Remember learning penmanship in grade school? I used to get a kick out of the tool that the teachers used to draw lines on the chalkboard, it was a series of wire clamps mounted on a strip of wood. Each clamp held a piece of chalk and when the tool was drawn across the chalkboard several parallel lines were produced that  then the teacher could demonstrate proper penmanship on. Music teachers also loved this chalk line tool for creating staff lines on the chalkboard.

Folks that do lettering for comics have a similar tool called the Ames Lettering Guide. Most lettering in comics done today is created using fonts on a computer so there is little concern about type not being ruled properly but those traditionalists that still like to letter by hand have a best friend in their Ames Lettering Guide.

Ames Lettering Guide

This handy little tool fits in the palm of your hand and is made of durable plastic that will last a lifetime. My Ames Lettering Guide is over thirty years old and is still going strong. There is and adjustable wheel in the center of the tool that has rows of tiny holes in it. This wheel can be turned to adjust the distance between each line that will be drawn when you put a pencil in the holes and drag the tool across the edge of a t-square. Move your pencil down into the next hole in the tool and drag again and repeat. Eventually you will have a series of parallel lines similar to the ones drawn by your grade school teacher.

Chris Kalnick, my pal, former ROBOTECH inker and creator of NON and DEPTH CHARGE both featured here at CO2 Comics recently sent me this video of the Ames Lettering Guide being demonstrated. A comic letterer will rule guide lines wherever lettering is expected on the comic page. The lines are drawn very lightly as they are merely guides and will be eventually erased. Some letterers prefer to rule these lines with a non-repro blue pencil. After the lines are drawn the letters are penciled or roughed in. The final lettering will then be done in india ink.
I’ve attached the instructions that accompanies the guide. They explain how to use the tool in detail. You will note that you can accommodate for type size and leading simply by skipping holes.

I’ve attached the instructions that accompanies the guide. They explain how to use the tool in detail. You will note that you can accommodate for type size and leading simply by skipping holes.
For some letterers the size of the letters they plan to create can be very personal. I suggest that, once you determine the size you prefer, you either mark the wheel so that it can always be returned to that mark or tape the wheel in place so it will not be accidentally moved. My experience has been that the Ames Lettering Guide always attracts the attention of curious visitors who might be in  my studio and is almost always played with. People just love turning that wheel as they try to figure out what the dinky contraption does. Maybe I’m a crank, but I taped mine in place because I got tired of having to reset the little bugger.

The Ames Lettering Guide is a more versatile tool than you may expect by first glance. Because the wheel is housed in what it is essentially a small straight edge with one side at a 90 degree angle and the other side a 68 degree angle it can also be used to draw vertical lines as well as angled lines to assist the letterer in keeping letters uniform wether they are intended to be vertical or italic.

The three straight edges of the tool can also be used to conveniently draw small strait lines on the comic page which makes it a great when drawing lines on buildings and machinery. Even the circular shape of the wheel can be used as a guide for drawing curves that may match its particular arc.

I have also found that the guide can be used to make circles by placing a push pin in one hole and a pencil in another. The pin anchors the center point of the circle and as you wind the pencil in the guide around the pin you will complete perfect circles every time. You can make concentric circles simply by moving the pencil to holes closer to the pin. This is a great option especially when a compass or a circle template is not readily available.

Using the Ames Lettering Guide to make circles.

I have just one more favorite use for my Ames Lettering Guide and that is as a burnisher. Back in the day when Zip-A-Tone was the best way to achieve half tones and when a print mechanical was made of photostats mounted with a waxer, I would lay a piece of tracing or bond paper over the work and burnish with my guide . The smooth, roughly three inch edge covered more ground than most burnishers and the short hand-held size offered just the right leverage for applying minimal but firm pressure to the delicate materials being bonded. Boy, talk about ancient history, but it still seems like yesterday!

Using the Ames Lettering Guide as a Burnisher

The Secrets of Professional Cartooning by Ken Muse

You can probably tell that my Ames Lettering Guide and I are best buddies. Hey, we go back a long way, but who wouldn’t like a simple little tool that could do so much work and make a job so much simpler without ever complaining.

As a last side note I know that some folks are just too cheap to part with three bucks to pick up one of these handy gizmos or just can’t find one anywhere even though they are easily found on the internet. Maybe yours is lost and you are up against a deadline. I found this alternative in Ken Muse’s classic book The Secrets of Professional Cartooning.

From The Secrets of Professional Cartooning by Ken Muse

However you like to line your page is your preference. The important thing is that you enjoy making your comics your way. I know I do and that is where I draw the line.

Making Comics Because I Want To

Gerry Giovinco

Can you believe it? Two years have gone by since we launched CO2 Comics hoping it would become a unique cooperative of comic talent featuring a collective of great comic features. Naturally we initially turned to our long time friends and allies that have had ties with us since our days as founding publishers of Comico the Comic Company.

Comico The Comic Company owners, Top: Dennis LaSorta, Phil Lasorda, Bottom: Gerry Giovinco, Bill Cucinotta

Chris Kalnick, Joe Williams, Andrew C. Murphy, Reggie Byers, Bernie Mirealut, Bill Anderson, Rich Rankin and Neil Vokes all contributed to the early success of the realization of our goals for CO2 Comics. The faith that they all had in our ability to  present their work while respecting their rights as creators, supporting their complete ownership and actively promoting their features and services as artists was a complete and humbling honor.

It became our duty to surround their works with with other great features and talent. CO2 Comics was always intended to be a place where readers could come to enjoy one feature and discover other comic treasures that they may not have found if those works had stood by themselves.

In just two years the list of contributers has grown to include twenty-two talented creators and two dozen exciting comic features. The impressive list of talent yields a number of nominated and award winning creators along with brilliant new talent that will deserve recognition for their mastery of the medium.

Take a look at the roster of creators here at CO2 Comics and you are bound to be amazed at the comic book pedigree and variety that exists on our site:

Bill Anderson – Skrog

Kevin Atkinson – Eaten by Planet 29

Mike Baron – The World of Ginger Fox

Reggie Byers – Crescent

Bill Cucinotta – Death for a Dollar

- Skrog

Tina Garceau – Hot Topics

– Monkey and Bird

- There’s No Escape From A Deadline

Gerry Giovinco – Slaughterman

Robert Jackson, Jr. – The Amazing Liberteens

Chris Kalnick – Depth Charge

- Non

Onrie Kompan – Yi Soon Shin

Steve Lafler – Dog Boy

- El Vocho

Mike Leeke – The Amazing Liberteens

Liberteens Update

Don Lomax – Captain Obese

Bernie Mireault – Cable

- Death for a Dollar

- Isaac vs. Eli

- Of the Spheres

- To Get Her

- The Jam Lives (a motion comic)

Andrew C. Murphy – Pressed for Time

- Reflections

- Victor

Mitch O’Connell – The World of Ginger Fox

Rich Rankin – Gauntlet

Raine Szramski – Heaven and the Dead City

Frank Thorne – Ribit

Giovanni Paolo Timpano – Yi Soon Shin

Neil Vokes – Gauntlet

Joe Williams – Hot Topics

- Monkey and Bird

- There’s No Escape From A Deadline

Besides having published over 800 pages of comic art in the last two years we have also taken on the monumental task of publishing David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection. The first of the eleven volume set had 680 pages that were painstakingly cleaned and reproduced in both paperback and hardback editions. Volume two is currently in the works. This project is the testimony to our love of the comics medium and its rich history.

COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection

Our commitment to the history  of comics and the current state of the industry is also highlighted weekly on our CO2 Comics Blog where we feature a  weekly article covering everything from our Comico history, production techniques, creator’s rights and frequent editorializing on the state of the market have drawn a lot of attention industry wide.

As if publishing a ton of great comic related material on the web and in print is not enough for two guys,  we needed to create a new imprint, CO2 Publications so we could publish a 372 page literary book, FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT A Memoir of Veteran discharged from the Navy for being Gay  written by  George Richard Phillip Zimmerman, Jr. which was just released over Memorial Day Weekend.

For The Convenience Of The Government

Over our first two years we have published nearly 2,000 pages of material and maintained a rigorous schedule on an exciting site that has attracted over 4.6 million hits to date.

The best part is, WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED! Last year, as we celebrated our first anniversary, we compared our accomplishments to our early publishing days with Comico and noted that we were far out front and we still are, thanks to the support of all the great talent that joins us and allows us to present new work daily.

We also need to thank our readers who continue to grow in numbers. Thanks for stopping by and for sharing with your friends. We became comic publishers nearly thirty years ago because we believed our comics were not finished works until they were experienced by the readers. We recognized early on that as publishers we played a significant role in the realization of a comic as a completed work and we intend to continue to be that conduit. CO2 Comic’s mission is to get great comics in front of as many eyes as possible. Please help us with your enthusiasm by continuing to share the comics you enjoy here with your friends and by returning often.

Finally, it is no mistake that we celebrate our anniversary  over the Fourth of July weekend. As publishers we have always been motivated by the spirit of the Independent movement with our emphasis being on creator’s rights.  Comics, for us, are a medium of freedom. Free thought, free speech, free enterprise.

We want to turn  Independence Day into Independents Day for comic fans and make it a time to celebrate the diversity that all of the Independent comics publishers have brought to the world. There are a lot of great comics out there that are not brought to you by the usual pair of suspects and we hope hat you will continue to find some of the best of them right here at CO2 Comics.

Making Comics Because We Want To

Bill Cucinotta and Gerry Giovinco

Flashback to the Eighties!

Ginger Fox Cover

The World of Ginger Fox
by Mike Baron and Mitch O’Connell, originally published by Comico in 1986 as a 64-page graphic novel, is nothing short of stylish eye candy derived from the exciting nineteen eighties’ era of high hair, shoulder pads, and excesses of wealth.

Ginger Fox is presented anew beginning this week on the web pages of CO2 Comics.

The tale of romance, adventure and intrigue, set in the Hollywood of the mid-eighties featuring the smart, sexy and savvy Ginger Fox and a cast of strippers, martial artists, hit men, drug addicts, gat-toting bodyguards and celebrity cameos will be released in weekly installments and is available without fee or subscription as are all comics currently available at http://www.co2comics.com/pages/co2_comics.html.

One quick look at the credits of Mike Baron and Mitch O’Connell will give a good idea of what a treat to expect.

Writer Mike Baron has been one of the most innovative and honored creators in comics since he broke into the field with NEXUS in 1982 with artist Steve Rude.

He has written numerous mainstream comics, including Marvel’s The Punisher and DC’s The Flash. He is also the co-creator of BADGER, FEUD, SPYKE and a number of other renowned titles. He also penned the ROBOTECH graphic novel published by Comico.

Mike Baron Comics

Mike has been nominated for Best Writer in the Kirby, Harvey and Eisner Awards numerous times, and has won several Eisners for his work on NEXUS.

Illustrator Mitch O’Connell’s first graphic novel was Ginger Fox at the age of 25.

Mitch O'Connell Newsweek

His stunning illustration work since has been featured in magazines from Newsweek to Playboy, on the covers of million selling CD’s and advertising campaigns from McDonalds to Coca-Cola!
Mitch’s fine art masterpieces have been exhibited from New York to Berlin to Tokyo and his tantalizing tattoo designs are a fixture on the walls of tattoo shops around the word! Mike and Mitch join the ranks of former Comico creators, Bill Anderson, Reggie Byers, Chris Kalnick, Mike Leeke, Bernie Mireault, Andrew Murphy, Rich Rankin, Neil Vokes as well as publisher creators Bill Cucinotta and Gerry Giovinco on the CO2 Comics site that also features work by Tina Garceau, Robert Jackson Jr., Onrie Kompan, Giovanni Paolao Timpano, and Joe Williams.

There are over 400 pages of free comic art available to read at CO2 COMICS.

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.

Chris Kalnick, Mike Leeke, Gerry Giovinco, Neil Vokes and Tommy Yune

This past weekend at Zenkaikon 2009 held in King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania, CO2 Comics and Harmony Gold USA collaborated
to reunite members of the Comico crew that first published
the ROBOTECH comic series.

25 years after the 1984 publication of Macross #1 which would
become ROBOTECH The Macross Saga with issue #2,
Comico and current CO2 publisher Gerry Giovinco along with artists,
Mike Leeke, Neil Vokes and Chris Kalnick, who all also feature work
on the CO2 Comics web site, gathered together as guests for a
ROBOTECH panel discussion hosted by Harmony Gold Creative Director, Tommy Yune.

Chris Kalnick, Mike Leeke, Gerry Giovinco and Neil Vokes

The panel focused on the past, present, and exciting future of the
ROBOTECH franchise with emphasis placed on the upcoming
ROBOTECH film to be produced by Warner Brothers.

Chris Kalnick, Neil Vokes, Lisa Hayes character, Gerry Giovinco, Mike Leeke and Tommy Yune

An estimated 9,000 attendees arrived to attend the Zenkaikon,
overwhelming the convention with with their huge array of
cosplay costuming.

Thanks to Harmony Gold and Zenkaikon.

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.

Click here to read this comic NOW!

New pages of  NON by Chris Kalnick are now available.