Before the invention of Letraset, the sheets of dry-transfer letters that became popular with designers in the 1960s, custom headline lettering styles were frequently drawn by hand, creating a limitless field of innovative, creative, fanciful letters full of stylistic freedom and an energy unfettered by typographic traditions and templates. The covers of dime-store comic books, serials and pulp novels, in particular, practically sang out with these designs, which are collected--an astonishing 4,500 lively examples in all--in Custom Lettering of the 40s & 50s, compiled by the award-winning graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, logo designer and typographer Rian Hughes. Here you'll find "The Planet of Stone-Age Men" spelled out in heavy block letters riddled with cracks as if the letters were stone themselves; the headline of a war serial rendered in outlined letters that appear vibrant, as ready to take off into the air as the propellor plane depicted beneath them; elegant looped copperplate script that waltzes across the page sedately; bold Art Deco capital letters that overlap each other like tango dancers' legs; the tipsy, effervescent letters of the word "Cocktail"; and many more. Certain to become an indispensable sourcebook for graphic designers, typographers, art directors, anybody who works in advertising and indeed everybody who cares not only about the words they read but how those words look, Custom Lettering of the 40s & 50sis an encyclopedic treasury.