Letterer Clayton Cowles joins the show for a conversation about his career and approach to lettering titles like Batman, Immortal X-Men, Daredevil, and more. Cowles discusses managing his expansive workload, where his love of comics started, going to The Kubert School, working with Virtual Calligraphy, his process to starting a project, how the lettering space has evolved, for-hire versus creator-owned, where challenges lie, the impact of repeat collaborators, pushing yourself, impact projects from his career, revisiting old work, and more.

You can find Cowles’ work…pretty much whenever you open a comic, it seems!

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Thanks to Deanna Chapman, who stepped in and edited this episode, ensuring the podcast sounded much better than usual this week.

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Thanks to the sponsor of this week’s podcast: Zoop! In January, Zoop will be launching new campaigns launched each week from some incredible indie creators. Spearheaded by Paul Allor’s “Pink Midnight Presents: The Butterfly House,” there are also campaigns by Kraig Rasmussen, Plus Waco Comics, Jeff Messer, Cam Kerkau, Doug Wood and more! Head to Zoop’s website to support the live campaigns and sign up for launch alerts for what’s next. Also, Zoop is taking submissions! So creators, reach out at hello@wearezoop.com to learn more!

Also, thanks to the other sponsor of this week’s podcast: Bad Idea! Bad Idea is still doing things! What’s that currently? Well, they have some new titles in shops, including work by folks like Ramon Villalobos, David Lapham, Mark Waid, and more, so keep an eye on what they’re up to!

Also, big thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – Kevin Bides, Travis Schmeisser, Tom Evans, Natalie Mokry, Reid Beaman, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Max Wood, Jeremy Lambert, Brian, Matteo Ceccotti, Chris Doray, Nir Levie, Dennis Hoffman, Jason Hussa, Cancel Comics, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Kent-Uritam, Henry Johnston, Django Bohren, James Tynion IV, Chris Lankford, Jason Wood, Tom Peachey, Ben Damstedt, Ram V, Nick Walker, Patrick Coyle, Isaac Orin, Scott Carpenter, Rentnarb Studios Comics, Capes and Tights Podcast, Klaas Van de Ven, Brian, Submet Industries, Jack Mulqueen, Kyle, Karl Kerschl, Robert Masella, Elsa Charretier, Luc Nakashoji, Dr. Luke, Scott Haselwood, CanadianByProxy, Jonny Cannon, Bradley Roeder, Carl Choi, Brandon De Pillis, Patrick Brower, Declan Shalvey, Dan Gearino, Atom Freeman, Ben Wild, Brian Klein-Q, Nick Bennett, Daniel Whitfield, Susana Polo, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Mario Tiambeng, Andrew Kurita, Matt Mahoney, Stefan Hull, Phillip Maira, Christian Shelton, Chris Bachalo, Torunn Grønbekk, FuzBubbles, Christopher Ta, Transmitterdown, Walt’s Comics & Books, Akil Wilson, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Alister Ross, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Paul Reinwand, Vita Ayala, Akylle, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, Ryan Alcock, David Kelley, Nick Poleto, Matthew Groom, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Matthew Taylor, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Nick Hall, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Steve Anderson, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Colin McMahon, Scott McGovern, Nathan Fairbairn, Adam Highfill, Fiona Staples, Mark Abnett, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Twitter.

Header photo is from Sins of Sinister #1, art by Lucas Werneck, Bryan Valenza, and Clayton Cowles. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks for me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!