The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1

Lettering, or the visual transposition of the written words, is perhaps one of the most underappreciated aspects of comic book art. The majority of Sandman was lettered by Todd Klein, a comic book letterer who has won more than a dozen Harvey and Eisner awards for his work. Although comic books today are lettered digitally, in Sandman’s run they would have all been written by hand.

In Sandman, each fantastical character is given a distinctive speech mannerism illustrated by the lettering and speech bubbles they use. In general, the human characters speak in normal comic book-style letters and bubbles. Notable exceptions include Gilbert, whose true nature is not revealed until much later, and Death, who speaks with a normal human structure.

The most dramatic example of lettering is in the speech of Dream himself. As the central character and driving force of the story, it is a natural choice for him to have the most distinctive speech pattern. His words are written in reverse colors, white against a black background with uneven edges. Similar to Dream’s speech is Delirium’s, whose words are written in varying sizes and speech bubbles of varying colors, showing the way her words fade in and out.