Thursday, August 23, 2018

DC Comics Logos 1940 to 2016

I saw this recently on Twitter: an image that depicts the various DC Comics logos used by the company from 1940 up until the current day.


Which was your favorite and/or least favorite?



I have fond memories of the 1949 logo that was still on the first comics I bought during the late 1960s. From 1941 to 1972, DC as a brand was associated with Superman, the most iconic superhero character in the world at that time.




The 1976 bullet logo was a classic, designed by Milton Glaser, used for nearly 30 years. It looked great everywhere, especially on Dollar Comics! I think this is just as good and iconic as the Coca Cola logo. I wonder why any company would abandon it.



Glaser designed many other iconic images, including the "I Love New York" campaign, the Hope poster for Obama, a Bob Dylan poster, etc. This particular image is still iconic and found on merchandise everywhere, from coffee mugs to t-shirts.



The most short lived icon was the 2012 one with the D being a comic book page flipped over, I don't think that was recognizable to the public as an icon alone so they had to put the words "DC Comics" underneath. It was reviled by comics fans. I recall that DC paid a lot of money to have this logo designed, they thought the animation was cool.



The current 2016 logo brings back memories of the 1972 and 1976 logos. It was first used on the DC Universe Rebirth 1 special, as a way to re-brand themselves and bring back fans who were lost during the New 52 years.

4 comments:

  1. The 1970 logo with Superman is a fond memory as it marks the time when I jumped into DC in a big way for the first time. I had seen DC books before, especially The Flash, but I really started to appreciate the whole line with its fresh looks and takes on classic runs. Truth told, I pretty much followed Jack Kirby to DC, and loved what I found.

    Rip Off

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  2. Glaser did not design the Hope poster for Obama.. that was Shepard Fairey. He was later sued and lost, to the photographer who took the iconic photo, which Fairey used without permission.

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