At Comic-Con, I had a couple of opportunities to chat with award-winning letterer Todd Klein. Todd not only does expert calligraphy but he's quite the student of that art and when we encounter one another, we often get to talking about the great talents of the past in that job description. Todd recently completed a series of articles on his website about the early cover logos on DC Comics and I want to call your attention to them. Read Part 1. Then read Part 2. Then finish up with Part 3.
As you'll see, most of the truly iconic ones were designed by a man named Ira Schnapp who is now considered the master of comic book logos and display lettering. One of many panels I missed at the con because they were scheduled opposite my panels was a talk by my buddy Arlen Schumer about the late, great Mr. Schnapp. I'll have to be content — as you will if you weren't there for it — on watching this video of a different, recent time when Arlen delivered it. He marvels, as do we all, not just at the quality of Schnapp's work but at the quantity. If a big corporation needs a new logo for itself or a product, that can involve dozens of designers, months of samples and discussion and hundreds of thousands of dollars to arrive at the perfect one. Schnapp could do it in an afternoon.