The League of Fonts Webcomic

Prologue: Page 34

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Why is the hallway to his office rather dark? Why are there old-fashioned lamps? Honestly, he probably just lives for the drama and wants it to seem fairly sepulchral. I colored this page while listening to music from the "Black Mirror" soundtrack, so maybe that subconsciously influenced my lighting choices... In other news, next week's page might be late because I will have just gotten back from abroad and haven't had much time to work! Apologies in advance if I can't get it up in time.

Prologue: Page 33

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, Old English's secret is that...he's bald. Obviously Futura and everyone working at the Fonternity Ward already knows this, because fonts can't really change their appearance (besides getting a haircut or doing a style) which means Old English - like TNR - has been bald his entire life. Now the only question is...how many years has he been wearing that damn hat?

Prologue: Page 32

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I'm still out of the country, so hopefully this is going to publish correctly; I colored this on a very long flight while the person sitting next to me fell asleep and fenced me in. So, with no further ado...Here’s Old English’s proper introduction! He's also been added to the Cast Page now, so go and take a gander. Remember when Helvetica FaceTimed him way back on page 15? Now here he is in the flesh - and fully clothed, this time. Here’s a question for you – can you guess what secret Old English is going to TNR? (No, it's not about tattoos, although I promise he has plenty of them underneath his inexplicable outfit. After all, the #1 font for certain types of bad tattoos is...well...)

Prologue: Page 31

Wed, 5 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Happy summer! Hopefully everyone's enjoying the warmer days and the fewer responsibilities. I'm all done with my finals and have just (for some reason) piled it on even heavier with all these comics I've got to do to keep up! I realize this is a pretty text-heavy page, but hey, that’s just how TNR does business. Granted, I don’t think ordering people around is particularly good praxis! But it's fitting for who he is, and how long he's been operating in this role in his life (remember he was "born" in the 30s!) We’ve also got…a rare personal moment happening for him, which is new, to say the least. I’m also out of the country with inconsistent internet access, so I might not be super speedy with replying to comments – especially since my time zones are now all out of whack! Hopefully the pages will post normally at least, but that's all up in the air for now.

Prologue: Page 30

Wed, 29 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I feel I must clarify this: the person in the teal suit DID NOT slip Louis the pen. People keep thinking this. Louis is already holding the pen before they bump into each other! NOTHING was exchanged! Yeah, I know the suit and the pen are the same color. That’s on purpose – I mean…look at how Teal Suit Man’s dialogue is written. That’s not the same text as Louis and his classmates. There’s certainly something fishy going on here! Next week: Back to the office! That’s right, it’ll be quite a while until we get answers as to what really DID happen during this whole museum escapade. But I promise you it’s worth it. At least…I think it is, but that might be only because I know EVERYTHING that happens in this story! AND, on a personal note - I have finished my first year of undergrad and will be out of the country for a few weeks! Updates should remain normal but comments may be slow to come. Thank you so much for your patience and support, it means the world to me, especially as I've dealt with disease and disability.

Prologue: Page 29

Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, if you didn’t already figure it out, this is where the whole chapter was leading. Yes, that pen did just materialize in his pocket (it’s not like Futura is here to dispense him one!) Yes, the person who did bump into him has an outfit the exact same color as the pen. Yes, Louis doesn’t seem appropriately freaked out by the appearance of the pen. Yes, he’s kind of a ridiculous boy. But he’s also a child, and at this point in time he has panicked so much about messing up a museum exhibit that he’s just become numb to this field trip going horrifically off-kilter. Besides, that pen doesn’t look…TOO menacing, does it?

Prologue: Page 28

Wed, 15 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Another reaction I got to this page was “why is Louis upset about summer homework? Geez, I thought this kid was, you know, a NERD.” Well, when you’re kind of racked with guilt about somehow magically messing up a museum exhibit, I think your mind is preoccupied. Besides, hearing the prompt for the essay relaxes him – you know, like it does. I don’t know if this is an American thing, but whenever we went on field trips, we’d have some sort of lunch voucher or card that we had to use. This would usually be good for collecting something to eat at the museum cafeteria or correspond to a bagged lunch we had back in the bus. Either way, they had to feed us, so we all had to make sure we kept the lunch cards in our pockets until it was time to eat. This was often a very exciting moment in the field trip, because eating at the museum was always a big delight. Or maybe that’s something I uniquely enjoyed, but I still have really fond memories of it. AH, the break in routine!

Prologue: Page 27

Wed, 8 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Wow, it would have been really helpful if that security guard had showed up about two pages ago! But I guess she wasn’t looking. Have you ever felt this way? As soon as you peer too close to the artwork, the guards at a museum seem to materialize out of nowhere and chastise you! I mean, Louis was touching the glass here, and he did definitely mess things up…but she didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight when everything was glowing and being all magical. Or, you know, the Disc kind of going a bit blank. Who knows! I feel like she’s still pretty good at her job. In my mind, she was off helping Mrs. Bridgman corral the rowdy kids in Louis’s class (who are definitely capable of much more severe infractions than simply touching the glass case of an item), so I think that was a valid reason to be occupied.

Prologue: Page 26

Wed, 1 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Kids, don’t touch the art. Even the glass case protecting something! In most cases, it’s not going to glow bright yellow, but you never know. There’s a library near me with a bunch of very rare antique manuscripts, but you can’t even see them any more because they were so destroyed by people touching them and messing them up. Our fingers have lots of oils in them that can hurt art and archaeological specimens! Okay, I realize that’s pretty basic advice and most people…follow rules and don’t touch things in museums. Louis also seems like he follows rules. I wonder why he…didn’t, in this case. Beyond the glowing, does the disc look different to you? Perhaps a little bit…empty of engravings? (That’s right, I’m not going to explain his motivation for doing things, it’s a comic and you can decide what you think).

Prologue: Page 25

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

So, I didn’t make any of this up: the Phaistos Disc is a real thing, and it truly has never been deciphered. If you search this up, you’re going to come back to this page up in arms about how I’m wrong. Yes, every few months some new article pops up claiming “PHAISTOS DISC FINALLY DECODED!!!” or something sensationalist of that ilk. This is pretty much always untrue. The actual content of the articles will usually talk about how some researcher has decoded a certain number of phrases, or figured out it’s probably the inscription of a prayer, or something quite specific like that. We still have no idea what language it’s written in, and there has never been another specimen of this language uncovered. Knowing generally what it’s about is not the same thing as decoding it fully – unlike the Rosetta Stone, we have no canonical text that compares it to other languages. So we can’t translate it yet, or know that much about it. Isn’t that really cool? “Aliens” is also a popular Phaistos Disc theory. Make of that what you will.

Prologue: Page 24

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I happened to show this page to a professor of mine, and he promptly informed me that my drawings on this page are incorrect, as “that isn’t what Tinder looks like.” I didn’t bother to correct it, because it’s a one-panel sight gag and I really don’t need to do any further investigation on Tinder in the slightest. (Disclaimer: The League of Fonts does not condone using Tinder if you are under 18. Even then, exercise caution). ANYWAY, back to this comic scene about a literal child! This page isn’t supposed to make a whole lot of sense – like the previous inclusion of the Rosetta Stone, the item on this page is a real thing that exists in the world, but unless you already know what it is I’ll leave you to ponder on it until next week. Or, like, Google should probably work fine on this one. Knock yourself out. See you Wednesday! Also, leaving a field trip to go explore a special interest is 100% something I would have done. But you have to be polite about it! Take a page out of Louis’s book here: politeness is key, especially if your teacher is obviously so sick of dealing with kids all day that she’s had to resort to mindless online dating during a field trip.

Prologue: Page 23

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I made a conscious choice here: none of Louis’s classmates have sketchbooks, even though their assignment is to sketch the museum artefacts. It definitely doesn’t make sense, and that’s the point! During most of my life going on school field trips, people didn’t really bring their phones on the trips. The most goofing-off we did was trading snacks at lunch time when people didn’t like what their parents had packed for them! But I recently went on a field trip to the Boston MFA (a fantastic museum that I highly recommend), and people were on their phones so often, sometimes not even looking at the art – or photographing it, which I totally condone if the museum says it’s okay I may have also snuck out of that field trip to buy myself Ethiopian food for lunch, so I guess my field-trip lunchtime antics haven’t really changed over the years. I’m just older now, equipped with actual cash and Google Maps: the two most powerful tools in the world.

Prologue: Page 22

Wed, 3 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There are basically only two things I can say about this page: first, yes, I did render the Rosetta Stone as accurately as possible. Second, once you write an idiotic title like “Grand Theft Prius,” it will just NEVER leave the script. I didn’t really grow up playing videogames or anything that required a console, so 99% of my knowledge in that area is second-hand tidbits I’ve picked up from people. I also wrote that joke when Grand Theft Auto was a really popular game, but I kind of feel like the joke is funnier if it’s parodying a game that isn’t really a big deal anymore. I guess the current equivalent is Fortnite, or something, but I only know that game has some dance or whatnot. I’m absolutely not the one to ask.

Prologue: Page 21

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I have a few months’ buffer on these comics, so I actually was penciling this page on slow days at work over the summer (I work for the government, so make of that what you will). Normally when I draw at home I play music the whole time, but I wouldn’t do that during my breaks at work, for obvious reasons. Instead I just made up elaborate backstories and names for all of Louis’s classmates. The only interesting one I decided was that the girl with blonde hair in the front with Archie – Lydia, whose name was briefly mentioned on Page 11 – is Archie’s cousin, hence their similar appearances and why they’re huddled up looking a bit gossipy in this scene. I have no cousins my same age, but I hear that can generally be the interaction, so I put it in. Mrs. Bridgman’s disdain for Mrs. Cooper’s notes is both a funny way of setting up the upcoming scene’s premise and…poking a little fun at art school. When I went on field trips to museums in school, we always had some odd sort of sketch assignment that most people wouldn’t really complete. We mostly wanted to take in the art without feeling beholden to interacting with it in a specific way. I still feel this way – I just wanna see the art on my own terms, not a teacher’s!

Prologue: Page 20

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I had someone describe this as a “deceptively subtle scene.” In a way, I suppose that’s accurate (even though this page is jam-packed with details and colors) – this conversation has a lot of relatively important information, and I personally hate scenes with flat and obvious exposition. If there’s expository dialogue, it better feel fresh and in character! So that’s what I always try to write, because if it would bore me to read, I don’t want to write it. Also, I wrote that prostate joke about five years ago and it has never left the script. I know it’s not that good of a joke, okay? I KNOW THIS... But it makes me laugh every single time, so…I guess it’s staying in forever. It never gets a laugh. But there it is, as I have the humor of a 9-year-old boy.

Prologue: Page 19

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

And we’re back…to pages that aren’t about fonts! I really love drawing Louis, and I missed making pages about him the past few weeks. But this sequence is a bit long, so it will be ALL LOUIS, ALL THE TIME. The school uniform I designed here is nice. What’s not nice is, well, how Louis’s jacket alone has 7-8 unique colors. This is 100% my fault, and for me, it’s worth it to have the visual interest of a jacket with a school crest and colors on it. But every time I draw and color it, I just…I always rue the day I decided to add multicolor sleeve stripes or whatever. I myself never had to wear a school uniform, so maybe my frustration towards it is just the novelty wearing off. I showed these pages to a friend of mine, and it was interesting: he remarked that Louis really speaks very rarely in his scenes, something I had never noticed. Maybe it’s because I’m very talkative as a person, so I don’t necessarily notice when I’m writing a quiet character because in my head, I know everything they’re thinking. I think it's interesting to play with how talkative characters generally are!

Prologue: Page 18

Wed, 6 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Technically, this room is mislabeled: it's not a morgue, but a columbarium. A columbarium is a room with niches for funerary urns, which is what I’ve drawn here. But “The Columbarium of Typography” just doesn’t sound very good, and I thought it had more impact if I chose a more immediately recognizable word. So, it’s the Morgue, even if…it technically isn’t. Of course, in the League’s particular version, all of the funerary niches are empty. Once the fonts wither, they’ve just simply vanished. This room is much more a symbolic representation of all the fonts that have been lost, rather than a set of physical specimens. They’re not really born, they don’t grow, and they don’t really die either. At least not in the way human beings think about it, anyway. I learned about these definitions (morgue vs. columbarium) in “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by Caitlin Doughty, a very informative and hilarious memoir I read in 2017. I highly recommend it – she’s now published a follow-up book, which I’ve yet to read, but plan to when I have time.

Prologue: Page 17

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Helvetica, in these last few pages, has apologized frequently for things that are not her fault. She’s apologized for reminding Old English of a meeting, she’s apologized to Futura for being busy, and now she’s apologizing for her emotions. I’m sure all of us are guilty of doing this at some point or another, but your own feelings aren’t something you need to ask forgiveness for! Remember to be kind to yourself today. In that vein, here’s something I was angry with myself for when I shouldn’t have been: While I was inking this page, I accidentally spilled a glass of water on it, ruining everything. I was really mad at myself, even when it was totally an accident! Eventually, I had to re-do all the inking. This was a pain, of course, but it wasn’t worth getting mad. In the end, everything worked out just fine.

Prologue: Page 16

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

See, here’s a new page, right on schedule. I didn’t renege on my promise, nor did I get hospitalized again! In my life, now, that’s a success. If you’ve ever had a 9-to-5 job before, you’ll know this page isn’t really an exaggeration. Helvetica and Futura are friends, which is why (despite herself) Helvetica starts airing all her complaints about her other co-workers. I’m aware this page might seem a bit boring or slow, but that’s mostly because this whole sequence is laying the foundation for important characters and plot points to come. Designing Helvetica’s office was a collaborative process. I knew I wanted her to have houseplants, but couldn’t find anything that felt right. Lucky for me, one of my really good friends is a botanist, so I gave him free rein. He chose the sedum plant, and I drew two different varieties: in the extreme foreground is “Sedum T-rex” and in the background is “Sedum Thunderhead.” Thank you so much for your help, Matty!

Prologue: Page 15

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, so, let’s address the elephant in the panel: I haven’t posted one of these pages in a really, really, spectacularly long time. No, I wasn’t taking a break or quitting with no notice. I wanted to draw and post this comic every week. But I was physically unable to do so – because what happened is I got sick. Very sick, super-scary-stuff sick, it’s-a-miracle-I’m-still-alive sick. It took three years to get me well again. At the beginning, I didn’t have enough motor control to accurately type a text message or write with a pen. I’m cured now, but it wasn’t without help and hard work. (For more details about my illness, I’ve [written an article::https://www.ozy.com/true-story/coma-chronicles-coming-out-the-other-side/87693] about it and drawn a [short comic::https://www.facebook.com/ChapelChronicles/posts/2268742083170188?__tn__=-R]). [Click here to see how YOU can save someone like me.::https://bethematch.org/] All it takes is five minutes and swabbing your cheek with a Q-tip to join a donor registry and help save people’s lives. A bone marrow transplant saved my life, but there are many others just like me that are still searching for a match. You can be their cure. See you on Wednesday for the next page (no wait this time).

Prologue: Page 14

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Did you hear that? Did you hear that faint screaming from California of me yelling “HELVETICAAAAAAAA”? No? Okay then. Seriously though: Oh my god. Thank god. We finally get to introduce more characters. I know to you guys this probably seems like there’s already a few characters introduced, but here’s the thing: I know how this entire story turns out. There are so many more wonderful characters that make this SO MUCH BETTER that you haven’t gotten to meet yet. So, officially, meet Courier and Helvetica. Courier is, as she mentions, the League’s mailperson. (Get it? COURIER? It’s a pun.) Her design is fairly blocky, to reflect how I personally interpret the look of her font. And meet Helvetica! As the Sans Serif department leader, she has adopted significantly more modern technology than noted fuddy-duddy TNR has. I know — finally a modern cellphone in this comic that bills itself as taking place in the present day! Also, I hope this won't happen, but there's a chance next week's comic will be late! I've been feeling very sick for the past few weeks and haven't been able to maintain my buffer, so sorry about that, guys!

Prologue: Page 13

Wed, 9 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Can you tell what fonts I've reproduced in this page? Some of them are pretty easy to recognize, but some of them are a bit tricky. Not all of these fonts are going to be major characters in the comic, but I'm really excited to introduce the ones that are ;) Anyway, here’s a little look at some of the cubicle areas at the League. But what you might be wondering is why we've only seen indoor scenes of the League, and no exterior shot so we can actually see what it looks like. But don't worry, we will see it - later in the story. There’s a specific reason I’m not showing it yet. A lot of this comic is inspired by my love for Dilbert, which probably seems like an unlikely mix, but my inspirations are varied! If I had to describe LoF, I’d probably call it “Dilbert with fonts.”

Prologue: Page 12

Wed, 2 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

As we saw a bit of last week, Futura is REALLY bad with kids. And her jokes still fall flat across all of the age spectrum. Her two font attendants finally get names, and a bit of dialogue! The tall one with the mustache is Goudy Old Style, and the short ginger one is Copperplate Gothic. When I was originally designing the first Fonternity Ward scene, I was just gonna include two nameless fonts, but I thought that wouldn’t be as fun. The reason I picked Goudy and Copperplate is because they were created by the same typographer, Frederic W. Goudy, prior to 1931 (so it wouldn’t be a historical anomaly to have them present in the first scene). Goudy Old Style’s letters are less squat and, to my eyes, more elegant than Copperplate Gothic’s letterforms, hence the height difference of their personifications. And Copperplate’s copper-toned color scheme is, well, a bit self-explanatory. Besides that, there’s some pretty important information on this page. You guys probably thought the fountain pen in this website’s header was just to reflect the idea of fonts - and it is, somewhat - but it’s also an actual object in the comic.

Prologue: Page 11

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This is how it works for the personifications of the fonts: They can be “born” looking any age, but they will all have the mental capacity of an adult, hence this young font’s already somewhat advanced vocabulary. A lot of the more adult-looking fonts, like Futura, are really uncomfortable with this…but really, almost ANYONE would be skeeved out with a 7-year-old with the vocab of an adult. As we’ve seen in the past few pages, fonts can’t age at all — Futura and TNR look exactly the same after 80+ years — but they CAN alter minor things about their appearances, like their hair. Most fonts tend to keep their look the same over the years, but fashion-forward ones like Futura will adjust slightly to fit changing trends. Hence, she’s swapped out her 30s finger waves for a more modern shaved head. Another thing that has changed since we last saw this space in the 30s: the medical technology at the League! They finally have modern beds, and — thank god — hospital gowns. No more shirtless font drawings for me, thank you. The League had to update its rules once design-your-own-fonts programs became available, or else they would be more swamped with fonts than they already are. Hence Futura's comment about fonts now coming only from major design houses or typographers. Next week: Futura grows even more uncomfortable with child-size fonts. Yay!

Prologue: Page 10

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Three things of note in this page: Times New Roman keeps a portrait OF HIMSELF in his office; he always keeps his pinky up, because he fancies himself a proper gentleman; and his mug says #1 BOSS on it. Let me tell you, I had a LOT of fun drawing all of those visual gags into this page, along with all of the hand-drawn type. And Times New Roman is unexpectedly very fun to draw, just because he's so darn grouchy. All joking aside, this page has a lot of really important plot-type information. As I said last week, it's...probably not a good idea to trust someone who has two phones, and TNR is kind of proving that true here. My personal nickname for this page is just Times New Roman Lies And Berates People On The Telephone. Things we've learned: the League is located on...Atlantis, and now that it's been over 80 years since he was born, TNR has been promoted to the CEO. But what about John Hancock? I can't tell you exactly what's going on, because that'd be spoilers -- but do you have any theories about WHY John Hancock and "Robert Smith" exist? And, finally, there's that Comic Sans joke everyone has been asking for! Don't say I never did anything for you.

Prologue: Page 9

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I don't know why, but I love panel 5 so much, I even made it my phone background! I'm just really proud of how it turned out, and poor Louis's jumpy expression makes me laugh every time. Public speaking anxiety is a real problem, though - it can be super stressful to have to read stuff out in class, so I tried to capture Louis's pit-of-the-stomach feeling through my colors in this page. Poor Louis. I've given him the least dramatic introduction of any character ever. Whose phone do you think is ringing in the last panel? Is there every ANY good reason to trust someone who has two phones? (Probably not, in my opinion). Fun history fact: Did you guys know that the reason we call signatures John Hancocks is because his was the biggest name on the American declaration of independence? Of course, in this comic it means something different, which you'll find out more about next week...but it's a fun play-on-words, anyway. Who am I kidding, though - it's pretty obvious who's phones are ringing, as we've only met two fonts so far. Oh, well! See you next week to find out officially - and find out a bunch of other interesting things, too.

Prologue: Page 8

Wed, 3 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Nobody likes getting called on in class. ESPECIALLY when literally every single other person was raising their hand except you. Yet Mrs. Bridgman is a cruel mistress, so poor Louis has a date with the devil known as "performing in front of peers." He doesn't look like he's doing too hot at it yet, but maybe he'll perform better in next week's update... Louis's classmate with the dark red hair and red nails (panels 7, 8, and 10) is a cameo of one of the characters from my short historical comic "L'Ordre de la Mouche", about historical ladies, cosmetic moles, and Morse code. You can read it by clicking on the Links section up above and going to my Facebook page. Of course, the character is a lot younger here, and there's also the TINY change that she's no longer a 1940s seafaring woman who's obsessed with makeup and gossip. But hey, that's just minor details, right? School scenes are weirdly hard for me to draw because I was homeschooled for all of high school and haven't been in a proper classroom for quite a while. There are a lot of other great webcomics out there set in schools - my favorites being Gunnerkrigg Court and Bad Machinery, which are both excellent - but League of Fonts isn't one of them, so this is the only scene we'll have at Alfred Moss Charter!

Prologue: Page 7

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I wasn't kidding last week when I said this page wasn't gonna be about fonts at all! Instead it's about...extremely regular, normal humans. For example, meet Mrs. Bridgman. She wears regrettable shoulder pads, plucks her eyebrows too much in the middle, and has very muscular legs from Pilates. She's not a major character in this comic, which is why it's not a spoiler to tell you all these details ahead of time. And meet Louis Pepping! He does very well in school, but he doesn't really want to brag about it, due to his massive anxiety. He's pretty much the main character of this comic, along with Times New Roman, so if you haven't seen it already you can check out his "entry" on the cast page up top. I love him, he's my tiny shy baby, and I hope you'll grow to love him too. If you're wondering why the lettering seems a little messy on this page (in contrast to my careful font lettering in the previous scene) it's a careful choice I made to visually distinguish when a human is speaking, vs. when a font is. Of course, this doesn't really seem necessary in a scene with no fonts...but it'll become very important later on, trust me!

Prologue: Page 6