The New 52 Logos!

Have a look!



I have a reputation as kind of a logo nut on the DC wallpaper thread and I wondered what others were thinking about the logos. For the most part, they were ok, but I was expecting more for the relaunch.

Here are my thoughts (in the order presented):

Action Comics - Minor update to a classic! Well done!
All Star Western - Classic with a modern sheen. Good for 2-D!
Animal Man - Reminiscent of the old logo, but I don't get what all the points on the font are... Are they supposed to be talons or claws? Not good.
Aquaman - Nice use of the belt symbol, the font seems to have depth and a hard outline. Perhaps because this book has been in the pipeline longer, that's why the logo seems more like ones on books now. Good.
Batgirl - Bat symbol and a font with some interesting curves. Good.
Batman - Weird font trying to mimic the scallops of an imaginary bat symbol? And what's with the odd letter sizes? Not good.
Blue Beetle - Interesting font and designs that remind me of technology. Good.
Blackhawks - Here's where a bit of detail can make a 2-D font pop! Love the symbol in the middle! Well done!
Batman and Robin - No change.
Batman The Dark Knight - No change.
Batwing - Another bat symbol paired with a decent font. Good.
Batwoman - This is the old font, but why does every other Bat-titled book have a bat symbol and this one doesn't? No change.
Catwoman - Another interesting font that fits the character. Good.
Captain Atom - I like the font, it's very modern! Worried all the Photoshop effects are going to get lost on a cover. Good.
Birds of Prey - Uninteresting font with weird tails trying to mimic the look of the last font. And what are all the lines in the letters for? Not good.
DC Universe Presents - No change.
Deathstroke - A 2-D font with what look like pointed weapons running through the white space. Not good.
Detective Comics - Bat symbol, a font reminiscent of an older Detective logo with some texture, coloring, and depth as well as including Batman? Well done!
Demon Knights - Demonic type font with only a drop shadow for depth. Not good.
Flash - The font is bland and the forward leaning letters getting smaller doesn't say 'fast' to me. Not good.
Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. - Another 2-D font, but the blockiness works here, as do the two colors. Good.
Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men - Both fonts are interesting and the symbol adds a little depth. Good.
Green Lantern - No change.
Green Lantern Corps - No change.
Green Lantern New Guardians - Old Green Lantern font paired with a font that's been used on DC covers for a long time. Not good.
Green Arrow - Boring font, half-hearted attempt at a symbol. Not good.
Grifter - Good, heavy font with a nice gradient and bullet holes. Well done.
Hawk and Dove - Another boring font with some bird-like flourishes. Not good.
Savage Hawkman - I like the use of the symbol, the font is savage with all the points, and a drop shadow for a bit of depth. Good.
I, Vampire - Weird, twisted rope font that has also been used many times before. Not good.
Justice League - The plainest font possible with a perspective that tilts the whole thing toward the reader. I can see the word 'League' being unreadable as it's so thin and there's no background to make reading it easier. And no shield motif? Not good.
Justice League Dark - All the above but paired with another font that looks like the I, Vampire one. Not good.
Justice League International - Same perspective as Justice League along with some very tall thin letters that make it hard to recognize the map in the letters. Not good.
Legion Lost - Does 'Lost' need to be that big? Not good.
Legion of Super-Heroes - I like the futuristic font and how 'of' fits nicely in the tail of the L. Even though it's a 2-D font (and one we've seen before), it suits the book. Good.
Men of War - Plain, like the original, but is it going to stand out against the cover art? Not good.
Mister Terrific - Kudos for spelling out Mister and using his face in the logo. Good.
Nightwing - Bat symbol, good font. Well done.
O.M.A.C. - Heavy, thick, and easy to read with a suggestion of technology. Good.
Red Lanterns - Pointy edges to the Green Lantern font with a symbol. Well done.
Red Hood and the Outlaws - Plain 2-D font with a bit of color and a bat symbol for a team with one member related to the Bat. Not good.
Resurrection Man - Nice update to the original, this time showing a hand reaching up rather than his outline. Good.
Suicide Squad - Another 2-D font but this one adds symbols and color! Well done!
Superboy - No change.
Superman - No change.
Supergirl - No change.

This applies to all the 'Super' titles... they really look like they don't belong with the others anymore.

Swamp Thing - No change.
Static Shock - Cool font, nice design, neat colors and effects. Well done!
Stormwatch - Plain font but the symbol helps a lot. Good.
Teen Titans - Another plain font with a tiny bit of design in the crossbar of the A. Not good.
Voodoo - The O's set the pace here, and it's a nice, heavy font. Good.
Wonder Woman - Plain letters without a hard edge and some wings resembling her symbol. Not good.

Your thoughts?

New Aquaman Logo!

I've been wondering when this was going to show up! I got it from the cover of an upcoming Previews!



And here it is enlarged to show detail.



The logo is following the trend of the other 'New 52' logos seen so far... a 2-D font arranged in stylized manner and, in the case of Aquaman, Hawkman, Batman, and Firestorm, a symbol. I like that they used Aquaman's belt symbol behind the logo, but it looks like the same symbol used on the Brightest Day variant cover, which isn't quite right.



As you can see, the symbol behind Aquaman on that cover isn't quite the same as the belt that Ivan Reis drew on that very same cover! Jim Lee has been having a hard time with it on the Justice League covers I've seen so far. It seems no one can draw the updated symbol like Ivan can! So I took it upon myself to replicate the new logo using a more correct (IMO) symbol and this was the result!



Pretty good, if I do say so so myself!

Unicorn/Road Runner Meat

Too good not to re-post!



It reminds me of a diagram Wile E. Coyote had of the Road Runner... I think the Road Runner's was different flavors... his tail feathers were chocolate and his wings were vanilla, if I recall correctly.

Update! I found a graphic of the aforementioned diagram... I was close, it was flavours.



Enjoy!

Marvel Family, Firestorm Redux, Aquaman and Superman

Art by Kurt Schaffenberger, colors by me!



Firestorm by Ethan van Sciver, using what is supposed to be the logo for his new series!



Aquaman (art by Ivan Reis) and Superman (art by George Perez) in art released by DC for their new books in September!



Enjoy!

Aquaman Artists Announced!

Courtesy of CBR:

The newly announced Aquaman series will re-team Geoff Johns with Brightest Day artists Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, the writer revealed today at WonderCon 2011 in San Francisco.

“I don’t think you can get much better in comics,” Johns said during the DC Nation panel. “Everything the do elevates the characters they work on, and we hope to do the same for Aquaman.”

Announced last weekend during MegaCon, the new Aquaman will mark the seventh series for the 70-year-old character. Although he was left dead with the cancellation of Sword of Atlantis in 2007, the sea king was resurrected during Blackest Night before going on to play a central role in the current Brightest Day series.

Johns has insisted that Aquaman is one of DC Comics’ A-list characters, telling Comic Book Resources in December that, “He’s got to be showcased like that, and he’s got to kick ass like Green Lantern or Batman or the entire Justice League.”

Aquaman #1 is expected to debut later this year.

I've said from the beginning that Ivan Reis needs to be on an Aquaman book!!!

Aquaman Ongoing - More Details

In a follow-up to Aquaman getting his own series again, Newsarama has more details...

Geoff Johns clarified that his run later this year on Aquaman will be an ongoing series, and it will start after Flashpoint ends.

"It's been great to see the popularity of Aquaman," Johns said, referring to the fan response to his announcement at MegaCon on Sunday that he'd be writing an Aquaman series. "It's really cool to see all these characters get some attention for once."

Johns, who also serves as the chief creative officer for DC Entertainment, said the cast of the new ongoing series will include the characters that have been supporting Aquaman in Brightest Day.

"Mera will be a staple in the series. She'll be right next to Aquaman," he said.

Johns already added to Aquaman's supporting cast by introducing a new Aqualad in Brightest Day #10, coinciding with the same new Aqualad appearing in a new Young Justice animated series. The writer said the teenaged Aqualad is here to stay and will be important to the whole DCU.

"There are a lot of plans for Aqualad, not only in Aquaman, but throughout the DC Universe. He's become a pretty big character for us, which is great," Johns said.

After having died a few years ago in the comics universe, Aquaman was resurrected by Johns in the 2009 mini-series Blackest Night and has been starring in the bi-weekly Brightest Day, which finishes in April. Johns, who co-writes Brightest Day, hinted in a December interview with Newsarama that he would be writing the hero after the bi-weekly ended.

Out of all the characters the writer could choose for his next ongoing series, Johns chose Aquaman because he's enjoyed writing him so much in Brightest Day, "more than anybody," he said.

"I just know that there is a lot of potential in that character," Johns said. "I know there is untapped potential in that character and everything he's about. I love that everybody knows who he is, but they don't know a lot about him. And I just had ideas and stories for him."

But the writer said that even though people saw a "Johns-written Aquaman" in Brightest Day, that isn't necessarily the type of stories they'll be seeing in his new Aquaman ongoing series.

"There are a lot of things that will happen in the book that people won't expect," he said. "Brightest Day had a pretty straightforward superhero Aquaman story. That was to get him and Mera and Aqualad and Black Manta and everybody back on stage.

"But where we go in the book will surprise some people," he said.

Having first appeared in 1941, Aquaman has gone through some drastic changes as writers have tried to make him popular enough to sustain an ongoing series. The last ongoing Aquaman series, Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, ended in 2007 with issue #57.

Johns said he's been interested in the character for a long time, and he compared his universe to that of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, which Johns has ushered into a significant revival over the last six years.

"Aquaman lives in such a cool world," Johns said. "Where Green Lantern goes out away from the Earth, Aquaman goes to the depths of Earth, and there are a lot of things we've never explored. The depths of the ocean are a frontier. You see it on the Discovery Channel, that they discover a new species on the bottom on the ocean all the time, and it's a whole new world down there.

"And how does that relate to our world?" Johns added. "That's what I want to explore. I really want to find Aquaman's place in the DC Universe, but then also explore what he means within the rest of that world."

Newsarama recently explored Aquaman's potential and creators pointed toward the story potential of Aquaman's connection to environmental issues.

Johns agreed there's a "real issue there."

"Aquaman cares about that, and it's central to who he is," Johns said. "But you have to be careful not to be preachy."

Then he added that there's something happening in the DCU that could allow Aquaman to approach the issue. "There are some twists and turns coming up that involve some of that, but I don't want to get into it just yet," he said, then added, "I'll just say this: It's all about responsibility."

I'm certainly along for the ride and am dying to see where he takes the Aquaman Family! I echo his sentinment that all the Aqua-characters have been woefully underused. I can't wait for Flashpoint to be finished (and it hasn't even started yet!!)

Aquaman is Back!!

This news comes from an article on CBR:

A new Aquaman series written by Geoff Johns will launch later this year in the wake of Brightest Day. The announcement was made Saturday at MegaCon during the DC Comics spotlight panel and confirmed last night by Johns.

“Announced at Megacon: After Brightest Day I’ll be moving over to a new book — Aquaman #1 coming later this year!!” he wrote on Twitter. It was not revealed whether the title is an ongoing or a miniseries, or who the artist will be.

It will be the seventh series for the 70-year-old character, who reached the height of his modern-era popularity in the 1990s under writer Peter David. The last Aquaman comic, subtitled Sword of Atlantis as part of a sweeping “One Year Later” retooling, was canceled in 2007, leaving the sea king dead. Or, rather, “dead,” as he was resurrected in DC’s Blackest Night event before going on to play a central role in Brightest Day.

Although Aquaman is often the butt of jokes, in large part due to his depiction in the Super Friends animated series, Johns has championed the character and his place in the DC Universe.

“I think Aquaman is one of DC’s A-List characters, but he’s got to be treated like that,” Johns told Comic Book Resources in December. “He’s got to be showcased like that, and he’s got to kick ass like Green Lantern or Batman or the entire Justice League.”

Please, please, let Ivan Reis be the artist! Whoooo-hoooo!

Young Justice Downtime

This week's episode featured Atlantis and the Aquaman family of characters! In fact, it was incredible how many they managed to get in:

Starting with Aquaman and Aqualad, the two characters we have already seen.



And you would expect to see Mera, Garth, and Tula, and weren't disappointed:







Black Manta sightings tend to run high as well:



Vulko and Orm (who isn't Ocean Master on Earth-16) are always welcome, if unexpected:



So the Earth-16 Ocean Master looks something like this:



And here are Lagoon Boy and Sheeva from the Erik Larsen run:





As well as Topo from the Kurt Busiek run:



That's ten characters, not counting Arthur Jr.! I think the show did a great job in showcasing Atlantis and was very impressed with what the creators did! Here's the immediate AquaFamily members (including the new Aqualad) once again:



And in case there was any doubt, Mera kicks ass on Earth-16 as well! Here she creates a hard water octopus for protection from Black Manta's manta men!



Enjoy!

The Legend of Aquaman Special

Back in 1989, I wrote a letter to the Editor of the Aquaman Special I recently posted a wallpaper from. In something that was rare at the time, I received a personal reply from then-Editor, Mark Waid! His entry on Wikipedia describes his career better than I could:

He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America. From August 2007 to December 2010, Waid served as Editor-in-Chief, and later, Chief Creative Officer of BOOM! Studios, where he wrote titles such as Irredeemable, Incorruptible and The Traveler.

And he wrote lots of other cool stuff from DC as well!
First, check out the cool envelope!



And the back of the letter!



And the front of the letter! When you hold the letter up to a light, the characters on the back look like they're holding up the DC Bullet! Very cool! I don't have a copy of the letter I sent, but I think you get a sense of a few of the things I asked him about!



I remember being excited about plans for Aqualad, and knowing that Ocean Master could have returned! It was sooooo cool to have gotten this letter! Even better than an autographed comic!

Enjoy!

Red Lantern Mera

Here's a new action figure I picked up today... and it's the very first Mera action figure ever put out by DC Direct! She's not looking like herself because during Blackest Night, she gained a red power ring and it changed her appearance.

Mera also comes with Dex-Starr, otherwise known as Rage Kitty (a regular earth cat who also gets a red power ring), so I think that could make her one of the more popular figures in this series! She also makes a great companion for Black Lantern Aquaman! I can't wait to display them!

Looking ahead, I have Brightest Day Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad action figures (all based on Ivan Reis's outstanding artwork) to look forward to!