
There’s an odd thing about working for Marvel Comics these days. I usually don’t get to see what I’ve done in print. Marvel stopped sending complimentary copies of their entire line quite a few years ago now, and creator copies, usually one or two, are supposed to be sent by the editors, but a lot of times they forget, or don’t get around to it, or don’t have enough for everyone. I don’t mind this, really, except when I need to refer to something I’ve done, then it would be handy to have a printed copy. Logos I’ve designed for Marvel are seen in print by me even less. Creator copies don’t go out for logos, and the Diamond Previews catalog almost never has covers with logos on them. The nearest comics shop is about 45 minutes away, and I have no real reason to go there anyway, so many times I don’t see much of Marvel’s printed output, except once a year in San Diego, whatever happens to be out at that time. So, it was with some surprise that I first saw the above cover logo recently. I’d designed it, but had no idea it was on the covers.

In 2007 I was contacted by Marvel about designing a logo for a new book to be called “Son of Hulk,” with the emphasis on Hulk. I was happy to take the assignment. The editor suggested I use the “rock blocks” logo from the 1990s as a starting point for at least one design, and I thought that was a good idea, as I always liked that the best of all past Hulk logos.

I began with a marker rendering of that logo, not an exact replica, but pretty close for the word HULK, then SON OF in the same style, but smaller, of course. I wanted to keep it as bulky as possible, which meant the openings in the Os would be pretty small, but I thought it still worked.

The addition of black telescoping, which is really the rest of the original logo filled in solid black, gave the design more weight, an improvement.

For my second design suggestion I recycled an old Hulk logo sketch I’d done many years earlier, one that had been rejected then, but I thought I’d give it another try. I doubted anyone now at Marvel would have seen it anyway. I had the HULK, just needed to add SON OF in the same style above. One problem with it is the staggered letters created some odd gaps between the two lines, so I just filled them in black. Still looks a bit odd, though.

ADDED: Kurt Busiek has pointed out that this logo WAS used on the 1998 series THE RAMPAGING HULK, which ran for six issues, cover above. Blame my faulty memory, and thanks, Kurt! And here I was saying no one at Marvel would have seen it. Is my face red!

My third marker sketch idea was loosely suggested by another old Hulk logo, though I added a rough, notched look to the letters and gave them a shallower telescoped drop shadow. For variety I added SON OF in two lines at the left side instead of above. This would leave more room for cover art. One slight oddity is that, when I did the drop shadow, I found it looked better with straight edges rather than rough ones, helping to give the logo a more finished feel.

Those three ideas were sent in, and a while later they asked for one more sketch, one with a medieval or barbarian feel, along the lines of Conan. I did this fourth version completely on the computer, starting with a font of my own, adding notches and gray effects to HULK, and putting SON OF in a notched banner.

More time passed, and I was told that they now wanted the character’s name, SKAAR, in the logo. I gave them this version of my previous sketch with that addition, but following this layout made the name too big, I think, and they didn’t go for it.

Adding the name to this sketch actually worked much better. It still allowed HULK to be strongest (and isn’t he always?), and the design was still not too terribly tall, leaving some room for cover art, though not as much as before. Marvel liked this, and the editor said he’d get back to me. More time passed, and I heard nothing, though I did get paid, so I was fine with that. When they never asked for a final finished version, I thought they might have just gone on to some other designer and didn’t need mine anymore.

Well, as you can see, they simply used my scanned marker sketch on the book. And, actually, I think it looks fine. There’s a certain energy in it that might well have been lost if I redid it in ink. Marvel was happy, I got paid, everyone wins. Would have been nice to have heard what they decided to do from the editor, but now I know, and so do you.
I pimp this site whenever I get the chance, but if you ever need to see a cover (especially a recent one), you can usually find a decent scan:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/index.php?
Also useful for looking up creators and seeing what they’ve worked on. Here’s your page:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=31
I like the look of the scanned marker drawing of the logo as placed on the cover. It does have a kind of energy that often gets lost with much of the super-clean look of vector art. Interesting to see the inner workings at the Big 2 as part of a mini-logo study. Maybe they need to hire some more editors?
As Uthor mentions above, you can see the covers for most newer comics (and lots of old ones) at comicbookdb.com. Also, if you notice any mistakes on your creator profile page, feel free to drop us a line and the corrections will be made. The site is also publicly accessable if you wish to sign up and make any changes yourself.
I use the Grand Comics Database for that, actually, but it’s always good to have another source. Anything anyone might want to know about me and my work can be found on my own website, so I see no point in editing or correcting other such sites. Life is too short.
>> For my second design suggestion I recycled an old Hulk logo sketch I’d done many years earlier, one that had been rejected then, but I thought I’d give it another try.>>
Was that rejected? It looks like what they used on the 1998 RAMPAGING HULK series.
I like the SON OF HULK logo that resulted from all this — and it’s nice to have the classic HULK logo incorporated into it. Nice to see the process, too!
You are correct, sir! I’ve just amended the post to point out my boneheaded mistake. Thanks!
I really liked this logo when I saw it, enough so that I picked up the first couple of copies based on the logo firstly and then the cover art. It’s a shame the writing wasn’t up to it; I ended up dropping this one.
Do you get credited with the logo design anywhere in the books? I had no idea this was one of yours, but then I doubt I looked very closely.
No, logos aren’t usually credited in the comics, though they sometimes are in collected editions.