Pride Month Creator Spotlight: Lucas Gattoni
In the final Pride Month Creator Spotlight this year, I was so excited to talk to one of my favorite comic book letterers, Lucas Gattoni! Lucas is a talented and experienced comic book letterer, skilled in the art of adding words to worlds. With a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of the comic book medium, Lucas has made a name for himself as a go-to letterer for some of the biggest names in the industry. After starting his career in the indie comics world, you can now find Lucas’ lettering in books from some of today’s biggest publishers, including Blue Beetle and Alan Scott: The Green Lantern from DC and Somna from DSTLRY.
Check out my conversation with Lucas below and make sure you always give love to those hard-working letterers of your favorite books!
*Note: this interview was edited for clarity.
DERBY COMICS: Happy Pride! What does Pride mean to you & how do you plan to celebrate this year?
LUCAS GATTONI: Happy Pride to you too! Pride to me means a chance to shout to the world that we're not ashamed to be who we are and love who we want. One of the first champions of the LGBTQ+ movement in Argentina in the 70s, Carlos Jáuregui put it so beautifully: "In a society that educates us for shame, Pride is our political response." I always keep that in mind whenever the topic comes up, I think it's a very simple way to explain it to whoever might question it. As for celebrating, in my country Pride events take place during November (supposedly because it's warmer by then, I'm in the southern hemisphere so June tends to be a bit cold here), but since I started lettering I've found ways to celebrate online with my peers, promoting LGBTQ+ books that gives us visibility and let everyone know we're here to stay.
DERBY COMICS: I love that! How did you get your start in lettering comics?
GATTONI: Lettering comic books was actually my dream job since before I graduated as a Graphic Designer 20 years ago (though I studied that to become a typesetter, book and magazine designer). At that time I remember non-chalantly emailing the top lettering studio in the USA and they politely told me they were only taking local talent. Traveling and moving out of Argentina was not a possibility then, and our comic book market had not much place for letterers so I kinda put that one on pause while I took a full time job as a prepress manager (which I still have!). Fast forward like 13 years, and I found myself one very quiet summer at the office when I came across an online forum that offered free pages and scripts to do lettering practices! I dedicated around 2 or 3 weeks to gather all the tutorials and online info I could find on the matter, and paired that with my already big knowledge at most Graphic Design software, by the end of that month I already had I think 6 or 7 pages that I uploaded to a Google Drive. I found other forums where indie creators looked for collaborators and, honestly, two days after I had that mini portfolio I got my first gig (which I never got paid for but that's another story!). From then on it was a virtuous cycle of improving my portfolio, getting better jobs, networking on several online forums till I was invited to some letterers' exclusive groups in Facebook and Discord, where I made friends with some up-and-coming colleagues, offering advice on prepress matters, and they in turn recommended me to editors which led to working on some of the top publishers today!
DERBY COMICS: That is quite the experience! Since lettering was your dream job, were you a big fan of comics growing up? If so, what were some of your favorite characters/universes?
GATTONI: I was always a very avid reader, mostly from the fact that both my parents are professors, and comic books were always among my favorites. Growing up, there were no comic book shops in my city so I didn't have access to DC or Marvel books. I only remember reading old Superman, Batman and Flash Gordon strips in some newspapers or kids' magazines but they were really scarce and you could never follow the story. My first comic books were kids' books my father used to buy when he travelled, like Disney, Smurfs or Astérix books in Spanish, plus our local pride which is a political commentary strip about a little girl called "Mafalda".
But at the same time (that would be the mid to late 80s), I fondly remember watching on TV Spanish dubbed shows like Batman, Wonder Woman, Hulk, and also cartoons like Super Friends, Superman, and Spider-Man, and marveling at their amazing feats, but mostly at their fight for a fair world, as injustice was something I had much trouble accepting or even understanding. Luckily by my early teens, we saw some influx of Spanish DC books and a couple of local Argentinian publishers who also licensed and published books like Superman, Batman & The Outsiders, Flash, and the Justice League. Me and my brother usually bought and read issues here and there, but we started really getting into it when the “Death of Superman” local edition came out. I remember watching about it in the news and then running the next day to buy it in the newsstand! I think that's the moment I fell in love with Superman and the DC Universe, and started buying every single book we could get our hands into.
DERBY COMICS: How do you view the role of lettering in the reader’s overall experience with comics/graphic novels?
GATTONI: Well, on one hand I know and accept the letterer is not one of the main creators, and I'm totally OK with that. I've learned to be a good team player since I was very little (I was an active Scout member for over 20 years) and I know how important each member is, and that the success of a team depends on finding what everyone excels at and helping them develop that ability. But on the other hand, I'm also very aware that lettering is in charge of the textual element of this medium. And since our minds work with the structures that our reading processes create for us, we letterers can really make sure a story is properly read by using our palette of resources both creatively and correctly.
DERYB COMICS: Is there a standard process for when lettering creative decisions happen or does it depend on the entire creative team or project?
GATTONI: That usually depends entirely on the team and the team's dynamic too. Sometimes the writer takes the lead, asking in the script for specific things to the letterer (like a particular style for a character). Other times the artist can pitch ideas, like what they would like in terms of captions. Or it could be the editor, reminding you that there's already an in-house style you should contemplate. But most of the time, these tend to be guidelines so I usually provide both what I'm asked first, and what I would do if I can think of a better idea. Usually there's a short back and forth and you can tweak something here and there if needed. I personally love getting feedback from whoever is leading, as that tells me lettering is being taken into account. The general decisions are consensuated, so that then I can take care of the specific decisions, but with a clear path set by the whole team.
DERYB COMICS: How long does it typically take you to letter an entire standard length comic book (~22 pages)? Do you always go from start to finish or do you do the book out of order?
GATTONI: A 22 page book usually takes me around two sittings of 3-4 hours each, and that time includes preparing the script to make it 100% lettering friendly, checking the artwork files, copying the text into my files, lettering each page individually, and finally doing a second pass where I look at the book as a whole (and usually reletter many elements which I wasn't fully happy with). A book with simpler styles might take a little less, but the first issue of a new series might take a couple more hours so it always depends.
I prefer going from start to finish, but on certain books I've taken different approaches. For example, for Prism Stalker v2, which was a book with a lot of SFXs that required me to draw them by hand instead of using fonts, I decided to create those elements first, roughly place them on their pages, and only then start the proper lettering in order. I did something similar with Somna, though that series had fewer SFXs. And of course there's occasions when deadlines rule the process and you have to letter whatever pages are available at the time. But my preference is lettering starting on page 1 since lettering relies heavily on sequentiality, I've noticed moving in order helps me make better decisions, or notice when some page transition is not working and maybe offer a solution.
DERBY COMICS: That is such a fascinating process to hear about! I feel like every time I read a new project that I love, especially a queer/queer-adjacent project or a project by a queer creative team, I see your name there as the letterer. So first off, thank you for being so freaking amazing & helping to produce these stories! Do you ever have to pinch yourself to remember this is all real?
GATTONI: You're welcome then! But honestly, thank YOU, that's very kind and I appreciate you mentioning it--I love collaborating on queer projects that I know I would've love to have read as a kid or a teen, so those are always a priority to me. As for the queston, I think I've tweeted about this a couple of times, but I've found myself having to shake out of it after a couple of minutes of staring joyfully at a page I'm about to letter. Like the first time I got to letter Superman (which was in Blue Beetle: Graduation Day), or Batman (in a Catwoman issue). Every time that happens, I use that feeling to remind me what a lucky guy I am, but also how hard I've worked to get there. I would love to go back and let my 18-year old self that it was OK to dream.
DERBY COMICS: Focusing more on the queer stories you've been a part of, what’s your take on the state of queer-content in today’s comic world?
GATTONI: I think overall we're living at a great time for queer creators, as the diversity and amount of books coming out seems to be increasing every year. But I also notice how that seems to rattle the wrong cages, so we need to be aware of this counter-movement of censorship and cancellation of LGBTQ+ books that is happening world-wide, and retort in the most love-positive way possible: producing more and more content from diverse creators, that makes our whole spectrum visible for those who haven't yet seen themselves as the main character in any media.
DERBY COMICS: Amen to that! Some of my favorite recent queer projects that you were a part of, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern was phenomenal in every creative aspect. From a lettering perspective, you utilized a lot of different approaches for the various characters & entities involved. Can you share how you decided on some of the creative\ choices you made for this book?
GATTONI: First of all, I completely agree with you! The story of that series was so minutely crafted by Tim Sheridan out of love, and really helps make sense of Alan's backstory, while visualizing gay people that come out after leading a mostly straight life. Cian Tormey poured so much detail and strength into his art, while Matt Herms' coloring really made every single panel emote. As I usually say, when the main creative team is so solid, lettering just needs to follow suit, like the final bow that ties everything together!
In this particular case, since the series occurs mostly in the past (even if it's framed by a current conversation between Alan and a surprise character I won't spoil) my first instinct and pitch was to go for a retro-looking lettering style. I immediately knew what typeface I wanted to use, and to be honest, I think I didn't even try another option. Cian's linework is crisp and controlled and very modern looking, so I felt the need to use lettering to evoke that sense of past stories retold. Using somewhat irregular balloons with loose tails really achieved that for me, I think it was a great match to the artwork via contrast instead of simply blending the lettering as I usually do. My single contemporary addition to the initial style was the flames on Alan's color framed captions (then mirrored on the Red Lantern's ones). Even before knowing how central the Green Flame is to the story, I've always pictured Alan as having a more "volatile" power source than, say, the regular Guardians' sanctioned Green Lanterns. It's one of those cases where going with your instinct pays off!
I could write a paragraph about each of the lettering elements that I used on this series, but just let me just point out the ones I had most fun with: coming up with Alan's written captions (always a challenge to pick a script typeface that's also easy to read!), crafting styles and logos for the Green and Red Flames', designing the title pages and the next issue blurbs, creating the crazy soviet-looking logo for the Crimson Host, and last but certainly not least recreating the Spectre's flaming balloons which is one of my all time favorite styles (and ensued one of those "pinch me" moments we discussed a couple of question ago).
DERBY COMICS: I love how excited you are talking about this. It makes me even more excited! You also utilized a ton of different lettering styles in the recent Blue Beetle run where you not only lettered in English, but the Spanish versions as well. As a native Spanish speaker, what was it like getting to publish a mainstream comic book in your native language?
GATTONI: Yes, I am from and live in Argentina (you might recognize us from Messi, or the Pope maybe!). And yes, Blue Beetle was full of chances to play with new styles, and most importantly since we were starting from scratch I was given almost complete freedom! I did try to aknowledge previous runs using one of the alien typefaces that was established for the Reach, but aside from that I had total free rein. I love the unique cushy-looking captions I came up for Jaime, which I then applied with different colors and icons for dozens of characters that appeared on the series! My favorite recurring bit was having to include characters' logos (some of which I designed) in the dialog, a very super-hero comic book trait which I love! At some point the writer, Josh Trujillo, was conciously including these in the script as a challenge--which I accepted gladly!
To answer the second part of your question: having the chance to letter both the original English book and its simultaneously published Spanish version was a dream come true: I'm not exactly sure but I think it's the first time a DC (or any other major US publisher) book was published originally in two languages, so that alone is a source of pride! The Spanish speaking target audience in the US is growing and will continue to do so, so it was a very intelligent move and the whole Blue Beetle team was extremely thankful to DC for giving us the chance to make this book reach a wider public. I personally already had some experience on the matter, having worked for the local Argentinian publisher of both DC and Marvel (though I did no more than a couple of books), and also for the shortly lived Spanish line of IDW, so I knew I had enough of a grasp of the technical aspect of relettering a book on a different language. Being a native speaker of the language you're localizing a book into is truly a huge advantage (ie., on managing the specific diacritics and letter accents, or knowing that Spanish speakers are more used to having words hyphened into separate lines), and it really paid off in this case. A couple of issues in, I noticed there were a few placement hitches (say, the Spanish translation was too long to fit into a balloon that was so tightly placed it couldn't be enlarged) that could be saved by using a synonym or a differently phrased line. So with that in mind I took the liberty to politely suggest it. The translator and editor were very receptive, and I felt encouraged to continue doing so. From then on I gained enough confidence to do this more and more often, so I ended up collaborating beyond just my usual lettering duties. It's a great feeling knowing your input is appreciated, and speaks volumes of how a positive teamwork environment leads to a stronger product as a result.
DERBY COMICS: Positive work environments truly make any job feel like a fun time! Ok, getting down to the last few questions. This may be a tricky one, but what’s a question that you’ve never been asked, but have always wanted to answer?
GATTONI: The question is "What would your drag queen name be?" and the current answer is "Anna Polo Jetick". Ask me next month and I'll probably have a new one!
DERBY COMICS: [laughs] I may hold you to that! Where can fans find you next (either upcoming projects, following on socials, seeing you at cons/events, etc.)?
Lettering fans can find me mostly on the formerly-known-as-Twitter social media as @LetteringBear as that's the profile I use almost exclusively to share about my lettering projects. Most recently I've open profiles on Bluesky and Cara (same name), but I'm not as active there yet. They can also visit my profile at bit.ly/LetteringBear which I update every few months. Living in South America makes it a bit hard to attend to cons, but I know at some point I'll make the arrangements and visit the US!
As for upcoming projects, be on the lookout for Harley Quinn's upcoming YA graphic novel "he Strange Case of Harleen and Harley, from the amazingly creative minds of Melissa Marr and Jenn St. Onge. It's a modern approach to Harley Quinn's origin, with just a twist of Dr. Jekill and Mr. Hyde. You can check a few preview pages on DC's latest Pride special, where you can also find two other stories lettered by me! There's also a lovely book about a group of very diverse young scientists coming up with some amazing inventions, it's called Teleportation and Other Luxuries and it will be published soon by Mad Cave Studios' Maverick imprint. It's written by Archie Bongiovanni and drawn by Mary Verhoeven, and I had the most fun lettering it!
DERBY COMICS: I’ll definitely be on the lookout for those! Well thank you again, Lucas, for taking the time and answering all these questions!
