| Bill Oakley | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Douglas Oakley April 1, 1964 Oneonta, New York |
| Died | February 16, 2004 (aged 39) Utica, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Letterer |
| Notable works | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Batman: Gotham Knights |
William Douglas Oakley (April 1, 1964 - February 16, 2004) was a letterer for numerous comic books from Marvel, DC, and other companies. His most prominent works include the first two volumes of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Batman: Gotham Knights #1-11, #15-37.
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Oakley attended The Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey. He started on staff at Marvel working under Jim Novak before going freelance.
For Marvel, Oakley lettered Avengers for a long time, Avengers West Coast, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four during Walt Simonson’s run, Rampaging Hulk, and Amazing Spider-Man. For DC, he worked on a number of the Superman titles, Batman, Lobo, DC vs. Marvel Comics, Batman: Gotham Knights, Justice Society, and Hawkman.
Due to the fact that he did not possess medical insurance ("because he had a previous medical condition and the insurance companies refused to cover him"),[1] he was forced to letter comics from his hospital bed to pay bills, before he died of cancer in Utica, New York. His hometown was Oneonta, New York. Oakley was survived by his wife Leslie and son Stephen.[1]
He was halfway through designing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier at the time of his death. The final volume (finished by Todd Klein) was dedicated to his memory.
Oakley had a distinctive but understated lettering style. One of his trademarks as a letterer was to often erase or omit panel borders when they touched the top, side, or bottom of a word balloon or caption, thus opening up the balloon/caption to the gutter. In this regard, Oakley's lettering style was similar to John Workman's. Also like Workman, even in the age of computer lettering, Oakley did all this lettering by hand, using a Hunt 107 pen.[2]
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