Comic Book Resources

Who created the original Batman logo?

Batman #1 logo

As you may have guessed, we're big fans of the Logo Studies feature letterer Todd Klein runs over on his blog, where he looks at various comic book logos and how they evolved over the years. Yesterday he shared a bit of history about the original Batman logo from the 1940s, which was designed by comics legend Jerry Robinson.

"One of the things I expected when I started doing my Logo Studies was that I would never be able to find out for sure, or at all, who designed many of the original comics logos from the 1940s," Klein wrote on his blog. "Today I proved that expectation wrong when I spoke to Jerry Robinson, one of the first Batman artists, and involved with the character almost from the beginning."

Klein had originally gotten in touch with Robinson to ask about the Robin logo that appeared on the Boy Wonder's first appearance, and Robinson told Klein he also designed the original Batman logo, seen above.

Check out Klein's complete rundown of the Batman logos over the years here and here, and his commentary on the Robin one here.

Batman's new villain says let's go crazy, let's get nuts!

Batman & Robin #6

DC's The Source blog shows us Frank Quitely's cover to Batman & Robin #6, which features Batman's "most dangerous, psychopathic, murderous foe," The Flamingo, according to editor Michael Marts.

Now all the motorcycle-riding killer needs is a string of one-word named "apprentices" of the female persuasion ...

Straight for the art | George Perez draws the Wildstorm Universe

WildCats #19 and The Authority #18 covers

Here's another item George Perez can check off his list of "comic book universes I need to draw" -- the artist of New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA/Avengers provides two interlocking covers for WildCats #19 and The Authority #18.

Straight for the art | Brain Camp cover

Brain Camp

Zombies Calling creator Faith Erin Hicks shows us the cover to her next project, Brain Camp. The book comes out from First Second next year.

Straight for the art | Watch Skottie Young draw a cover

On his blog, artist Skottie Young shares a video of his digital drawing process for the cover to one of his Oz books for Marvel. "I then print this out and ink it traditionally with brush and ink," he says.

First look at the covers for The Anchor #2

Anchor #2

Anchor #2

Yesterday CBR posted a preview of the first issue of BOOM! Studios' new title The Anchor, and today we follow it up with a look at the two covers for issue #2 by series artist Brian Churilla. Issue 2 will be in the September edition of Previews.

Straight for the art | Astro City: Astra Special #1 cover

Astra #1

I thought this cover for the first issue of the upcoming Astro City: Astra Special was pretty striking when it first popped up on Wildstorm's The Bleed blog in July, but I really love what Comicraft did to make it look like a magazine. Very cool.

The book comes out at the end of September.

Straight for the art | A double shot of Deadpool

Deadpool #900

Let's kick off the day with not one, but two cool covers that hit the web yesterday featuring everyone's favorite Merc with a Mouth ... above is 100 Bullets cover artist Dave Johnson's cover for Deadpool #900. The second is after the jump ...

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Jock shares details on Losers filming + SDCC movie poster

The Losers

Losers artist Jock has an update on the Losers film that has long been percolating -- it starts filming in Puerto Rico in two weeks time:

Up until yesterday, I’d not allowed myself to actually think it was happening, as it’s been well over 3 years since we first met Pete Berg and things started moving. Three (maybe four) directors along the way, hearing it had stalled a number of times, we thought it was unlikely it’d see the light of day. I’m sure that’s part of the course in the movie world, but as it’s been both mine and Andy’s first experience with film, we’ve erred on the side of caution so as not to get our hopes up too much. But it got cast. It got a shooting date. It got a release date. Still, every time we didn’t hear anything for a few weeks, we assumed it probably wasn’t happening.

He also said producer Joel Silver called him up and asked him to create a one-sheet movie poster that could be given away later this month at the San Diego Comic Con. He's redrawing the cover of issue 12 (above), but giving the characters the likenesses of the actors playing those roles. That'll be something cool to look for at the con.

Won't be foiled again

Oh no -- apparently someone left the gate open, and foil covers and hologram covers have bred to produced something far more sinister: Foilogram covers.

Ultimate Spider-Man Foilogram variant

"This is Marvel doing the nineties right," explained David Gabriel, Marvel Comics Senior Vice President of Sales & Circulation. "We're taking two of the most popular cover treatments of all time--foil and holograms--to create an all new kind of cover, as a 'thank-you' to fans who've been demanding this kind of variant! Retailers and fans don't need to worry. We're only doing this on a limited basis. You won't see one on Ms Marvel #46 or Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #4. We're using them to mark very special occasions...such as the launch of Ultimate Comics line.""

No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No.

More pieces to the Batman puzzle

Arkham Reborn #1

I have to echo Rich Lovatt: "What is it about jigsaw piece covers being awesome?"

The above is Frazer Irving's cover to Arkham Reborn #1 written by David Hine with interior art by Jeremy Haun. The book, which was announced over at DC's Source blog this morning, is a follow-up to the Battle for the Cowl Arkham Asylum one-shot and is due in October.

Super Zombies #5 cover misnumbered

Super Zombies #5

Dynamite Entertainment sent over word that one of the two covers for this week's Super Zombies #5 was accidentally printed with the wrong numbering. The cover, featuring art by Fabiano Neves and shown above, is labeled as being issue #3. So if you spot the issue and wonder what's up, don't worry -- you're buying (and reading) the last issue of the mini-series.

The second cover, featuring art by Mel Rubi and the correct numbering, can be found after the jump.

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Straight for the art | Dustin Nguyen's cover process

Cover thumbnails

Dustin Nguyen walks readers of his blog through the process he used to create the cover to Batman: Streets of Gotham #4. Nguyen says he usually works with the writer and editor to come up with a cover design; but for this cover, writer Paul Dini had something specific in mind:

This time around, Paul actually sent in a picture he took of himself holding a knife included with a video clip of an old b&w movie to give the perfect feeling of the characters mood and gestures. it was dead on what we wanted to get across i felt. but still, keeping things open, i tried a few other layouts. none was as effective as paul's, and i knew it. so i went with #1.

The final cover can be seen here.

Mark Waid not only evil, but also cheap

Irredeemable #5

BOOM! Studios announced yesterday that the first Irredeemable trade, which collects issues 1-4 of the superhero-turned-villain series by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, will retail for $9.99. In addition, issue #5 will cost 99 cents.

"That means you can get caught up on the whole series for just $11 bucks," the press release said. Both books will ship on the same day.

Irredeemable #5 will ship with three covers in a 50/25/25 split by Gene Ha (right), Dennis Calero and Dan Panosian. Irredeemable Volume 1 TPB features a variation of the cover art by John Cassaday for the first issue of the series and reprints the afterword by Grant Morrison that appeared in issue #1.

Check out the other two covers for issue 5 and the trade cover after the jump.

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Straight for the art | Tom Scioli's Incredibles cover

Incredibles #3 HeroesCon variant

Godland artist Tom Scioli provided the above variant cover for BOOM!'s Incredibles #3, available only at this weekend's HeroesCon. It's a really nice piece, and, if this makes sense, has sort of an "indie" feel to it ... which seems like the way to go for a variant cover for the show, considering HeroesCon plays host to Indie Island.

See BOOM!'s other variant covers and other plans for HeroesCon here.