Hi all,
There was ONE classic font that absolutely everybody used in comics for at least fifty or sixty years (still shows up today.)
I can’t remember what it was called. It seems like I used to know… anyway, if I know what the name was, then I can probably find a free, open-source version of it, which is what happened with a lot of fonts (League Gothic being one.)
Here are some examples:
All advice appreciated! 
This the one?
The Classic retro romance comics you’re linking to all have different fonts. They’re hand lettering based and, total WAG, possibly custom fonts, but they’re different.
they unsurprisingly resemble comic sans though
NM
Yeah, I don’t think there was any one font used in comics historically. They were all hand-lettered (and, as I understand it, some still are.) The fonts on that website are all over the map. Some appear to be computerized fonts (like the modern comics), others are very clearly hand-lettered, but the letterforms look different from different sources. As mentioned above, the closest free font in feel is Comic Sans, although you’d probably be better off checking the fonts here, as Comic Sans is so cliche and cringe-inducing. From a quick look, those Blambot ones look pretty good to me.
Comics were traditionally hand-lettered. In Marvel and DC, letterers were given credits, just like writers, artists, inkers, and colorists.
In drafting and engineering schools, people are taught a very specific lettering style, so that your blueprints will be easily legible, no matter how badly they are mimeographed or faxed, blown up or shrunk down, ringed with coffee stains or smudged with fingerprints. There are a lot of rules: all capital letters, no serifs, etc. When you follow all of the rules, you end up with a style pretty close to most of the comics.
I suspect that most comics letterers originally trained as draftsmen, and got into comics as a sideline, or a way to pay for drafting school.
No font at all. Lettering.
In the pre-computer era, engineering drawings were often lettered using mechanical guides such as Leroy guides, which produced lettering that was the same for all draftsmen. Architects and cartoonists, though, just drew light pencil lines and then did hand lettering.
Arial
Arial Black
Comic Sans MS
Courier New
and around 20 fonts in all are available in the “Post Reply” options.
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
{snip} Comic Sans MS {snip}
[/QUOTE]
I’m confused. Doesn’t the “sans” in a font’s name indicate it’s a “sans serif” font? If so, why does “Comic Sans MS” have serifs? 
I’m not seeing serifs. Maybe I don’t know serifs as well as I thought.
Because it’s a terrible font.
Actually, I don’t see serifs. I guess the little nib on the capital “C” might be a serif, but it doesn’t look like one to me. Some say the “I” and “J” have serifs, but that to me a full-blown extra stroke, not a serif.
Inkers::Colorists. Difference?
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
I’m not seeing serifs. Maybe I don’t know serifs as well as I thought.
[/QUOTE]
Well, whaddayano? I looked at the CSMS page on Wikipedia and it doesn’t have serifs. Guess it’s some weird display glitch on my iPhone. Carry on…
Big difference. Inkers draw over the pencils of the primary artists and fill in any black space. Colorists, well, fill in the color.
Inkers are the ones who put the black ink on the page (outside of lettering), all those outlines and shadings. Colorists are the ones who put the color on the pages, presumably while staying within the lines.
Sometimes “pencils” gets a separate credit. Meaning someone first, literally, penciled in each panel, the inker came along and put the basic black lines/shadings on, then the colorist came along afterward and put in the color.
(I briefly did colorist work as a background artist for comic books, with a few attempts at lettering and inking. I’d tell you where to see my work, except that it was all uncredited so there’s no proof, and I was doing my best to imitate the style of the main, credited artist at the time.)
(and… ninja’d. Oh, well…)
I’m seeing serifs*, but what I’m seeing isn’t “Comic Sans” at all, as I understand it.
*The M has horizontal pads below each vertical line, and horizontal lines coming from the “shoulders”. Maybe others are actually seeing Comic Sans.
Exactly. No font was used. The word the OP is looking for is “script.” I’m not sure that this script really had a name as such.
Draftman’s script. Here’s a font version:
I don’t think that draughtman’s script, which I actually learned in junior high school drafting, is exactly the same script that was commonly uses in comic books. For one thing, drafting script was upright whereas comic book script is often oblique. Indeed, I’m not really sure that comic book lettering was altogether uniform.