A Final Word on Lettering...

...that probably should have been the first.
Courtesy of Richard Starkings's Comicraft:

This is all absolute gospel! 

I only add that a too-fat pointer or tail is a lot better than a too-thin one, and could be legitimately be a part of a style. Oh, and that pointers should stay off the characters as a (very) general rule and should point to the source of the dialog, often the mouth. Oh, and that tail-less balloons are weak-ass, a copout, most of the time.

Otherwise, nothing to add!

JH