This sound as an interesting project!
In selecting the typeface(s), first thing I would try to define the reference points. I.E.: are you going the way of classic comic books (all caps)? The way of the more mature comic books (like Sandman and others, in which some characters use different treatment of typeface and/or speech bubbles)? The french (and other european comics) way (upper and lower case)?

That said, if you really want to make a post-avant-garde-retro-futurist statement, you can always typeset all in Comic Sans! ;-)

P.S.: I suppose you already checked http://www.comicbookfonts.com/home.html

> but by and large these fonts are crap.

i didn't understand.... what is 'crap'?

If I stray too far from the typical stuff found on the likes of Blambot it won’t be accessible to a lot of the readers, but by and large these fonts are crap.

If you honestly think Blambot make crap fonts you’re the wrong person to typeset a graphic novel.

Wow... Blambot has a craaazy large collection of very usable fonts. Glad I caught this post.

If you find something better or more appropriate than Blambot... definitely post what you find.

Fundamentally, these are script/handwriting fonts. And the conventional wisdom is that "fonts" will always struggle to match the personality of actual handwriting. What you see as mediocrity is largely the limits of how close fonts can get to handwriting.

I think you underestimate how accessible a non-"comic" typeface can be to comic readers. I've seen fine comics with speech set in all kinds of fonts (Kabel in all lowercase, for instance) and nobody ever thinks to mention it as long as they can read it. Your primary concern should be complementing the style of your art, and depending on your art, the question of whether it resembles hand lettering is not always high on the list of criteria by which you do that.

The way of the more mature comic books [..] in which some characters use different treatment of typeface and/or speech bubbles ..

That's what I used to love about the (French!) comics of "Valerian". The alien races in, for example, "Heroes of the Equinox" have very distinctive speech bubbles and lettering.

Does Kabel even have an italic?

Thanks for all your feedback people, some really interesting thoughts. I think I was both hasty and misunderstood with my comments on Blambot. I know these are good comic fonts, but they're very typical of the genre and I was hoping to do something a wee bit different. More importantly though, whenever I've read a post like this in the past everyone's just been directly referred to Blambot. I wanted to avoid that easy answer and get some discussion/debate and that's what I got, so thanks again and sorry if I offended anyone!

There are two key points you guys raised that have made me think:
1. These are replicating hand-written styles and that's key in how appropriate they are for the artwork. It might be a huge undertaking and I've worked with comic artists before who wouldn't recommend it, but one idea I've had is to choose a font I like with lots of weights and versatility, typeset everything as it would be, then trace it to bring a hand-written element in. Madness?
2. Many of the styles on Blambot are very American in nature. I neglected to mention this, but the project is European and perhaps the use of upper and lower case lettering would reflect that better? Something like Herge's work with Tintin?

Thanks again!