Blambot has a fantastic breakdown of how type conventions work in comics and graphic novels. Full of things that are news to me, like the use of breath marks. Great as a supplement to the always relevant work of Scott McCloud and Will Eisner.

Comics Grammar & Tradition (via BoingBoing)

Earlier this month, the fantastic Mark Simonson put together a lengthy post about the typography present on screen in the AMC show Mad Men. He mostly limits his exposé to showing which fonts are or are not of the period. But he also points out that real props used from the period in the show all have an anachronistic patina to them, as if the Selectrics available in the 60s were already 40 years old!

While this might seem nit-picky, no one can doubt the fantastic job the Mad Men production designers are doing on the show. We can thank Mark, though, for keeping period typography honest.

Mad Men, Mad Props

Eventually, I’d like to return to the idea of a long-form typographic narrative; something that tells a story without getting tiresome with its type trickery.