As 2023 draws to a close, we’ve reached the time when many of us like to reflect on everything that’s happened over the past year and for those of us here at ComicBook.com, we’re no exception. Each year, out Golden Issue Awards takes a look back at the entertainment we’ve enjoyed of the past year, be it movies, television, comics, and more, and honor the best of it. When it comes to comic books, there’s a lot to celebrate among the creators and artists who bring some of the most incredible stories to page and that specifically includes the letterers. Letterers may not always get the recognition that writers and artists get, but they are very much the backbone of the story, giving unique style to the thoughts and words of some of our favorite characters and helping add details to the page that help make the story just that much more. They give stories the tone and inflection that just text on the page otherwise might not quite have, adding extra dimension to the rest of the art and, in a real sense, helps bring everything together to create the complete artistic package issue after issue.
This year, there were a great number of talented letterers across many comics, both mainstream and creator owned. It’s a good problem to have when it comes to awards, having the incredible talents of letters such as Aditya Bidikar, Becca Carey, Clayton Cowles, Ariana Maher, and Hassan Otsmanne-Elhaou to both enjoy and choose from, but even in a sea of talent there can be only one winner of our Golden Issue Award for Best Letterer.
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And the winner of the 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Letterer is…
Clayton Cowles!
This year’s win marks the fifth year in a row that Cowles has taken home the Golden Issue for Best Letterer and just a glance at his work will tell you why. Not only is Cowles a prolific letterer whose work has appeared in probably more comics than you can name — it’s honestly probably easier to name a comic he hasn’t done letters for — but his work remains consistently excellent and distinctive, while also never losing the individual and dynamic spark of the specific title he’s on at any given time. It’s an incredible testament to the quality of his lettering that, no matter what title he’s working on, Cowles manages to make each project its own. In particular, Cowles’s work this year on Birds of Prey has been outstanding, offering a bit of additional depth to the already fantastic story simply in how he brings the words to the page. Cowles’s work gives movement and tone and nuance and even emotion to what might otherwise just be print and the comics are all the better for it.
The nominees for Best Letterer are:
· Aditya Bidikar (20th Century Men)
· Becca Carey (New Champion of Shazam!)
· Clayton Cowles (Birds of Prey) — WINNER
· Ariana Maher (Jean Grey)
· Hassan Otsmanne-Elhaou (All Against All)
