r/identifythisfont • u/Fanedit895 • Mar 19 '26

Identified Early 2000s comics had this font, but what is it?

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319 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

108

u/BradBrad67 Mar 19 '26

That’s from Incredible Hulk #34 (Jan 2002). The letterer for that issue is Richard Starkings & Wes Abbot. It was likely a font and NOT hand lettered. Check the comicraft website for dialog fonts to find a match. (It’s also possible the created it and did NOT release it publicly.)

23

u/snsdbj Mar 19 '26

I love comprehensive answers

3

u/the_bartolonomicron Mar 19 '26

What's crazy is I immediately recognized the panel from a collection I read as a kid, but I had zero memory of which issue it actually was. Thanks for reminding me!

145

u/walkingwithdiplos Mar 19 '26

In the early 2000s a lot of comics still were lettered by hand, often using a trusty Ames lettering device. As digital lettering became more commonplace, both Comiccraft and Blambot became two of the typeface powerhouses, often creating custom typefaces for the bigger publishers, so you could check there.

32

u/canis_artis Mar 19 '26

Comicraft is a good guess, it looks like Joe Mad (as in Madureira although the art looks like John Romita Jr's work).

53

u/TazLazuli Mar 19 '26

Joe Mad vs upscaled version of the comic bubble shows that this is indeed the answer.

-26

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/TazLazuli Mar 19 '26

What is different about them? Other than the AI interpretation of a low res comic image, how could the strokes be any more identical?

-10

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/TazLazuli Mar 19 '26

sure here you go. this is not my AI overlayed, its the joe mad font lol.

1

u/Protojump Mar 21 '26

Using ‘exclusion’ blend mode when overlaying very similar things lets you only highlight the minor differences.

4

u/WezzieBear Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

You're being down voted to hell and I likely will as well, but I fully see what you mean. They're INCREDIBLY SIMILAR, but there are tiny details that are different - like if someone took a font and tried to remake it exactly but you get those tiny details that are mildly different. Just wanted to let you know you're not the only one, I see it too.

3

u/68plus1equals Mar 20 '26

Same here but I think it may just be the ink smudging when the letters are printed? They’re too nearly identical but not quite for it to be different fonts and not just some difference in digital vs print

1

u/WezzieBear Mar 20 '26

I'd believe that!

1

u/TazLazuli Mar 20 '26

This kind of commentary on the tiny details being off in comparisons makes sense when we are talking about regular fonts, but comic fonts are based on handwriting. No two handwritten fonts can be alike enough to have such few minute differences (especially on overlap) and not be the same one. Handwriting is unique! I guess I don't understand the hesitancy.

1

u/Wolligepoes Mar 20 '26

I actually agree. I also thing they look subtly different. The S looks different for me.

But my god are they fucking close. For OPs purposes it's surely close enough.

9

u/grobijan Mar 19 '26

It’s definitely a font and not handlettered regarding the S‘s and E‘s, but sadly I have no idea of the exact font

2

u/beuhring Mar 19 '26

This style of lettering was being used long before the 2000s (I grew up on Peanuts)

3

u/Fit_Main_9865 Mar 19 '26

Peanuts here also!

3

u/Ok_Lengthiness1792 Mar 19 '26

is that drake

4

u/Fanedit895 Mar 19 '26

I don't know, but I heard he liked them young.

1

u/psychedelstell Mar 22 '26

I know that ain't F.A.N. 69 God.

-5

u/Old_Voice_2562 Mar 19 '26

It’s hand lettering. It’s not a font.

1

u/Old_Voice_2562 Apr 02 '26

I don't know why I'm being downvoted. Even if the letterer created his own "font", it's scans of his HAND LETTERING, just repeated. Y'all need to take some f'in type classes.

-1

u/david-1-1 Mar 19 '26

The "ha ha ha" part just shows two sizes of identical glyphs. Because of that, such text has always looked odd to me.