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A Travesty
Posted by James Gareth in
18 May 2005 — 7:52pm
18 May 2005 — 7:52pm
Okay, overdramatic, I know but still ...
The DVD Packaging of Sin City (8/16/05) features none other than a slanted Comic Sans! You'd think that with Frank Miller directing it and with its dark themes they could have at least used a real comic font.
You can see the packaging here
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18 May 2005 — 8:02pm
It doesn't stick out quite so badly next to the "Frank Miller's Sin City" logotype, but yeah, you're right, that's less than impressive. I'd blame that on Buena Vista's design department, though -- I kind of doubt Miller and Robert Rodriguez have much oversight over the DVD packaging.
18 May 2005 — 9:40pm
As much as I don't like it, at least its more appropriate than the 1000's of other inappropriate usages that Comic Sans is used for (ie: a custom motorcycle/chopper shop near my house with Comic Sans on the signage)
19 May 2005 — 7:01am
It's a shame that so few professional designers read typophile. How else are they supposed to know that they are supposed to avoid Comic Sans? This DVD guy may have an excuse, but this ad...
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/News.aspx?NID=4575
... there's no excuse. ;-)
Cheers, Si
19 May 2005 — 7:07am
Hahahahaha.. :) TDC 'vs' Comic Sans..
Thanks, Si..
19 May 2005 — 4:17pm
Even worse: The DVD cover art for American Splendor (another movie that was based on comics) features not only a stretched-out Comic Sans MS, but CC JimLee, CC JoeMad, and at least two forms of Graphite as well. And that's just the "comic book" fonts.
I have no idea why. It's a disheartening mess.
I couldn't find an official online source for the full cover art, but if anyone wants to see it, it's available here.
19 May 2005 — 5:18pm
I think they were probably trying to mimic the profusion of lettering styles found on the average comic book page. I've been doing some production work for a comic company recently, and really good contemporary digital letterers use a pretty dizzying array of typefaces, and then modify them heavily as needed (especially for sound effects). It's a totally different world than traditional typography or sign lettering. The problem with the American Splendor covers is that they get caught halfway between typography and comic lettering, and the results are pretty ungainly. They get a B for effort, though!
19 May 2005 — 6:33pm
Do I get booted from Typophile if I say I don't think it looks that bad?
19 May 2005 — 7:23pm
I don't think it looks that bad, either! Just ungainly!
19 May 2005 — 11:30pm
Haha. You only get booted from Typophile is you set your user icon in Comic Sans. (I dare you to say, "I am Comic Sans.")
Sorry Vincent, I couldn't resist.
20 May 2005 — 12:14am
I dunno, as much as I wanna jump on the bandwagon, comic sans has its place. and if its place is on cover of a comic book movie DVD, given it's familiarity to the general public. this kind of strikes me as a 'new ups logo hate' because it isn't rand. Given a little while, from what I've gathered on typophile, the new UPS logo is appropriate and NEEDED. Comic Sans does look like comic lettering ...
Just a thought.
20 May 2005 — 1:30am
I don't mind Comic Sans so much, but I still cannot stand the new UPS logo, or their use of FF Dax on their trucks. I kinda think a shipping service makes more sense being all conservative and frumpy. Conservative and frumpy means they're getting me my latest Amazon or Powell's fix on time, and I don't know what the hell their new identity is supposed to mean.
Comic Sans has no real relationship to "real" comic lettering, which is almost never as childlike and irregular as Comic Sans. I really don't think it's a terrible typeface (read the Typowiki entry, which I wrote), but it is misnamed.
20 May 2005 — 3:17am
Well most of Miller's comic books use letter artists so they were wrong not to hire someone to manually write out the letters.
And 'Comic Sans' means 'without comic'.
I drew Si's Microsoft race car in his icon! It's Dave Cutler's 1998 Toyota Atlantic Series race car that is in Webdings!
http://www.toyotaatlantic.com/Drivers/Driver.asp?ID=349
21 May 2005 — 4:53am
Comic Sans does look like comic lettering …
I've got a collection of thousands of American comic books at home -- both mainstream and highbrow stuff -- and I can assure you: Comic Sans looks like comic lettering as much as Mandarin or Kanban look like genuine Chinese calligraphy! :-D
21 May 2005 — 8:32am
At very least, they should have used some of Nate Piekos' Blambot stuff:
http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/blambot/
21 May 2005 — 2:11pm
David is certainly were right about Nate Piekos' fonts. They are MUCH better than Comic Sans for the comics look.
ChrisL
23 May 2005 — 1:50am
Vince, may I ask if you've ever been tempted to revisit Comic Sans?
Creating a new font with the brief of supplanting CS in some of its adopted uses would be an interesting brief.
I apologise if people ask you this the whole time... ;-)
23 May 2005 — 3:19pm
I dunno. It seems highly appropriate. What could be a greater sin than using a slanted version of comic sans?
24 May 2005 — 12:48am
>What could be a greater sin than using a slanted version of comic sans?
Making a derivative of it.