Not often do I get to write a post that can be tagged under both “Nature” and “Logo Studies.” I nearly ran into this Praying Mantis or Mantid, probably the Chinese species, on our front walk as I headed out for my afternoon perambulation yesterday, and I went back for the camera. I’ve always liked mantises, they move and are constructed like something from a science fiction film. I love the small triangular head with bulbous eyes at the upper corners, and they can turn that head almost behind them to look at you with those alien eyes. This one was hanging from a goldenrod flower, hoping to catch an unwary fly or bee coming to feed on the flowers.

Jack Kirby must have liked them too, or at least liked the name, as Mantis was one of the characters he created in THE FOREVER PEOPLE, part of the New Gods saga. The character was humanoid, but with a spiky mask reminiscent of the insect’s legs and feet. I tried to mirror both the costume and the insect in the logo I did for the DC licensing department in 1983, when Kenner did action figures of some of the Kirby Characters. I thought it worked well.