>> ...  also fixes the issue I mentioned with the modeline and echo area.
 >
 > Actually, it doesn't completely fix that issue. It happens much less,
 > but I can still reproduce it sometimes. If I open emacsclient -nw in a
 > small terminal (less than 1/4 of my 1920x1080 screen), all text is black
 > (and thus invisible) and the modeline again creeps into the echo area,
 > though an old replica of the modeline remains one line above the echo
 > area. In addition, the menu bar is invisible and contains a copy of the
 > first line of text.
 >
 > When this happens, I can almost always fix it by enlarging the terminal
 > (full-screening it, for exaample) and then restoring it to the small
 > size. My guess (based on skimming the discussion in bug #18136) would be
 > that some function is being called when the terminal (and thus frame) is
 > resized, but not when the frame is first created.

Might be.  I attached a new patch.  If you still see the problem please
tell me the size of the terminal and maybe add a screenshot.  Can you
type into the text window or the minibuffer when it happens?

martin