Anybody remember Rick Parker? I sure do. Read enough Spider-Man back issues, and you'll sure get to know his name. Rick's a letterer from way back. He dropped me a line to point out a couple of errors in the site's comics listings. I asked him if lettering hadn't become a bit of a lost art.
His reply...
Dear J.
Yep. A while back someone figured out how to "do" lettering with a computer and it kind of "killed" the lettering profession ...at least for those who knew how to do it the old-fashioned way with paper and pens and ink. Some folks decided to learn how to do that on a computer and continue to work as "letterers", but it's my understanding that these days it's not necessary to have the kinds of skills to be a letterer, that we old-timers had to develop. Too bad... it was an artform. You can still be an artist using a computer, I guess, but few are, I'm sure.
As for myself, I kind of abandoned the lettering profession about the time I started drawing Beavis and Butt-head Comic book (1993) and now only do only those rare lettering jobs that come my way. Very infrequent, I can assure you. I still like to letter all my own comic material by hand, however. A human hand can do quite a few things that a computer can't , believe it or not! Mostly show a range of subtlety of emotion.
Well, check out my web site www.rickparkerart.com to see what I've been doing lately - and good luck with your own work...
Peace,
Rick Parker