Lots of Logo Talk

• Alex Jay left a comment yesterday on my article regarding the Mystery Letterer of the early Jimmy Olsen comics. I've known since the 1980s that Mr. Jay designed the logo for Howard Chaykin's American Flagg (which you can see again over here) but I wasn't sure what else he's done, so I dug in and found out; here is a little biography I stumbled upon. I also investigated his blog about lettering and was interested to see proposed Green Lantern logos that Mr. Jay designed.

• On the last page and inside back cover of the recent Mudman #2, Paul Grist walks us through his thought process about how he designed his comic's logo. I got a kick out him saying that he felt that by including the figure of Mudman in the logo he was going for a Marvel/DC vibe.

• Here is a short article showing some well-known comics logos and featuring links to many articles on the topic written by Todd Klein.

• I think I have not yet heard one positive comment about the new DC Comics logos that were recently unveiled. One writer even pointed out that the "DC COMICS" portion was not kerned properly; I had to look up what that meant (and here is a game that will teach you about kerning!). It strikes me as way too much of an in-joke that the D is peeling off the C, and no way is a layman going to look at that design and see "DC." Which means that, as a logo, it fails. I far prefer this in-your-face alternative, as drawn by Mo ALi:

• You can even watch a video about a fan distressed by the new DC logo!

Broom Hilda Won!

Broom Hilda has beaten F Minus! A few months ago I reported how The Chicago Tribune was running an online survey to see which of those two strips would be retained on their comics page and which one would be relegated to the junk heap.

The cartoonist of F Minus lobbied on his website for reader support, whereas Broom Hilda's Russell Myers couldn't be bothered. Starting next week, the triumphant Hilda will face a new challenger in the Tribune's Comics Carousel. Hilda has now bumped off three or four consecutive challengers and you'd think the (dizzy?) comics page editor would begin to see the light that his survey process is flawed and that Hilda will probably continue bumping off the newbies ad infinitum.

I saw the vote tally on a dedicated Tribune Comics Carousel web page: 15,387 votes in favor of Broom Hilda and 4,044 votes for F Minus. I was impressed to see that so many readers had been involved and interested enough to cast a vote.

(I went back to the same page a few days later, but the vote tally was nowhere to be found. In its place was the below drawing of "Colonel Tribune" and a terse explanation that the web page I was looking for no longer existed. It seems the newspaper intends some of its links to be very short-lived, but how peculiar that they would in this manner mock Colonel Robert R. McCormick (1880 - 1955), an early owner and publisher of the paper! )

I Figured Out What The Flash and Wonder Woman Are Saying!

For the full story behind the above animation be sure to read my previous post located over here but, while you're on this page, go ahead and click to start the YouTube music located immediately below and prepare to be engulfed in a multi-sensory experience as you feast your eyes on the magical Big All-American billboard.

Happy Hayfamzone New Year!

I laughed until I cried when I saw this great animation! What in the world could The Flash and Wonder Woman be saying?

Kerry Callen gets the credit for getting this great cover-gif ball rolling, and I most definitely posted a comment on his blog letting him know I appreciated his efforts. When I shared his four covers with you last month, I went on to suggest three other covers that I believed could benefit from the same treatment.

Well, you'll never guess who picked up that gauntlet so I'll just tell you: it was Poth herself! She is not only the Princess of the Hayfamzone but also the Queen of Gifs! (But don't worry, I'm not about to start calling her Qog!) I think her Big All-American is magical.

Superman #233 was one of the most important Superman issues of the 1970s as it marked the beginning of editor Julius Schwartz's tenure on the book. And now it's alive!

Superman #14 is one of my favorite Superman covers of all time. In the interest of full disclosure, though, Poth did not animate the eagle herself. I guess one credo of the internet is Don't re-do what's already been done; Poth found an eagle-flapping-his-wings animation and she got it to roost on Superman's shoulder. (Try to take a wild guess what other comics character was holding the eagle in the original incarnation of the animation before you look here.)

Poth has previously made her mark here and here in the hayfamzone, but her animated cover gifs leave her poised to take over the entire internet. You can visit her found-images-and-gifs blog over here. Oh, and Poth is known in some circles as Jeanette Hayes.