Summary
- Rick Parker's lettering in Kraven's Last Hunt has become so iconic that it has had a lasting impact on modern comic book lettering
- Parker's lettering gave each major character their own distinctive font, a notable approach for its time that has since become more common in recent years.
- The use of red caption boxes in Kraven's Last Hunt forced readers to see the shock experienced by Spider-Man, showcasing how captions can control the pace and emotion of a story.
Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me. Today, I discuss how Rick Parker's lettering in Kraven's Last Hunt has become so iconic that it just feels like part of Spider-Man lore nowadays.
Earlier this month was Letterer Appreciation Day, and it struck me as interesting that, while reading the most recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man, which was lettered by the great Joe Caramagna, I was struck by just how much of an impact that Rick Parker's lettering on the original Kraven's Last Hunt storyline has had on comic book lettering overall, where Caragmna is actively doing an outright homage to Parker's work on Kraven's Last Hunt, and yet you could barely tell, since the concepts that Parker introduced in Kraven's Last Hunt have just sort of become standard lettering tropes.
It's interesting to see how certain lettering performances have become almost part of comic book lore, and practically transcend the original letterer. My issue with that, though, is that I believe we owe a duty to keep the names of the original creators on these sorts of things alive. It reminds me of something that Mark Evanier wrote about many years ago, about how Frank Nelson's brilliant character on The Jack Benny Show (on both radio and television) as an unctuous guy who says, "Yesssssssssss?" led to many imitators even when Nelson was still alive and doing voice work. It has gotten to the point where people today likely just know The Simpsons character who is a RIFF on Nelson, and not Nelson himself. Similarly, the impact that Rick Parker had on comic book lettering in Kraven's Last Hunt was tremendous, and yet it was SO significant that it has just sort of become a standard approach in comic book lettering, so we lose track of how important Parker was, so let's take a moment to, like Carmagna, pay homage to Parker's greatness in Kraven's Last Hunt.
What was so great about the lettering in Kraven's Last Hunt?
One of the most obvious things that Rick Parker did in Kraven's Last Hunt, the epic six-part storyline by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod that ran for two months in the pages of all three of the Spider-Man ongoing books at the time (Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man - the issues were colored by Janet Jackson at the time, but Mike Zeck later recolored them, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've been recolored again since then. I'm "stuck" with the more recent coloring for my examples), was give every major character their own distinctive font. That, in and of itself, was a notable thing for the era, as that rarely happened, even thought it has become more and more common in recent years. Also, do note that Kraven's lettering includes LOWER-case lettering, which was also a novelty at the time, but is more and more common nowadays (especially with Marvel's Ultimate line of comics)...
Comic books, as you might be surprised to learn, are not the same type of art form as novels or radio or video. With a video, you can control how the viewer views the work by simply using slow motion, but there is no such thing as slow motion in comics. The equivalent, though, is to use captions in such a way as to control HOW the reader reads a page. Here, Parker uses red caption boxes to force the reader to see that, for Spider-Man, this turn of events is a true shock. Kraven has pulled out a rifle and essentially has changed the name of the game that they play with each other in a major way...
Spider-Man is naturally freaking out. He is trapped and now Kraven has a freakin RIFLE trained on him. The next sequence again shows you how captions can control the pace the reader uses to read the story, as Parker putting each word in its own box forces the reader to read it in that same stilting fashion where Spider-Man is clearly going nearly mad with fear, while meanwhile, we see his OTHER thought box thinking deeper thoughts about the people he is leaving behind, including his newleywed wife...
Kraven takes over as Spider-Man after he buries Spider-Man (we later learn he did so with Spider-Man ALIVE, thank goodness), while Kraven wrestles with his demons, as he believes proving himself the Superior Spider-Man would make himself feel better, but it does not. Meanwhile, we see the underground creature known as Vermin, who also gets his own distinctive font. A common trick Parker and DeMatteis use in this story arc is to have dueling caption boxes.It's a great effect, as is the sight of Kraven's captions overwhelming him...
Finally, after seemingly being dead for a few issues, we check back in with Spider-Man, who has been treated with some sort of potion to keep him alive while buried, and he is now sort of lost in his own madness, but again, Parker and DeMatteis split the caption boxes up, showing how despite Spider-Man being lost in the madness of his thoughts, he keeps turning to the most important thing in his life - the fact that he loves his wife, and that's enough to break him out of it...
and when he breaks free of the dirt, there is just one simple caption box...
Just brilliant. Utter brilliance. There's more in the story (this is just about halfway through), but I think you get the idea. These are all tactics that modern letterers use frequently, and they were novel when Parker was doing it.
How is Caramagna paying homage to Rick Parker's lettering in the current Amazing Spider-Man story arc?
Okay, the gist of the current Amazing Spider-Man arc (by writer Zeb Wells, artist Patrick Gleason, colorist Marcio Menyz and the aforementioned letterer, Joe Caramagna) is that a while back, during Nick Spencer's run on Amazing Spider-Man, the new Sin-Eater literally removed the sins from Norman Osborn, leaving Osborn to become a good guy now. Some bad guys then transferred Norman Osborn's sins into Dr. Ashley Kafka, turning her into Queen Goblin. Kraven the Hunter (who is a clone of the original, thus keeping in continuity the fact that Kraven died by suicide at the end of Kraven's Last Hunt) then teamed up with her, and used a magic spear to remove Osborn's sins. He planned on giving them back to Osborn by stabbing him with the spear, but Spider-Man stepped in and took the blow meant for Osborn, and so Spider-Man now has Osborn's sins coursing through him, making him act really dark.
In Amazing Spider-Man #33 (truly the most significant Amazing Spider-Man #33 of all time, I'm assuming, without doing any checking. I'm pretty sure that's totally correct), Spider-Man does what Kraven did in Kraven's Last Hunt, only now TO Kraven. See the use of red to mark the different thoughts for Peter...
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn also has his own font, and the differnet colors showing him dealing with the guilt of watching Peter struggle with sins that belonged to Osborn...
Finally, we see Kraven, who is being hunted by Spider-Man, while also haunted by the fact that he is not the one TRUE Kraven...
It's all fascinating work by Caramagna and the Amazing Spider-Man team to pay homage ot the original Kraven's Last Hunt with a twist, but at the same time, the fact that these captions don't really stand out that much anymore just shows you how much of an impact Parker had, that this stuff is now almost standard practice.
But we see you Rick (and I know Caramagna does), so your impact is memorable!
If anyone has suggestions about interesting pieces of comic book history, feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com.
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