Samurai Cory’s Top 20 fonts
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One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “Of all the typefaces you admired and/or purchased, what’s your favorite?” It’s hard to pick one, so I usually base my answer on the fonts that I end up using the most. These are the fonts that I’m most happy with, and I find them to be most useful in webcomics, illustration, graphic design, and logo design work, though I’m not a type designer myself.
Here are my picks for these fonts, which will cover more pay fonts (and also, Y2K and comic/manga fonts) than the free ones.
20. Ethnocentric
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan (actually Canadian)
- Price: Free for commercial use (Regular and Italic), 29.95 USD (all styles)
- Styles: 12 styles
- Download/Purchase: 1001Fonts (regular and italic are free), MyFonts, Fontspring (the rest paid)
This ultramodern, accelerated display/headline typeface has sharp diagonal cuts that look good on fictional logos of vehicles, skateboards, or titles for the upcoming spin-off.
19. Kenyan Coffee
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: Free for commercial use (four styles), 29.95 USD (all styles)
- Styles: 14 styles (Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic are free)
- Download/Purchase: 1001Fonts, Fontspring, MyFonts
When you need (fictional) logos of cars or Mustang-inspired dashboards, look no further for Kenyan Coffee. The font is seen in the American business reality TV series Shark Tank (though I don’t watch it). Shaz Shanghari (formerly Shanghai’d — they/them/their pronouns) used this font on their Twitch streams.
18. Reggae One
- Designer, Country: Fontworks, Japan
- Price: Free under the SIL OFL
- Styles: Regular only
- Download: Here
This font is seen in many video games, namely The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, among others. Initially only to those living in native Japan, but they later released the font (along with seven other fonts) for free. This is useful for having the characters’ names in Japanese or having the characters say in Japanese.
17. Neo-Retro
- Designer, Country: Sam Parrett of Set Sail Studios, United Kingdom
- Price: 19 USD
- Styles: Regular, Alt, Symbols
- Purchase: MyFonts, Creative Market, Set Sail Studios
Disclaimer: I still don’t have Creative Cloud yet since Adobe discontinued Creative Suite in early 2017, though the commercial fonts — even with OpenType features — will still work with Clip Studio Paint EX 2.0 and later 3.0.
Set Sail Studios’ Neo-Retro font lets me create bold, vibrant, 1990s-inspired designs in three fonts — giving me the time to hang out at skateparks, arcades, or mixtapes. Also useful for simulating posters (you get the idea). It also lets me bring nostalgic fun to my designs/webcomics!
16. Vipnagorgialla
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: 29.95 USD (four free for commercial use for Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic)
- Styles: 10 styles (five weights and italics)
- Download: 1001Fonts (four free), Fontspring, MyFonts (the rest paid)
This wide, square headliner gives me the Sonic Adventure 2 vibe, and it comes in handy for simulating car logos, computer logos, or digital dashboards on motorcycles and vehicles. The font will also be used for the fictional Technopreme clothing company for the upcoming Radical Flannel.
15. Athabasca
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: Free for commercial use (Public domain)
- Styles: Three widths, six weights & italics (36 total)
- Download: Dafont, 1001 Fonts
You’re thinking, “Why are there sans-serif fonts on this list?” Well, it’s damn handy. I love angular (and humanist) sans-serif fonts. I use this for the characters’ smartphone, tablet, and computer interfaces.
14. NK57 Monospace
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: Free for commercial use (Public domain)
- Styles: 60 styles! (five widths, six weights, and italics)
- Download: Dafont, 1001 Fonts
This monospaced font is also useful for older computers, OSDs on older TVs, and older video games. I’ve seen this font on a cash register in a (local) Trader Joe’s store.
13. Karma
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: Free for commercial use (Public domain)
- Styles: Suture and Future
- Download: Dafont, 1001 Fonts
You’re going to need something for scrolling LED signs and banners. Whenever there are news tickers in the One Times Square building, including the MTA buses, the Tokyo subway, or the NYC subway, Karma is my go-to.
12. Gleaming the Cube
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: 11.95 USD
- Styles: Regular only (comes with rad symbols!)
- Purchase: MyFonts, Fontspring
- Notes: Purchased 2020/11/28
You’re going to need display fonts from the early/mid-1990s (and Y2K), and I find Gleaming the Cube useful, which will be used on the upcoming Radical Flannel for Tapas, such as the character names and chapter titles. Comes with rad symbols if you have Adobe Photoshop, though I am planning to subscribe to Creative Cloud.
11. Rainforest
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: 11.95 USD
- Styles: Regular, Inline, and Topline
- Purchase: MyFonts, Fontspring
- Notes: Purchased 2020/11/28
This font gives off a Jurassic Park vibe, but you should combine the regular on the bottom layer and the topline on the top layer. I love how the small capitals are centered to make logos or signs by putting capitals at the beginning of the word and the end of the last word (or the beginning and the end of each word) Like this for examplE.
10. Neuropol X
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: 29.95 USD
- Styles: 30 styles! (three widths, five weights & italics — free regular weight)
- Purchase: MyFonts, Fontspring
- Notes: Purchased 2022/11/26
I love techno fonts, and Neuropol X fits the bill as this one is useful for any 1990s or Y2K aesthetic, and it’s useful for either chapter titles or logos. It also comes with a complete Z and is jam-packed with 30 styles.
9. Joystix
- Designer, Country: Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts, Japan
- Price: Free for commercial use (monospaced), 11.95 USD / around 1,500 JPY (proportional)
- Styles: Monospaced (free) and Proportional (paid)
- Download/Purchase: 1001Fonts (monospaced), MyFonts, Fontspring (proportional)
This video game font is inspired by the 1980s and early 1990s arcade games. It's pretty useful with any video game or pinball-within-a-webcomic.
8. Piekos FX BB
- Designer, Country: Nate Piekos of Blambot, USA
- Price: 25 USD
- Styles: Regular, Italic, Condensed Regular, Condensed Italic, Thin Regular, Thin Italic
- Purchase: Blambot (recommended if you want updates), MyFonts
- Notes: Purchased 2019/06/25
This font comes in handy with small-to-very-large sound effects, has six weights, and has an option for almost any kind of noise. It comes in handy for big fight scenes and calling characters’ attacks. Piekos FX BB is also seen in the Ben 10 Omniverse logo.
7. Two Fisted BB
- Designer, Country: Nate Piekos of Blambot, USA
- Price: 20 USD
- Styles: Regular, Italic, Alternate Regular, Alternate Italic
- Purchase: Blambot (recommended if you want updates), MyFonts
- Notes: Purchased 2019/06/25
I consider this companion piece to Piekos FX BB. They always pair nicely. It comes with regular and alternates, so you will have four different uppercase character variations, making it hard to repeat the same letter on the same word. It’s also useful when the characters are yelling and/or calling their attacks.
6. Ferrite Core DX
- Designer, Country: Froyo Tam, USA
- Price: Free for commercial use under the SIL OFL
- Styles: Light, Regular, Medium, Black, Heavy
- Download: Here
There’s no 1990s/Y2K font family in my collection, as it is a squarish display headliner with five weights and no italics. There’s an option for almost any fictional logos of vehicles or computers, despite missing a few accented letters.
5. MeanStreets BB
- Designer, Country: Nate Piekos of Blambot, USA
- Price: 25 USD
- Styles: Regular, Italic, Marker Regular, Marker Italic, Underline Regular, Underline Italic
- Purchase: Blambot (recommended if you want updates), MyFonts
- Notes: Purchased 2019/06/25
Look no further if you want a suitable handwriting font, which is useful with journals such as learning a foreign language, handwritten signs such as “OUT OF ORDER!” and “TEMPORARILY OUT OF SERVICE”, and it can also be used in captions or prologues for each chapter. Comes with underline and underline italics for emphasizing words.
4. The Subway Types
- Designer, Country: Hannes von Döhren (also written as “Hannes von Dohren” when the umlaut is not available) of HVD Fonts, Germany
- Price: 99 USD (or 49 USD for singles with extras)
- Styles: New York, Paris, and Berlin with Extras
- Purchase: MyFonts
I love graffiti fonts, and that is what I would use on the characters’ skateboards (though Radical Flannel doesn’t focus on skateboarding) and seen in abandoned places in Tokyo (main setting) and New York City (sub-setting) for Radical Flannel.
3. Tight Spot BB
- Designer, Country: Nate Piekos of Blambot, USA
- Price: 40 USD
- Styles: Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic (comes with contextual alternates such as errant serif-I correction, six sets of alphabets, three sets of numerals, various punctuation marks, and manga glyphs!)
- Purchase: Blambot (recommended if you want updates), MyFonts
I consider this font to be the companion piece to Manga Master BB as they always pair nicely, it comes with contextual alternates such as errant serif-I correction, six sets of alphabets, three sets of numerals, various punctuation marks, and manga glyphs. It’s also condensed so you can fit more text in the balloon and/or captions.
2. FF Meta
- Designer, Country: Erik Spiekermann of FontFont, Germany/USA
- Price: 330 USD
- Styles: 28 fonts!
- Purchase: MyFonts
Despite being the only expensive font on the list and willing to purchase, it’s the Helvetica of the 1990s, as I found Helvetica and Arial too bland. This humanist sans-serif typeface family does have many uses, including not only on 1990s and Y2K graphic design but for the character bios as well! It is also seen on The Weather Channel logo as well as the present-day Like a Dragon (Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan; previously known as Yakuza) video game franchise by Sega.
Honorable Mention: Modula
- Designer, Country: Zuzana Licko of Emigre Fonts, Slovakia/USA
- Price: 115 USD (Sans and Serif)
- Styles: Sans and Serif (three weights)
- Purchase: MyFonts, Emigre
Who doesn’t love condensed Y2K fonts when you want to have one in your collection? Also seen on Boyz II Men’s Christmas Interpretations album, including a few ads on ShopRite (US) during the mid-to-late 1990s.
1. Manga Master Pro BB
- Designer, Country: Nate Piekos of Blambot, USA
- Price: 30 USD
- Styles: Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic
- Purchase: Blambot (recommended if you want updates), MyFonts
- Notes: Purchased 2019/06/25
Piekos’ Manga Master Pro BB has manga translation glyphs, new auto-ligatures, contextual alternates, barred-I correction, and more! It’s sure to keep at number one for years to come. The font will be used for my upcoming series as the main dialogue font.
That’s it for now. I’ll update this list if I see new fonts and/or my preferences change.
Samurai Cory out.
