By request I knocked up a Lettering guide many years back, but that was in the prehistoric days of printing bits from Word and Photoshop and sticking them on. These days I do it all in Adobe Illustrator, with a method which may contain technical bobbins...

I'd recommending starting by creating a template, to save you some time in the long run. Open a new file from a Print template and set the page dimensions (7" x 10.5" for Ka-Blammers) and the colour mode. Then using the Window menu, set up the palettes on the right so these boxes are visible: Navigator, Stroke, Graphic Styles, Character, Pathfinder and Layers. In Layers, click the New Layer button twice and you should now have Layers 1 to 3. Double click each to give it a name (I prefer Art, Balloons and Text) and an identifiable colour. For the bottom Art layer check the Dim Images to 50% box, so you can see the lettering over the top.

In Character, set the dialogue font you plan to use and the correct size, leading (line height) and tracking (space between letters). It all depends on your font and page size, but for my own custom font I'm using 8.5pt, 9pt and 75 respectively. The easiest way to judge it is to print out a test panel at final print size. Setting the default font is needlessly tricky and varies depending on your version of Illustrator, so best to consult the Adobe support site to save yourself future hassle. If you can figure how to set up a default Graphic Style as well, let us know eh?

When you're ready, go to File > Save As Template and pick a name. Now you have a starter template to load for each fresh page and are ready to begin lettering. First select the Art layer, then File > Place and locate your page scan (presumably in 300 dpi TIFF format). Having the unlettered art linked from a seperate file means you can update it at any time in Photoshop. If the art isn't automatically lined up with the existing box on the page, drag it so that it's centered. Then to lock the artwork in place, on the Art layer in the Layers palette, click the square to the right of the Eye symbol.

Now I select the Text layer, zoom in with Navigator and begin putting down the dialogue. Click the Type tool (T on the keyboard) and start typing away, putting line breaks in all the right places. Make sure Paragraph is set to Centered in the Type bar above. If you put it in the wrong place, use Selection Tool (V) to reposition it.

I'd normally lay down all the text, then the balloons, but for now switch to the Balloons layer, and select the Ellipse tool (L). Hold down the left ALT key and drag a balloon shape from the center of the text outward. If a black ellipse like this one below appears, press D and it'll switch to the default Stroke. In the Stroke palette you can alter the size of the black outline with Weight. If necessary you can move and resize the balloon to fit with the Selection Tool (V).

Still on the Balloon layer, select the Pen tool (P) and click just inside the speech bubble, where you want the tail to start. Then click outside the bubble in the direction of the speaker's mouth, then inside again to make a 'V' shape. If the point on the V just isn't pointy enough, try increasing the Miter in the Stroke palette to 40.

Go back to Selection tool (V) and now you can resize or rotate the tail if need be. Hold down Shift and click on the bubble, now both balloon and tail should be selected. Then in the Pathfinder palette, click the top left icon to join the two together. And Bob's your uncle.

That's the basics, but here's a few handy extras. For curly tails, hold down the second point made with the Pen tool and drag sideways to get a curve. Then drag it the opposite on the way back to the balloon. You should always draw the longer side first else it won't work properly. Why, I'm not sure, it's some physics thing. Joining two balloons is a simple matter of making 4 points with the Pen tool to create a rectangle of sorts. Then switch to Select (V) and Shift click all 4 elements before joining together with the Pathfinder icon. For Caption boxes use Rectangle (M) instead of Ellipse. For special effects like shouty balloons select your standard bubbles and experiment with the Filter > Distort menu.

All that may sound baffling and that's because it initially is, but after a page or two you'll be flying. All that's left is to tell you how to save the darn things. I'd recommend saving each page as an Illustrator (.AI) file with Save As, so you easily come back and change the lettering later on. Then once it's finished, go to Select > All (again, don't ask why), then File > Export. Under Save as Type select TIFF. In the TIFF options box, select Grayscale for non-colour work and 300 dpi. Anti-Alias should be left unchecked for print.

If you looking for fonts, free or otherwise, most people pop along to Blambot. For non comic specific fonts I'm partial to using DaFont. If you want a more distinctive personal look, I've since created my own lettering font from my handwriting using this tutorial - My First Font. Also check out ComicCraft's Balloon Tales, a great online source of lettering help and tutorials.