By Zack Quaintance — SfSX - Terms of Service — which is the second volume in the SfSx series — is wrapping up it’s already-successful Kickstarter campaign this week. We’ve previously talked at-length with the series’ writer, Tina Horn. As the campaign looks to finish strong, today we have a great chat with the series’ letterer, Steve Wands, which is also part of your ongoing year-long series about letterers, Love of Letters.

Check it out below!

Steve Wands talks SfSx - Terms of Service

ZACK QUAINTANCE: How did you tailor your individual work to fit this book specifically, be it matching/contrasting the artwork, larger story, or themes?

STEVE WANDS: Anytime I'm part of a creative team at the onset of a book I do my best to create a lettering style that works well with the art on a visual level first. I want it to look good, and pleasing, and right. Then I also need to consider if additional artists are going to be in the fold and if that style will work well with their art, too. Once that's done I want to make sure every element of the lettering fits the tone of the book and for SFSX, that can be tricky. The story is sexy, but violent too. It has heart and love, but it's also heartbreaking. So with a book like this I really need to be mindful of the tone, and how that can shift from scene to scene.

ZACK: What initially drew you each to this project?

STEVE: Initially the book was with another publisher and I was asked by then editor Amedeo Turturro if it was something I'd be into. He's a great editor and I love working with him so I think he knew I was going to say yes. The book found a new home with Image and I'm still here, and that's because I'm interested in these characters and their world and I want to see where Tina takes them.

ZACK: I've always admired how well your work leads the eye through panels. The first volume of this series really had some rich visual storytelling around sensuality. How does lettering around those sort of visuals change your approach?

STEVE: Thanks for that, Zack. Aside from being cognizant of the tone, I think it's important in sensual scenes to have a certain level of flow with the lettering and the art. I try to avoid getting in the way of eye contact between characters, to never obscure action or touch, and to be aware of balance. Really the kind of things any letterer should be mindful of in their work anyways.

ZACK: Finally, this book is fully funded now...so can I ask if there is one specific scene, element, or idea you're excited about working on with this comic?

STEVE: That is amazing, and thank you to everyone who backed this book! For me, I think I'm most excited about working on a book that challenges my view of the world. I'm a straight white male and SFSX is not the kind of book I would naturally be drawn to as a reader. Though this is fiction, there is a reality to the world of SFSX that I don't know much about. Be it the struggles of sex workers, or that new way the kids are using pronouns. By no means does SFSX come with a manual, but like any good book, or good comic, it has that transportive ability to bring me into another world. A world in which I'm rooting for the characters that want to be left alone to party.

Back SfSx - Terms of Service here!

Read our interview with the book’s writer, Tina Horn!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.