The morning comes like a sluggish punch in the puss after a hard night of thinking. Some nights I’ll watch as many trash flicks as possible to glean a little inspiration and/or ideas for my next creation. Other ideas have come from old books, periodicals, and yard sale items.

Tonight with only a buck and some change I gravitate toward the local Hollyweird Video. IT Came from Outer Space 2 jumps offa the shelf at me. A made for cable boring re-work was the eye candy I wanted. Unfortunately for all involved the E-ticket value is low low. Zero ideas plop outta this afterschool special.

I grab an old 50’s gentlemans rag that’s been stuffed in the cushions of the couch and flip through the pages. The cover that’s long been torn off and lost was named the mag Frolic. And frolic I do as the cathode ray projects dull images of blue space rock slime (not the band) onto my sleepy eyes. Something in Frolic looks real tantalizing, not just the yellowed amateurish nudie shots, or stag film ads either. Not pornography this time, but fontography! The only logical next step is pulling out the non-repro blue graph paper, pencil and the 0.1 technical pen.

A few hours, and sore hand muscles later I notice the movie is over, and so is the other thing that was on the tube. My tubby butt is lifted off the big comfy couch by pale chicken legs, I’m headed for the big Mac. I flip the “red” switch and the machines grind, whine, and chime to life.

A B&W scan, many much cleanup and bit map image manipulation later I begin the arduous task of cut&paste cut&paste cut&paste cut&paste cut&paste, whew! This dull ritual carries on for longer than I can pleasantly recall. Now the handy autotrace is chosen, then tweak (tweak, tweak, tweak, tweak) time! O.K., bad autotrace in the first place, revert, handy autotrace, many more tweaks.

Finalfrickinly later the creation is breathing the same air as you and I (at least I/me/us). Print, manipulate, generate, text test print, manipulate, tweak, save generate. Sweet success I proclaim to the laser printed images, it shakes in agreement. Another gorgeous, yet terrifying, font for the many junkies of the DTP pollution revolution. Maybe the Outer Space 2 movie with blue goo rocks (not the band) had an engaging ending, yah, time to save then rewind.

Please enjoy all the abominations I call typefaces, and of course I welcome all comments. Direct them with your E-Tool to The Brain Eaters Font Company