Letterer Keith Perkins recently talked with comicbookinterviews.com publisher John Michael Helmer about his art career, lettering comics, and his future projects…
JMH: Where were you born and raised?
KEITH: Born in Bangor, Maine; raised in the wild outbacks of Prospect, Maine, although we spent 4 years of my misspent youth in Boston MA. (1st thru 5th grade).
JMH: Tell CBI about yourself…
KEITH: Well I grew up in Maine, as I said. Loved comics growing up (as well as outdoors stuff like hunting, fishing, camping drinking), back when they cost less than a dollar an issue. DC and Marvel were about it (well Carlton also, esp. for kids), for publishers. I read all the superhero stuff, and Howard the Duck blew my mind when it came out in my high school years. Went from that to Conan, and the cool Marvel magazine size black and whites, Heavy Metal mag, finally going into the Marines after high school, and getting stationed inCalifornia, and finding an actual comic book store, where I discovered indie comics, and especially Cerebus! All this led me to want to do something with art, and when I got out of the corps, I went to the University, and studied fine art, since nobody had sequential art courses back then. Basically got married (twice) after that, working for a living, and trying to get my fine art noticed, with limited success. After not looking at comics for about 20 years, I discovered Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan in 2004, and that re-kindled my love of comics, and I’ve been working towards getting in to the field as an artist ever since. I’ve work on several short stories as artist ,and finished up A Wicked Little Town with writer K Patrick Glover last summer, a 75 pg graphic novel, serialized on weaponizer.co.uk, and coming out in book form by this summer. I’ve lettered several things that haven’t seen the light of day, and, so far, 2 issues of Jonah. I’m 52, married and work as a mental health tech to keep me in paper and ink.
JMH: How long have you been lettering comics?
KEITH: Been lettering comics about 2 years now.
JMH: How did you break into the industry drawing comic books?
KEITH: Don’t know if I’ve actually broke in yet, but my first opportunity came via Digitalwebbing.com, Warren Ellis’s (yes I know he doesn’t run it anymore, I suppose it’s “Avatar’s”) Freakangels board got me my biggest opportunity to date.
JMH: Do you have any formal training?
KEITH: Went to University of Maine for 4 years as a fine art major.
JMH: Who are your artistic influences?
KEITH: Varied and wide. Picasso, Jasper Johns,Val Mayerick, Rick Geary, John Byrne, Bode, Moebius, Libertore, Crepax, Egon Schiele, Kurt Schwitters, James Koenline, Michelangelo, Degas, John Romita Sr., Dave Sims, Frank Miller, etc…
JMH: How do you focus when lettering?
KEITH: Ha-Ha! I tend to have tunnel vision, and when I’m concentrating on something everything else goes away, even my poor wife. I’ll work for 2 hours or more at a time, without even thinking about a break. I listen to music, or netflix, but it hardly ever sinks in.
JMH: Do you letter by hand?
KEITH: No. I have done some hand lettering for personal projects, but not much.
JMH: What types of technology do you use to letter?
KEITH: I use a Macbookpro 15″ with a 21″ Wacom Cintiq. I letter in Illustrator. I actually use MangaStudio for a lot of my art, now, but find I don’t like the way it handles lettering and balloons, so I stick with good old Illustrator.
JMH: What was the first comic book you ever read?
KEITH: Ha! I can honestly say that I don’t remember, it was probably something lame like Richie Rich, or Archie. I grew up reading whatever was at the newsstands, including the above, and Batman, Super-man, Spider-man, Green Arrow, Hawk and Dove (the original), etc.
JMH: Do you read any of the new comic books that are being published today? If so, which ones?
KEITH: I do read new comics, although more in trades than single issues lately, and I’m tending to by singles digitally rather than physically. I’m reading DMZ, New York Five, Scalped, Wasteland, Chew, Choker (still waiting on that last issue Ben.), RASL, Kate Beaton’s Hark a Vagrant, Julia Wertz, Faith Erin Hicks, anything new that Warren Ellis puts out (which is getting less and less), Eliza Frye just put out a new collection, called Regalia, which is fantastic. What else; Who is Jake Ellis, I could go on and on…
JMH: Print vs. Digital. Your thoughts…
KEITH: I like digital for the convenience of carrying around, and storage, but tend to use it for single issues. I still like the physicality of print comics; the smell, the feel and look of the paper. My biggest gripe is the price of digital, I don’t care if it is day and date, they shouldn’t be the same price as print, I can wait a month and get it for less. If hardcovers and paperbacks come out at the same time, publishers don’t charge the same for them, why should they for digital.
JMH: Talk about your lettering process. Do you start at page one or is there another system you like to use?
KEITH: I always start at page one. I read the script, look at the art, and put it in my lettering template in illustrator, and go.
JMH: How do you choose a certain type of font? What goes into your decision making process?
KEITH: I kind of like just a few fonts for dialog, ComicCraft and Blambot make great fonts, which I use, and I’m building a couple of my own in my spare time. I’d like one that looks like Rick Geary’s lettering. As for SF,X I try to pick a font that evokes the effect, or hand letter it.
JMH: What other mediums or genres have you lettered for?
KEITH: Just comics.
JMH: What makes a good letterer?
KEITH: Probably a good design sense, and a knowledge of typography are primary. Attention to detail, respect for the artist, and the words, knowledge of comic book lettering conventions (not cons 
). A working knowledge of Photoshop, and (especially) Illustrator, and if you’re hand lettering; a steady hand, good penmanship, and good pens.
JMH: What projects are you currently working currently?
KEITH: I’m working on Jonah still, and coloring A Wicked Little Town, getting it ready for print.
JMH: What future projects do you have in the works?
KEITH: Waiting for the script for the sequel of above book, waiting for Jonah 3 to letter, writing couple of my own stories, pretty busy, actually.
JMH: Do you have any words for aspiring letterers?
KEITH: Read ComicCraft’s book on lettering, or the tutorials on their website, and the tutorials on Blambot’s site. Study lettering in comics, read them and analyze them. Practice lettering; digitalwebbing.com forums has a great lettering forum, use that as a resource.
JMH: Keith, CBI appreciates your time. All the best.
KEITH: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and it’s been fun.
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About the interviewer –
John Michael Helmer is the Publisher and CEO of Red Leaf Media, LLC. Red Leaf Media operates: www.ComicBookInterviews.com & www.RedLeafComics.com.
John’s creator-owned properties include: The Leaf, Canada’s Greatest Hero, Sky Watcher, G.I.s versus Zombies, McSorly, RCMP, The Armor Guardians, The Huskie, Dune, Master Spy!, and many others.
John can be reached at: jhelmer@comicbookinterviews.com and redleafcomics@gmail.com
