Hello, loyal subscribers! 

Louis here to wish you all a happy holiday and a happy new year! With everything going on, VILLAINS SEEKING HERO is taking a tiny break. As such, I wanted to have a letter go out to fill the time and give the people some content.

My idea for this one is to focus on my longtime letterer: Buddy Beaudoin. Buddy has been working on all of my projects for the past couple of years now. Believe it or not, VILLAINS SEEKING HERO during its Action Lab Entertainment days was when him and I first met.

But now, with VILLAINS SEEKING HERO getting a new life in a new age, it seemed only fitting for Buddy and I to go back in change the book in a few ways. For me to show how I've advanced as a writer and for Buddy to show his advancements as a letterer.

So, I asked Buddy a couple questions about his approach to the book nowadays and he sure delivered:

- “What are you doing differently this time around than when we originally worked on the book?”

BUDDY: I’m doing a few things differently. To start, I’m using a different font and different design and line weight on the balloons. I wanted things to stand off the page and be a bit bolder this time around and wanted the lines of the balloons to really sit well with the inked lines of the art. Also, there’s a lot of shouting in this book (which I love), and I have been giving each character their own voice in those moments by use of color.

In the first round, Nite-Man had a unique word balloon style that I would fill with glyphs or small images to help emphasize him as a non-speaking character. This time around, I’ve ditched that. I think that having the character and their reactions to look at rather than another word balloon is better for the comedy, and really goes to serve him as truly non-speaking.

- “How do you feel you’ve changed as a letterer?”

BUDDY: In a lot of ways, but mainly now I’m more consistent, more confident in my abilities, and can recognize when taking a chance is going to work, or isn’t, much easier. 

- “Are there any character or characters you’ve been happy to return to in the Zestworld era of Villains Seeking Hero?” 

BUDDY: Spirit King. Always Spirit King. I love the dichotomy of how he acts versus what he is, or may be. He’s a very goofy, surface level kind of character that is so, so deep, and I love him. Getting to watch his story unfold again has been awesome.

- “Who are your lettering inspirations?”

BUDDY: I think, at this point, almost everyone. For a long time, when I read comics, I paid more attention to the lettering than anything else. I still do sometimes. There are some insanely innovative letterers working right now. Aditya Bidikar and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou come to mind in that regard, but folks like Ariana Mahar, Lucas Gattoni, Nate Piekos, Steve Wands, Jim Campbell, Troy Peteri, DC Hopkins, Derron Bennett, Nathan Kempf, and Bernardo Brice have all had a huge impact on how I letter and how I think about approaching each page. I have gained so much knowledge and confidence from these folks. Many of them have become friends, too, which is extra rad.

- “Which issue have you been the proudest of and shows off your best work so far?”

BUDDY: Issue seven. There were a lot of design elements that I hadn’t tried before that I put to use in that issue and was pretty proud of how they turned out. Also, Heftyboy Strongstinger (AKA Hopalong Starspringer) has always stood out as a character to me that feels like they’re from the ‘90s, so getting to design some of their sound effects and voicings over again with that in mind was super fun.

Very big thank you to Buddy for giving me his time and his thoughtful responses. I hope you all enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain and I'll see you in the next issue!

- Louis Southard