Todd Klein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Todd Klein is a well-known and respected American comic book letterer.

[edit] Biography

Todd Klein was born on January 28, 1951. He is known most for his work on Neil Gaiman's Sandman where he developed very distinctive dialogue balloons and lettering for various characters. He has worked on a variety of Vertigo Comics titles. Klein has won twelve of the last thirteen "Best Letterer/Lettering" Eisner Awards -- that's every Eisner lettering award except one since the first was given out in 1993.

As Alan Donald notes in this discussion at Silver Bullet Comic Books, "Klein's work on The Sandman was not simply distinctive but revolutionary and showed a trend that should have been followed. The letterer’s art would have been forced to the fore and one could have seen ou(r) beautiful synergistic art form become further enriched by this new trend."

To read about Kleins' technique one need look no further than The DC Comics Guide to COLORING and LETTERING Comics, put out by Watson-Guptill Publishing. In this guide, Klein gives a pretty thorough review of how he mentally approaches a page, and then how he goes about the actual lettering, either hand lettering (ink and pen) or by use of the computer (Adobe Illustrator).