Ken Lopez is a letterer

Letterer

A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comic's "display lettering": the story title lettering and...

 and logo

Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 designer

Designer

A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...

 for the comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 industry. A pioneer of computer lettering, Lopez designed the fonts for DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

's in-house lettering unit, and is currently DC's art director for lettering and its cover editor.

Marvel

Lopez began his lettering career as a freelancer for Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 in 1986, rapidly rising to prominence for his speed and creativity. From 1989 to 1996, Lopez was the regular letterer on a number of Marvel titles, including Marc Spector: Moon Knight

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is a fictional character, a mercenary-turned-superhero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character exists in the Marvel Universe and was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin...

, The Punisher, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deathlok

Deathlok

Deathlok is a fictional cyborg published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25 , and was created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench...

, and X-Men 2099

X-Men 2099

X-Men 2099 was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1993 to 1996 that chronicled the adventures of an X-Men team in the year 2099. It extends the Marvel 2099 imprint, which features other future versions of popular Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man 2099 and Hulk 2099...

. His tenure on Guardians of the Galaxy lasted five years.

Valiant

In 1992–1994, Lopez lettered for a number of Valiant Comics

Valiant Comics

Valiant Comics is a comic book imprint published by various publishers since its inception with Voyager Communications, Inc. in 1989, later Acclaim Comics, Inc. Its assets were purchased from the bankruptcy of the Acclaim Entertaintment by Valiant Entertainment, Inc. in 2007.-Voyager...

 titles, including Magnus, Robot Fighter

Magnus, Robot Fighter

Magnus, Robot Fighter is a fictional comic book superhero created by writer/artist Russ Manning in 1963, based primarily on Tarzan. Magnus first appeared in Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 A.D. #1, published by Gold Key Comics in February 1963...

and almost the entire run of X-O Manowar

X-O Manowar

X-O Manowar is a fictional superhero co-created by writer and former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, artist Bob Layton, and Jon Hartz. Current Marvel Comics Chief Creative Officier Joe Quesada was a key creator in the origin of X-O Manowar as seen in X-O Manowar #0...

.

DC

From 1994–2005, Lopez moved to DC, where he was regular letterer on a number of titles, including Superman: The Man of Steel

Superman: The Man of Steel

Superman: The Man of Steel is the title of a monthly American comic book series that ran 136 issues from 1991 to 2003. published by DC Comics, featuring Superman. As a consequence of introducing this series alongside its already existing titles, DC Comics was able to publish a new Superman comic...

, The Batman Chronicles, Resurrection Man

Resurrection Man

The Resurrection Man is a fictional character, a superhero whose adventures were published by DC Comics from 1997 to 1999 in a serialized comic book of the same name, created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Jackson Guice...

, JLA

JLA (comic book)

JLA was a monthly comic book published by DC Comics from January 1997 to April 2006 featuring the Justice League.-Publication history:The low sales of the various Justice League spinoff books by the mid-1990s prompted DC to revamp the League as a single team on a single title...

, Young Justice

Young Justice

Young Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes. The team first appeared in Young Justice: The Secret , before graduating to their ongoing monthly series...

, JSA

Justice Society of America

The Justice Society of America, or JSA, is a DC Comics superhero group, the first team of superheroes in comic book history. Conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox, the JSA first appeared in All Star Comics #3 ....

, and Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn was first introduced as a villain on September 11, 1992, in the animated series Batman: The Animated Series, later adapted into DC Comics' Batman comic books. As suggested by her name , she is clad in the manner of a traditional harlequin jester...

. Lopez lettered Superman: The Man of Steel for nine years, and JLA for eight years. Lopez also lettered the landmark limited series Identity Crisis. With Lopez's ascension to DC's art director of lettering in 2004, his output has understandably decreased.

Logos

Lopez has designed logos for such titles (among others) as Marvel's Wally the Wizard (1985), Iron Man

Iron Man

Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...

(1985), Classic X-Men

Classic X-Men

Classic X-Men, later retitled as X-Men Classic, is the Marvel Comics comic book series within the X-Men franchise that reprints classic X-Men stories...

(1986), Comet Man

Comet Man

Comet Man is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe.-Publication history:Comet Man was the subject of a limited series in 1987, created by Bill Mumy, Miguel Ferrer, and Kelley Jones...

(1987), Excalibur

Excalibur

Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...

(1988), and Spider-Man 2099

Spider-Man 2099

Spider-Man 2099 is a fictional comic book superhero, created by Peter David and Rick Leonardi in 1992 for Marvel Comics' Marvel 2099 line. His secret alter ego is Miguel O'Hara, a brilliant geneticist living in New York in the year 2099 A.D...

(1992); and DC's Green Lantern

Green Lantern

The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...

(1994 and revised in 2002), Green Lantern Corps

Green Lantern Corps

The Green Lantern Corps is the name of a fictional intergalactic military/police force appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They patrol the farthest reaches of the DC Universe at the behest of the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa...

(2006), and Justice League of America (2006). In addition, as DC's cover editor, Lopez solicits new logos from freelancers, and modifies existing designs. He continues to create fonts while training others.

Selected bibliography

• Marc Spector: Moon Knight (Marvel, 1989–1993)
• The Punisher (Marvel, 1989–1993)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel, 1990–1995)
• Deathlok (Marvel, 1991–1994)
• X-O Manowar (Valiant, 1992–1994)
• X-Men 2099 (Marvel, 1993–1996)
• Superman: Man of Steel (DC, 1994–2003)
• The Batman Chronicles (DC, 1995–2000)
• Resurrection Man (DC, 1997–1999)
• JLA (DC, 1997–2005)
• Young Justice (DC, 1998–2003)
• JSA (DC, 1999–2005)
• Harley Quinn (DC, 2000–2002)