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If you grew up reading comic books (or still read them as an adult) you’ve likely seen the work of Richard Starkings and John Roshell, whose work has greatly impacted the comic industry for nearly 30 years — whether you’re aware of it or not.

Founding Comicraft studio back in the 1990s, the pair are both incredibly enthusiastic about comic books and the fonts that are used in them.

Comicraft co-founder Richard Starkings has been involved in the comic industry since he was a child in England, beginning with helping his brother in exchange for receiving advance copies of the comic, “Conan the Barbarian.” Through his teen years, Richard got his first real start in the industry, crafting four-panel comic strips for fanzines, developing his own lettering skills for an indie publisher.

Eventually, Richard began working for Marvel Comics in London, which included editorial work and other associated tasks for Transformers, Zoids, Doctor Who, and The Real Ghostbusters. In the late 1980s, he moved across the pond to Los Angeles to work as a freelancer and became a pioneer of digitized comic book lettering.

In the early 1990s, Richard set out to establish a studio dedicated to comic book design. He sought someone who could specifically work on digitizing comic book lettering projects — and after reaching out to John Roshell, he found the person he was looking for. John had graduated from UCLA and was taking on freelance work in design at the time while also trying to secure a record deal with his band at the time.

Although the record deal would fall through, the course of his entire career was changed with a single phone call from Richard. The dynamic duo of Richard Starkings and John Roshell brought Comicraft to life and the rest is the stuff of legend. They pioneered many of the techniques that are still used to letter comic publications to this day.

Beyond technique, Comicraft is behind the design of hundreds of typefaces that are used in some of the best-selling and most popular comic books in the world. Their work has gone beyond simply comics, however, expanding to the television and video game industries, as well.

Comicraft has worked with Dreamworks, Midway Games, Universal Studios, Activision, Walt Disney Imagineering, EA Games, Hasbro, and many more. Not to brag on their work or anything, but writer and director J.J. Abrams has even raved about Comicraft’s type designs, citing that they are “the absolute best” and adding that he buys, uses, and covets their fonts.

If you do any design work in the comic industry, we’re telling you right now: Comicraft should be your go-to resource — every single time.

One of their most recent releases through YouWorkForThem Is Biff Bam Boom, an intensely loud font family that was inspired by the legendary lettering “comics’ Silver Age.” This is a font family that “you can’t take a swing at without ending up with a broken nose.” 

Living up to its name in every way, Biff Bam Boom is onomatopoeia in visual form, providing the perfect way to convey noise and action on the page of any comic book in a fresh and exciting way. This type family is perfect for any design project that needs a swift kick in the pants (or the face!), working well in posters, titling sequences, marketing materials, logos, product packaging, merchandise, apparel, marketing materials, headlines, website designs, mobile applications, video gaming, and marketing materials.

Biff Bam Boom is available in Regular and Outline versions for greater flexibility. Its outline variant offers thinly-inked outlines offset by a heavy drop shadow for an instant three-dimensional punch. It offers additional versatility through OpenType, including fractions, ordinals, superscript, standard ligatures, and discretionary ligatures.

Comics are loved by readers near and far; Biff Bam Boom extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Vietnamese, Pan African Latin, Dutch, Afrikaans, Pinyin, Igbo Onwu, and Basic Cyrillic for exceptionally far-reaching global accessibility! Additionally, it offers 18 Chinese sound effects for illustrators to incorporate into their work, as well.

Comicraft currently offers 24 products through YouWorkForThem. Whether you work in the comic design industry, television, movies, gaming, or if you’re just a fan of comics in general, visit their portfolio to take a look at the rest of their work and bookmark it so you won’t miss out on any of their future releases!