Image from the box cover for a 1934 Buck Rogers toy gun.

Alex Jay has just posted a great article ON HIS BLOG about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s high school art and theater work, as well as their early science fiction fanzine, and also examines many possible influences on Shuster’s evolving designs for the Superman logo, example above. Alex’s examples of telescoped lettering reinforce the idea that it was a popular and much-used style at the time, not something that sprang from the mind of Shuster alone, though the Superman logo is where it’s best known today. Well worth a read!