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Fighting the Plague of Our Time: the Ban Comic Sans Movement

Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: Comic Sans, Dave Combs, Emily Fleet, Holly Sliger, Pollux, Vincent Connare, fonts, typography

Pollux writes:

One reads alarming statistics sometimes. The increase in the number of gigantic Burmese pythons in Florida, the growing rate of sea-ice shrinkage, the country's unemployment rate.

Here's another statistic that will chill your blood: by approximately 2018, usage of the Comic Sans font will have surpassed usage of the Helvetica and Times New Roman fonts. By 2030, Comic Sans will be the only remaining font. All other fonts will be extinct and will go the way of grunge and post-grunge lettering.

These are the statistics provided by the Ban Comic Sans movement, which has sprung up in reaction to the Comic Sans typeface, originally designed by Vincent Connare. Connare, as reported in this Wall Street Journal article by Emily Fleet, is not exactly against the movement against his typographic baby, and is certainly fonder of one of his other creations, the Magpie font.

Originally designed in 1994, Comic Sans has become the bête noire of the typography world but sometimes it has been a superhero, as seen in this humorous video, and sometimes a dim-witted creature with a lisp.

Holly Sliger and Dave Combs, the husband-and-wife team who started the Ban Comic Sans movement and man the typographic barricades, offer merchandise, font alternatives, and oratory on their website to inspire us all:

"By banding together to eradicate this font from the face of the earth we strive to ensure that future generations will be liberated from this epidemic and never suffer this scourge that is the plague of our time."

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Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.

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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.

Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)

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