batman’s fiftieth anniversary. This book was handled by Joe Orlando, who was DC Comics’ Editor for Special Projects. Ballantine Books was chosen to publish the book.

MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1988

10:00 AM meeting at Ballantine Books, 201 East 50th Street, with Risa Kessler, editor, Stephen McNabb, copy editor, Fred Dodnick, production manager, and Alex Klapwald, production assistant.

At the meeting I was given a copy Vaz’s proposal plus a number of Batman books and posters for reference. Risa Kessler wanted the cover to incorporate Batman into the city architecture/skyline as Frank Miller had done in one of his Dark Knight Returns illustrations. She also hoped to get Miller to do the cover for this book. A date was set for me to present cover concepts.

SUNDAY, JULY 24, 1988

I began working on cover concepts. I incorporated Batman into the skyline with a bat reflected in the river. The title was off to the side like the Dark Knight Returns book.

One of the reference books from DC was Batman: Son of the Demon which showed Batman atop a building. I thought of trying something similar to what Will Eisner had done on the splash pages of The Spirit in which the letters S-P-I-R-I-T are part of the scene. 

What I came up with wasn’t clever like The Spirit but more like the biblical movie posters for Ben-Hur and King of Kings; the titles were in perspective and built of stone with characters from the movie placed in and around the letters.

I always preferred the Chrysler Building over the Empire State Building. The title became part of the architecture. Like the Son of the Demon cover, I had Batman looking down at the street.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1988

11:45 AM meeting at Ballantine Books to present my cover concepts.

Risa liked the concept of Batman in the skyline but Stephen, Fred and Alex preferred Batman on the
Chrysler Building (my favorite, too). The concept of Batman on the Chrysler Building plus photos of the Chrysler Building, for reference, were sent to DC Comics.

A few weeks later, the finished illustration was delivered to Ballantine Books. Sigmond Pifko, the illustrator, did the airbrush art on 30 x 40 inch illustration board. I was given an 8-by-10-inch color transparency of the illustration so I could do the cover mechanical. Using a scanner drum to make color separations of the art was the norm in the publishing industry. The transparency I had could have been scanned but Fred decided to make a conventional camera separation from the original illustration. As you may know, a transparency has a slight blueish tint. The typeface for the subtitle and author’s name was supplied by Photo-Lettering who photographically manipulated the type to match the perspective of the title. The book was published shortly after the release of Tim Burton’s Batman movie.

Cover proof; originally, the book measured
9 by 12 inches / 22.9 by 30.5 centimeters.

The book measured 8.375 by 10.875 inches
/ 21.3 by 27.6 centimeters.

Although Frank Miller did not do the cover, I think Pifko, a Canadian, did a terrific job. Sometime after the book was published in 1989, I called him. He told me that he had my concept drawing and a pencil drawing from Orlando, who had refined my design and changed the attitude of Batman from looking down to turning and looking at you. A similar approach was used on The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 37, July 2010.

A “parody” of the cover was published as the cover of VAR Business, November 1991, which was included in the Print Regional Design Annual 1990. I mentioned it to Robbin Brosterman, a designer at at DC Comics, who informed Lillian Laserson, DC’s in-house counsel. A series letters between DC, VAR and CMP Publications resulted in a clarification.

(Next post on Monday: Herb Lubalin, part 1 of 7)