Will Eisner on Lettering

EISNER: ...Unfortunately, you see, letterers in this business never had a real chance to make creative contribution for two reasons. First, economically it didn't pay them -- at $3.00 a page they've really got to grind it out in order to make a living -- and second, a lot of cartoonists don't regard the balloons, the lettering itself, as anything other than a major nuisance. The letterer is probably lower down the totem pole than the eraser. I think that's a shame because I think the lettering is very important.

Incidentally, in A Contract with God I did all my own lettering because I regarded it as integral to the art. I should add that you'll find more creativity in lettering among the "gag" or humor comics than in the so-called realistic strips. Walt Kelly's Pogo had very creative lettering.