During their last three years of comics production, cover dates 1950-54, Fawcett continued their Marvel Family titles, but otherwise relied more on licensed properties such as western movie stars, western and other kinds of film adaptations, and TV shows. They also tried out other genres popular at the time in addition to romance such as horror, science fiction, crime, and war. Perhaps the endless lawsuits with National (DC) were wearing them down, there didn’t seem to be any clear winners among all the new titles. Here are more logos probably designed by Al Allard, I’ve skipped some that are essentially repeats of ones I’ve already shown, or likely done with type, and movie adaptations are also tricky, as the logos might come from the movie studio, so I’m skipping those too. While Fawcett already had a successful Hopalong Cassidy comic, the actor starring in that role got his own title with an Allard logo, above. The large B’s help it stand out.

After World War Two, Fawcett began to again increase their roster and output both of magazines and comics, but the comics market was changing. Superheroes were no longer selling as well as they had during the war, and while some continued, like National’s Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, all the comics publishers were trying out other genres to see if they might increase sales. But first, now that paper was easier to get, Fawcett decided to add to their Marvel family of titles. Al Allard was still the Art Director of the Fawcett operation. In the 1950 census, he and his wife Garnett and son Peter were living on Hendric Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut. For more details on Allard’s life, see Alex Jay’s article HERE.

Mary Marvel was a female counterpart to Captain Marvel Jr., and she first appeared in 1942. In a new series with the first issue dated December 1945, Mary got her own title with an Allard logo in familiar block letters angled to add interest. It ran for 28 issues.

Having launched a very successful character, Captain Marvel, and a line of five titles, Fawcett continued in 1941 with more. Al Allard was the art director, and his duties included logo design. He liked thick, open block letters, and as this one shows, he was creative in tying into themes, a patriotic flag theme in this case. The stars might have been a little bigger, the outlines a little thicker, but the black telescoping adds depth, and the subtitle in type adds interest. (Jack Kirby used almost the same tagline for his OMAC character in 1974). When Allard filled out his draft card in 1942, he was living in Old Greenwich Connecticut, not far from one of the Fawcett offices in Greenwich. As his employer, he lists both Fawcett offices in Greenwich and New York City, but it’s likely he usually worked in Greenwich. Allard was 39, and so probably not called up to serve. This book went on sale in May of 1941, but only lasted three issues, so not everything they put out was a success. For a more detailed biography of Al Allard, see Alex Jay’s article HERE.

Fawcett Comics is one of many comics publishers whose logo origins I knew nothing about, until recently when fellow logo designer and comics historian Alex Jay told me:

 I received an email from P.C. Hamerlinck who writes about Fawcett Comics. He said, “In the past I had asked a few Fawcett comics creators who was responsible for designing the outstanding title logos for Fawcett’s comics and magazines, and everyone said it was Allard who created them.”

Alex had already published a profile of Al Allard on his blog, the link is HERE. I was delighted to hear this, filling in a designer’s name for the Fawcett comics logos, and I decided to look at them more closely.

I’m looking forward to the new Superman movie opening tomorrow, I plan to see it this weekend. The first trailer, which included Krypto, sold me. Since the character’s new chest symbol has been a major feature of marketing and posters, I’ve seen it a lot, and I have some thoughts.