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Torso no Bokura by Sumiyoshi Ryo When sfx conveys tone: smooth and casual -> horror.

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Uncivilized Planet by Matsumoto Jiro SFX lettering by Ickypop (for Kotonoha & Omanga)

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Hexenhammer by Ohue Aguri

I finally did it. I drew all of the SFX.

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Turning point

Benjirou of the Attic was a lovely manga. The bulk of Yamada Koto's blockletter SFX had a beautiful calligraphic quality that I wasn't able to reproduce with font faces. Sorry Yamada. Sorry readers.

So after four chapters of fence-sitting, I ditched the fonts and picked up my (tablet) pen for the finale. Well, for the most part.

Nice. I felt better about it.

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Signage

Take a closer look. Not a single trace of Japanese left. That’s the work of Dessert Scans on Asano Inio’s Reiraku. They did breathtaking job replacing almost all the Japanese text scattered in Asano’s backgrounds. Their extra cover and author introductions were elegantly typeset too.

Getting just the right perspective can be tough, but apparently it was a breeze for Dessert. I was starting to question the line between original and edited art.

Though it's nowhere as impressive as the above, I was inspired and gave the same treatment to Bad Candy You Give Me. Luckily, I didn't have the burden of Asano's photorealistic-leaning backgrounds.

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Henshin no News by Miyazaki Natsujikei SFX lettering by tim (for Illuminati-Manga)

Because subtitling is cool too.

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The Message in the Rain Shower by Nerunodaisuki

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Bad Candy You Give Me by Fuyumushi Kaiko

I was pretty happy with the SFX at the time, but now they look kinda awkward. Something about the angles, maybe.

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The Amazing Alice Wong by Tomo Sakura

Wind SFX is always fun. I like the delicate airiness of these.

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Different Takes

I was delighted that my first project at Lovely Strange Dark was "Those Who Can't See", a grim oneshot by Nagabe. I adore the gloomy aesthetic of his darker work. The oneshot was finished and going through QC when another group (Baby One More Time) beat us to the punch. All good. We released ours the following week anyway.

It was cool seeing two different approaches applied to the same oneshot. While BOMT's version left most of the original SFX intact, a few of their pages were peppered with striking handwritten pieces. Unfortunately, their release was also missing a page or two. I really would've liked to see the lettering for those.

Left: Baby One More Time version; Right: Lovely Strange Dark version

I began editing this oneshot on the heels of 7SEEDS' closing chapters. Nagabe's slick style was a welcome change, and I had a lot of fun finally branching out with different SFX fonts. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

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My handwriting is (not) hideous

Lately I've been practicing handwriting SFX. Browsing font galleries is still fun, but I won't miss the trouble of hunting for fonts to match the original art. And goodbye to wrestling with paths in Photoshop.

There's a weird feeling that comes from seeing my own handwriting on manga. Kinda like guiltily drawing ugly graffiti. I'd forgotten my earliest tries until I revisited my previous work on 7SEEDS. That was a trip.

I handwrote only when it conveniently got me out of redrawing complex pages. I'd incorporate parts of the original SFX into my own with varying success.

Let's be real. They were bad. Chapter 176, in particular, was a treat. Its abundance of chaotic SFX ran me ragged, so I decided to draw them myself. What came out of it scared me away from handwritten SFX for a bit. Though to be fair, these were meant to look scraggly.

But it's okay. I eventually made another go at it for Nagakura Hiroko's 4-page oneshot, Kukurihime. I've recovered.

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Beginnings

SFX lettering is cool. Full stop. It's a massive undertaking for the scanlators who choose to do full redraw SFX. And I love every single one of them for it. Thanks for the years of immersive reading experiences.

When I made my first dip into scanlation with Tamura Yumi's 7SEEDS, I gave myself no other option. My first few passable attempts took forever, and each just short of a small travesty. Looking back at it now, I'm a little embarrassed but glad to have had free rein to experiment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

At some point, I moved from text layers to shapes and paths.

Eventually I decided I needed to add more flair, so this is me trying to channel the energetic creativity of Blambot and Vorbis with my terrible judgment:

Hahaaa. Could’ve been worse. At least the stiffness was gone.

Five volumes down, I tempered the chaos and finally found a nice groove.

Nearly a year down now. Guess I'll blog about it.