Sound Effects By Hand Tutorial

**Bruce Lee** · 03-23-2009, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by NickGuy

Todd Klein does great sound effects by hand, too.

Yep. Klein's one of the best letterers in comics:
http://kleinletters.com/

**Bathill8** · 03-23-2009, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by Bruce Lee

I don't own the original--how I wish I did though! I actually am a friend of the guy who once owned the original. He has since traded the page for an awesome Kirby THOR cover. At my request he was kind enough to make me a nice print copy of the artwork at full size. This page is from issue #55, which was done in 1965. Back then the image area for pages was at 12.5" X 18.25". There were notes in the margins in pencil where Kirby was laying out the story plot details to. Although he never was credited for plotting the story, Kirby did plot most of the FF stuff, with Kirby providing some plot ideas and writing out the dialogue. Unfortunately the print copy has cropped most off most of the plotting notes Kirby wrote, but the notes for panels one and two made it thru intact. For those curious as to what the notes were;

Above panel one, Kirby wrote:

Surfer says you cannot damage what isn't matter as you know it.

Above panel two, Kirby wrote:

Thing is mad as hell. He says now you'll see the kind of power that might do the job.

As you can see, the sound effects on this page were pretty brilliant. Kirby would loosely lay them out on the page, often with simple lettering. If you notice in the right hand margin of the last panel, Kirby also left notes about what style of sfx might look good in the panels (Notice the jagged outline of an "R" there). Back in the day the letterer was usually the guy in charge of finishing off the sfx--making them into something that worked with the artwork. On these, Kirby decided the placement, and the letterer, Sam Rosen, most likely finished things off. "Swingin' Sammy" Rosen was one of the best letterers in comics. He and Artie Simek (equally great) were the two main letterers who worked on the FANTASTIC FOUR in its initial Lee/Kirby run. If you really want to learn how to do great sound effects, I recommend looking thru some '60s FFs. Issue #55 is chocked full of great sfx! The battle between Thing and the Surfer alone has 21 awesome examples of great sfx usage, and there are other sfx throughout the issue besides those. All done by hand, all awesome and contributing to the visual storytelling in grand fashion.

Loston

Amazing, Loston! That is filled with stuff I likes ta hear! I hate the notes got cut off, but glad you informed us with what they read! Your storytelling about the masters is always impressive...thanks for sharing.

If I ran across a Kirby original like that, I'd have to bean my friend in the head and take off with it, tho!

**Bruce Lee** · 03-24-2009, 04:52 AM

Originally Posted by Bathill8

Amazing, Loston! That is filled with stuff I likes ta hear! I hate the notes got cut off, but glad you informed us with what they read! Your storytelling about the masters is always impressive...thanks for sharing.

If I ran across a Kirby original like that, I'd have to bean my friend in the head and take off with it, tho!

That page had special meaning to me because that story from FF # 55 was printed in 1975 THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS book, which I use to check out of the public library quite often as a kid. I would try to draw that second panel of the Thing, doing it over and over again. That panel taught me how to handle drawing the character, and I always loved that story. Years later I can draw Ben Grimm because of that very page, and now I have a print of it hanging in my hallway. Heh. I have two copies of issue #55 in my personal comic collection, as well as my own copies of THE ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS. Who'd have thunk it? Weird how things work out sometimes.

Loston