See sample pages from this book at Wink.
Justin Green is the author of the classic Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, an underground comix autobiography about growing up Catholic and OCD. Sadly, creating brilliant underground comix doesn't provide the most stable of incomes, so in the mid-1970s – with a family to support – Green went into business as a commercial sign painter.
Sign painting, or "commercial brush lettering," evolved over hundreds of years and is probably the earliest form of advertising. But by the 1980s – when Green was seriously devoting himself to the business – it was being eclipsed by computer type and cheap printed vinyl signs. Master sign-painters were aging out and few young craftspeople were taking up the brush, so Green started his monthly comic strip "Sign Game" (collected here) to record some of this hard-won knowledge before it disappeared.
The early strips tell how Green found his footing; including the one-thousand hours required to brush a perfect "O." In later strips he requested techniques and stories from veteran brushmen. They offered priceless knowledge like how to mix your paint so it stays put under the hot sun or how much arm-twisting to apply when a client lets an invoice sit for too long. Some of these sign painters became recurring characters in "Sign Game," and a few died during its run leaving these strips – and a few fading signs – as their final memorial.
Like a great sign, Green's strips are dense with information, lettered in classic historical styles, yet easy to follow. The book will have great appeal for graphic design geeks and for those nostalgic for vintage advertising and handicraft. It also provides many evergreen tips for supporting yourself as a commercial artist.
– William Smith of Hang Fire Books
Justin Green's Sign Game
by Justin Green
Last Gasp
1995, 80 pages, 7.7 x 9.8 x 0.1 inches (paperback)
