howthesausageismade

Comic Sans

by Vincent Connare · design · 1994

sparse entry

comic sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by vincent connare at microsoft in 1994 for use in microsoft bob, a software package with cartoon characters speaking in speech bubbles that initially used times new roman. connare drew the letterforms with a mouse, modeling them on comic book lettering from the dark knight returns (lettered by john costanza) and watchmen (lettered by dave gibbons). the typeface missed the bob release but shipped first with microsoft 3d movie maker, then with the windows 95 plus pack.

visual reference

  • The Dark Knight Returns · John Costanzanot yet generatedgenerate →

    connare drew comic sans directly from hand lettering in the comic books he had in his office when microsoft bob appeared with times new roman in the speech bubbles. he used costanza's letter forms for the dark knight returns as a reference for capital letters and weight, drawing the typeface with a mouse.

    “To make Microsoft Bob look more suitable for its intended purposes, he decided to create a new typeface with only a mouse and cursor, based on the lettering style of comic books he had in his office, specifically The Dark Knight Returns (lettered by John Costanza) and Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons).”
    source ↗
  • Watchmen · Dave Gibbonsnot yet generatedgenerate →

    connare pulled watchmen from his office alongside dark knight returns and used gibbons' hand lettering as direct reference for the typeface. connare later said in a cbc interview that watchmen's lettering had enough variation to give him inspiration for the character forms.

    “The [comic] that actually looked the most like a typeface was Watchmen, and the lettering had enough variation in it that I could get some inspiration from that”
    source ↗

citations

  1. [01]

    Wikipedia · Comic Sanssingle-source· article

    “Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface created and designed by Vincent Connare and released by Microsoft in 1994. Designed as a non-connecting script, the typeface draws inspiration from comic book lettering, to emulate the informal and cartoonish tone of speech bubbles. It was originally developed for use in Microsoft's software, and since then has become widely recognized for its use in casual contexts such as children's books, personal documentation and in educational resources.”
  2. [02]

    Wikidata · Comic Sans MS· archive

    “sans-serif casual script typeface designed by Vincent Connare, released in 1994 by Microsoft”