Dialogue Question

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I've just written a line of dialogue for a strip:

"DON'T WORRY, THESE ARE MK IIs."

Is that right? A small "s"?

Should it be "DON'T WORRY, THESE ARE Mark IIs" (ie no MK)

Or "DON'T WORRY, THESE ARE Mark 2s" (ie no MK, no II)

Which reads best? Is there any convention for this sort of thing? 'cos if there is then I don't know it.

Ta

[Dark Jimbo]

I'd plump for IIs over 2s in this context.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I've edited my post to show the dialogue in caps, as that illustrates my question better. Ta.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

IIs I'd say - although I'm now torn over whether that'd imply an apostrophe. I love apostrophes. They are the hovering punctuations that give my life purpose.

[House of Usher]

I tend to read that as 'Em Kay Twos,' and then correct myself.  

Mk II, on the other hand (lower case 'k'), never causes me any confusion.


Pluralizing numbers is a strange exception where a gratuitous-seeming apostrophe is allowed (but not essential) to denote a plural, thus:

Mark Two's, or Mk II's. Hope that doesn't conflict with your asthetic!

[Jim_Campbell]

The MK/Mark thing makes no odds, as far as I'm concerned, but I agree about the II. A lot of dialogue fonts don't have a corresponding a lower case version, so I wouldn't assume that the letterer can do "Mk" instead of "MK".

Cheers!

Jim

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

But if there's no lower case then it would read MK IIS. Which I think looks silly?

I can see this being "Don't worry, they're upgraded."

[Jim_Campbell]

But if there's no lower case then it would read MK IIS. Which I think looks silly?

You can drop the point size of an S to make it look like an s but a K doesn't work the same way, being a different shape in lower case ...

Cheers!

Jim

[House of Usher]

MK II'S 

[Jim_Campbell]

MK II'S 

NOOOOOOO!

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Sorry apostrophe fans. It's not a possessive, so it's not getting an apostrophe.

CDs, not CD's!

Thanks for your help, James.

[TordelBack]

Go on Campbell, fire up ol' Betsy and show us how the various options look in practice.

[Professah Byah]

Not that I'm any good at it, but I've always assumed lettering was as much a visual component as the art in telling a comic story, so I'd go with consistency first and foremost - see how 'Mark 2' has been done in the past and go with that.  If this is a first, though, I concur with "MK IIs" as being pretty unambiguous.

[The Legendary Shark]

"MK II DESIGN - NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT."

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Too many words, Sharky.