Todd Klein's Blog, page 146

And Then I Read: THE PERRELY PLIGHT by Peter John Stephens

I remember seeing this book in our school library as a child, and I might have read it before, but it did not seem at all familiar this time. I know I would have been attracted to the beautiful pen and ink drawings like the one on the cover. The book was inspired by the author’s real life visit to historic Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, a living museum town.

The story focuses on two families in Sturbridge, the Martindales, an important doctor’s family in town, and the Perrelys, who live outside town in The Hollow, and who have a bad reputation. Mr. Perrely is a traveling salesman, his wife is a native American, and their children are not in school. Young Gib Martindale becomes interested in the Perrelys when he meets their daughter Djulih, and soon uncovers mysterious connections between the two families. Gib’s grandmother has conniptions even hearing the name Perrely, but Gib finds old family records in his attic that talk of a quarrel between two sons leading to the estrangement of these two branches of the same family. Djulih’s brother Philander is older than Gib, and is solitary and hard to know, but the two boys do have some interests in common, like wildlife. When Philander is accused of setting a barn on fire and stealing some gold coins, Gib knows it can’t be true, and the ensuing trial of Philander brings both boys into a great deal of turmoil and trouble. Can the old quarrel between the families be bridged to save them?

This is the kind of mystery I like best, not a murder mystery but one with plenty of puzzles to solve and hidden secrets to uncover. Recommended.

And Then I Read: MISTER MIRACLE #8

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Tom King, art and colors by Mitch Gerads, letters by Clayton Cowles.

On this series, I missed issues 5-7 due to a digital delivery problem, but I found this one easy to understand despite that. There are some surprising developments: Scott Free (Mr. Miracle) is now Highfather and running the war against Darkseid, but switching off with his wife Barda, so they are mostly not together in this issue, and communicating about home life and the battle long-distance. At home, they have a child, Jack, and are getting help with him from Funky Flashman (the Jack Kirby character meant to be a parody of Stan Lee). Somehow that kind of works. The one thing that puzzled me is that, in the war, Scott is taking all kinds of punishment and injuries, but at home he seems okay, so there may be more going on than I can follow, and there are those occasional out-of-focus images that suggest something isn’t right with Scott. The home scenes are definitely more fun than the battle ones. When Scott and Barda finally have some time together at the end, it’s a charming wrap to the issue. And the Batman doll gag seen on the alternate cover here is part of a funny bit inside.

Recommended.

CMBO Century Run Team Report, World Series of Birding 2018

The World Series of Birding is an annual competition and fund-raiser for nature and environmental organizations in which teams try to see or hear as many bird species as possible inside a 24 hour period (midnight to midnight) and inside the state of New Jersey. It’s held on a Saturday in the first half of May, the 12th this year. It was begun in 1984 by Pete Dunne and others, and the first year there were thirteen teams. This year there were 73 teams and hundreds of participants. Since its inception, the event has raised more than ten million dollars for the organizations involved. Our team, the Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run began in 1987. My first year was 1988, and though I’ve missed a few years, I’ve participated about 25 times. The event is a mixture of exciting (when you find good things), frustrating (when you don’t), a cool nature adventure, an exhausting experience, and usually lots of fun. Every year a core group of fans, friends and supporters help me contribute to the cause of the Cape May Bird Observatory’s mission of conservation, education and preservation, and I’m glad they were there for me again this year.

Our 2018 team had 24 participants, including the team leader Brett Ewald, team planners and birding experts Roger and Kathy Horn, photographer and binocular specialist Clay Taylor from Swarovski Optik, and team planner Patti Domm. Many participants on this team return year after year. The top Level 1 teams are usually much smaller, 3 or 4 people, and some cover the entire state of New Jersey, or, like us, one particular county or area There are also Senior and Youth team categories as well as Carbon Footprint teams who travel only on foot or by bike, all competing for awards as well as raising money. Our Level 2 team does not compete for awards, but we do raise lots of money for important conservation work by New Jersey Audubon (over $6,000 this year), and we have a great time doing it. We birded from about 4:45 AM to about 9 PM this year, not as long a day as the 24-hour teams, but quite long enough! And our day tends to be more relaxed than the level-one teams. We keep up a steady pace, but also take the time to get good looks at some of the best and most interesting birds. That’s our team bus, above, at our starting point at the Cape May Meadows parking lot. As thunder and lightning flashed and rumbled in the distance, we got our first few species by call here before heading to our first stop, the Cape May Airport. There we added two more difficult species by call, Horned Lark and Chuck-Will’s-Widow as a light shower began.

As dawn broke, and the shower passed, we were at our next stop, a walk at Cox Hall Creek Wildlife Management Area that added more good birds like Green Heron, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Waterthrush and Northern Flicker. While we were there, a fire siren went off in the neighborhood, and this prompted a local Barred Owl to start calling! Apparently this often happens, though I’d never experienced it, and adding Barred Owl to our species list was a treat. Owls rarely call during the day, and we often don’t get any for our list. We left this birding spot at 7 AM with 57 species.

Our next stop was Norbury’s Landing on the Delaware Bayshore a little north of Cox Hall Creek. Here we added gulls and shorebirds like Ruddy Turnstone and Red Knot to our list, as well as a difficult-to-find Bonaparte’s Gull, and two Bald Eagles, We finished here around 7:45 AM with 77 species on our list. The weather was gradually clearing.

Another Delaware Bayshore stop further north at Reed’s Beach added species like Snowy Egret and Least Tern, but the best bird of the stop was a Glaucous Gull found by Clay Taylor using his scope. This nearly all-white gull is rare here, and is not on the official checklist, so it was a write-in! Those are always a thrill to add to our list.

Here’s a photo of a Glaucous Gull I found on eBird to give you an idea, though ours was surrounded by dozens of Laughing Gulls, and not easy to pick out.

Around 9 AM we stopped at the Cape May Bird Observatory Center for Research and Education (CRE for short) to use the bathrooms, and pick up a few more species like Orchard Oriole and the often elusive Cedar Waxwing. We also added Ruby-throated Hummingbird, coming to the feeders there.

Our next stop was Jake’s Landing, which overlooks wide expanses of wetlands draining into Delaware Bay. It was a full sun morning now, and remained so for much of the day with light winds and increasing temperatures into the upper 70s by mid-afternoon. In all, a very pleasant birding day.

Willet © Roger Horn

Here we added species like Willet (above), Clapper Rail, Marsh Wren and Seaside Sparrow.

By about 10 AM we were in Belleplain State Forest, the area not far from where I live that I’d been scouting for the past 10 days. We began on Narrows Road, but not much was calling there, so moved on to the bridge on Sunset Road, above.

Worm-eating Warbler © Roger Horn

Here we added key breeding bird species like Acadian Flycatcher, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Wood Thrush, and warblers: Hooded, Worm-eating (above), Yellow-throated and Prothonotary. By 10:10 we’d reached our nominal Century Run goal of 100 species about an hour earlier than usual! This was cause for celebration, but we all knew that after the first 100, it gets much harder. In other parts of Belleplain we added Eastern Phoebe, White-breasted Nuthatch, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Bluebird and more. We found most of the birds that breed here except for Summer Tanager, which I’d had several of the day before, but none turned up for us. That tends to happen every year with a few species. One final stop in Woodbine, near Belleplain, added Eastern Meadowlark, then we headed south toward Cape May Point again around 12:15 PM with 115 species.

Tree Swallow © Roger Horn

We arrived at the Cape May Point State Park around 12:45 for our lunch break, which we took at one of the picnic pavilions overlooking Lighthouse Pond. There team leader Brett found a Broad-winged Hawk circling overhead with some vultures. After eating, we went up to the dune to view the ocean where it meets Delaware Bay. Here a difficult-to-find Parasitic Jaeger was added to our list, as well as a few more species.

Our next stop was a nearby place I’d never visited at the northwest corner of the Cape May Point State Park. Called Bob’s Woods, you enter along a right-of-way through someone’s yard into a patch of woods that was full of birds, including about a dozen warbler species. It reminded me very much of how birding used to be decades ago at Higbee Beach a few miles north, but seldom is there today. We added many migrating warblers to our list that we’ve often missed in recent years, including Black-throated Green, Magnolia, Blackburnian and Blackpoll, but the star attraction here was a Swainson’s Warbler that had been calling regularly for the past two weeks. This is a species that’s usually found further south, but one has been showing up here every year or two for a while now. They are secretive and very hard to see, but fortunately have a distinctive call, which allowed us to count it. You can see pictures and videos of the bird calling HERE. To me, the call sounds like “Come on and get your PIZZA HERE!” (Okay, I like pizza.) I first learned it in South Carolina, and have heard one calling in the Cape May area before, but not for many years. This was another write-in bird, two in one year! Pretty cool.

About 3 PM we did some birding outside the Northwood Center of the Cape May Bird Observatory in Cape May Point. I’ve volunteered here for many years. We added a hard-to-find Black-billed Cuckoo. We were running a bit behind schedule, so we soon moved on.

Probably our longest walk of the day was on the loop trail at the Cape May Meadows from 3:15 to 4 PM. This had been one of our best spots last year, but was not as productive this year. We did add Gadwall and a few other species. A Mississippi Kite had been reported just north of us, but we didn’t see it. It was time to drive north again, where a stop at Shell Bay Landing just off the Garden State Parkway, added Whimbrel to our list. Next was Nummy Island where we found Tricolored Heron, Black-bellied Plover and Common Loon. I was pretty tired at this point and neglecting to take group photos, sorry. We left the Meadows with 133 species, just two short of our estimated goal of 135, and four short of last year’s total of 137. We had high hopes of more, but they were getting ever harder to find.

At Stone Harbor Point we found one of the few remaining Piping Plovers in our area, photo above found online. This species is endangered in New Jersey mainly because it nests on beaches where people also like to be.

Purple Sandpipers © Roger Horn

Another bird we added here was Purple Sandpiper, which has usually migrated north by now. We left this area around 6 PM with a great total of 141 species!

We found one more in Avalon, Yellow-crowned Night-heron, seen here in a photo I took last year, possibly the same bird. This is a species that is rare and hard to see unless you know their daytime roosting spots, which we do.

We then stopped at the Wetlands Institute on Stone Harbor Boulevard where we had great looks at many of the shorebirds we’d struggled to see earlier in the day, as well as a family of young foxes playing nearby, but unfortunately did not find anything new for our list. Weather predictions were coming in of a massive line of thunderstorms approaching from the west, and there was a tornado warning. We headed back toward Belleplain State Forest after a stop at Wawa for snacks and bathrooms, and by the time we got there it was fully dark, and the western sky was full of thunder and lightning. We made two attempts to hear Whip-poor-will, a night-calling bird common there that’s often the last one we add to our list, but they were silent this time, perhaps as spooked by the weather as we were. We decided to call it a day and headed back to Cape May Point. On the way, as rain showers began, Roger Horn submitted our official list of 142 species online, as is now the method. By the time we got back to our cars, the storm was upon us, with torrential rain, lightning and thunder. Just getting the 20 feet from the bus to my car got me pretty wet.

I had planned to go to the Finish Line at the Grand Hotel, where there would be food and good company, and where we’d see other teams coming in as well, but by the time I drove over there, the rain was, if anything, coming down even harder, and there was nowhere near the hotel to park, so I decided to just head home instead. Even with having to drive much slower than usual, I arrived home earlier than I often do at about 10:15 PM.

This morning there was an Awards Brunch for participants wanting to attend, which I never do. I’d rather sleep in a bit and recover, and I also need to work on this report. At some point soon there will be an official list of all the team results, which I will link to here when I get it. I also hope to get some bird photos from our day from Clay Taylor, and the official checklist from Brett Ewald. I learned this afternoon from Roger Horn that our team total is now 144! Adjustments must have been made at the Finish Line. I will add or link to all that when I can. Thanks to Roger Horn for use of some of his photos. It was an excellent day. Oh, and for my fellow participants, that number I threw out as the approximate highest total of species ever seen by the Century Run team? I don’t know where I got that, I may have dreamed it! I did some research today, and while I don’t have results from every year, the highest one I do have is 149 species from 2000. So, our total of 144 is quite good by comparison. The lowest total I have (from 1987, the first year) is 104. Several early ones were 112, a stormy 2011 got 118. Most other years range from the low 130s to the mid 140s.

Thanks again to all my pledgers and supporters for helping me raise funds for nature, and to the team’s excellent leaders and great participants. It was a fine group to be part of, everyone was friendly, polite and helpful, and we had a blast.

I’ll probably be doing and reporting on this again next year! Thanks for reading.

Gearing up for the World Series of Birding

I’m getting everything together for tomorrow’s marathon birding event, see THIS post for what it’s all about. I did a last scouting trip this morning that resulted in some unexpected sad news. I drove up to the Beesley’s Point power station this morning to look for a pair of Ravens that have been nesting on it this year. I’d been there twice before but hadn’t seen them yet. While I stood in the parking lot next to the station, an employee drove out and pulled up behind me.

“Are you one of the birdwatchers?” she asked, as must have been obvious, as I had binoculars in hand. I conceded I was.

“I’m afraid the two Ravens are dead. There was an accident, and one of them was electrocuted. We’re not sure what happened to the other one, but the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife department has collected the bodies.”

I was shocked myself, and sad to hear about this, not only because I and others on the WSB wouldn’t get to count them in our fundraiser, but because these Ravens, the only ones in Cape May County, were gone.

Later I drove south and west to Stipsons Island Road and Jakes Landing Road, both of which go through upland forest to the wetlands draining into Delaware Bay. I saw some good birds, but the gnats were swarming and out for blood, so I didn’t stay too long. (They’ve just emerged, there were none a few days ago. An extra trial for our trip, but then they are bird food!)

This afternoon I got my stuff together. In the pack is my regular digital camera (which I’ve been using less and less in favor of the phone camera, but I might want it), bug spray, sun screen, bottled water and ice tea (I don’t mind if it gets warm), napkins, wet wipes, lens cleaner and my checklist. In the cooler will go two turkey sandwiches on rolls, a container of blueberries, three clementines, two bananas, and four baggies of trail mix I made up from dried fruit, cashews, pistachios, walnuts and dark chocolate chips. Two ice packs will go in too, and I test packed to make sure it all fit.

The extra canvas bag is for my walking shoes and socks. I will put on hikers for the beginning of the day, then switch to walkers later when my feet get warm and the hikers get too heavy. I will switch back in the evening if the projected rain arrives then. The binoculars will be on all day, of course, and my phone will be in use fairly often. For one thing, the battery on my watch just died, so I will use it to know the time. I will also post brief updates on our progress on my Facebook page through the day when I have time.

The weather report is mixed, but not too bad. A chance of a shower early and a larger chance late in the day. The wind will be from the southeast, so it will warm up to the mid 70s mid day, and we may have some sun. Bird migration has slowed down, and the wind direction won’t help, but we can always hope for at least a few migrants in our path. The resident and breeding birds are well scouted by our leaders, and team members like myself.

I will publish a full report on Sunday as soon as I can get it together. I’m always in recovery mode on Sunday, so maybe not until the afternoon. It will be an exhausting but fun day!

Pulled From My Files #84: ROBIN and ROGUE Logos

Robin images © DC Entertainment.

Some time in the early 1990s I was asked by DC’s Licensing Department to submit logo design ideas for Batman, which I wrote about in THIS post. Apparently I did a few Robin designs as well, and I have three marker sketches. This first one is very tall, a clue it’s not a cover logo, and uses a serif style I still find appealing.

This one, on the other hand is awful. I think the R is from a symbol the character wore on his costume at the time, or at some time, and the rest is meant to match it, but it does that poorly. Even the letter heights and thicknesses don’t really match.

Version 3 is standard block lettering with serifs, not a bad look, but nothing special about it either. As you can see in the notes, two of these matched two of the Batman sketches. None of these were ever finalized, I was paid a kill fee and they probably just used existing logos, a better idea.

Rogue images © Marvel.

I also did some licensing logo designs for Marvel, and this one from an unknown date, probably early 1990s also, was not accepted at the time I originally did it, but in 1994 editor Lisa Patrick asked for designs for a cover logo for the character, who was getting a mini-series. I resent these rejected licensing designs.

The second sketch I have is heavily cut and pasted. I think Lisa liked this one the best, but asked for a number of changes. The R and the bottom of the E are redrawn.

I no longer have versions 2B through 2E, but judging by this one, they were a series of minor tweaks. The R and the bottom of the E are again redrawn. I think I was getting exasperated by this point, as a note in large letters on this sketch (not shown) says: IS THIS IT?

It was, except that I made the stroke weight of the R thinner to better match the rest, as indicated in pencil on the sketch above. Here’s a photocopy of the final logo, done in ink on plastic vellum. I like it generally, though looking at it now I’m not crazy about the O and G, and I think the R should have had a curve in it somewhere. At least they bought it!

As often happened at this time, most of the four issues had gimmicky foil logos that don’t scan well, and images of them look awful. This one is at least in normal inks, despite being cut off.

The only time the logo appeared in full was on this trade paperback collection. It looks pretty good here, though they removed my drop shadow and added effects in Photoshop.

More of these when I have time.

And Then I Read: HAL JORDAN & THE GL CORPS #43

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Robert Venditti, art by Rafa Sandoval and Jordi Tarragona, colors by Tomeu Morey, letters by Dave Sharpe.

The first of these I’ve read after a long gap due to digital delivery issues. We are at the second part of an epic confrontation between the Lanterns and a new cadre of Darkstars led by Hal’s former friend Tomar-Tu, powered by The Controllers. Both sets of characters were created when I wasn’t following the Green Lantern titles, so I don’t know much about them, but as often happens, the Lanterns seem to be outnumbered and out-powered. Guy and John Stewart are ready to take on the threat now, but after a talk with Tomar-Tu, Hal feels that’s the wrong move.

This is only slightly interesting to me, but I will give it some time and see where it goes. Mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS #45

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Tim Seeley, art by Ronan Cliquet, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

My first issue after a large gap, my last one read was #34 due to a glitch in digital delivery. Looks like we have a new writer in Tim Seeley, and though it took me a few pages to figure out what was going on mid-story (this is part 2 of “Ghosts of the Past”), I soon sorted it out and enjoyed the read.

GL Jessica Cruz has been sent into some kind of black hole by villainess Singularity Jain. The black hole is threatening other things, and the Justice League is involved, but in this issue the focus is on rescuing Jessica. Her partner, Simon Baz, has captured the culprit, who reveals that Jessica is reliving an event from her past that scarred her deeply, the deaths of some friends on a camping trip. We see some of that in the opening pages and later. With the help of John Constantine, Simon goes inside the black hole to try to find and rescue Jessica, but he must leave his ring behind to do it. This seems like a bad idea…! When he gets there, another prisoner shows up first, a surprising one.

Nicely done, recommended.

The World Series of Birding 2018, request for pledges!

Two weeks from today, Saturday May 12th, is the annual outdoor escapade and fundraiser known as The World Series of Birding. I’ve signed up with the Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run team as I have many times in the past. It’s the only fundraiser I participate in. Along with lots of other teams we will attempt to spot as many bird species as possible on that day. The top teams will go from midnight to midnight, and cover the entire state of New Jersey. Our Century Run team’s goals are a little more relaxed: we go from 5 AM to about 10 PM and stay within Cape May County. It’s still an exhausting marathon to test one’s determination and stamina, but usually a lot of fun, too. Each participant pledges a minimum of $1 per species seen, which one can supplement with pledges from friends and family. And that, gentle readers, is where you can participate!

As in the past, I’m encouraging you to make a pledge for my WSB big day, to help me raise funds for the Cape May Bird Observatory, part of New Jersey Audubon, and their valuable mission of conservation, education and research. Current and proposed trends in our government do not bode well for environmental issues and groups, or for the birds, animals, insects and plants we share the planet with, so causes and organizations like this are more important now than ever. You can pledge any amount, but the usual method is to pledge per species seen. Last year our total was 137 species, a little better than our average of 130 species. If we tally 130 species, a pledge of 50 cents per would result in a monetary gift of $65. A pledge of $1 per species would mean a gift of $130. As a bonus, I’m offering any of my Signed Prints as incentives: for a pledge of 50 cents per species, the print of your choice, for $1 per species, any two! Higher pledges are welcome and will garner more prints in the same ratio. Pledges lower than 50 cents will get you a signed comics trade paperback that I lettered, my choice, if you would like that. Pledges of any amount down to 10 cents per species are welcome, or if you’d rather make a flat rate donation, that’s fine, too. All pledges will support education about and preservation of New Jersey wildlife and natural resources, as well as garner my enduring gratitude!

Here’s a LINK to my blog about last year’s WSB Century Run, if you’d care to read it. And if you’d like to pledge, click the CONTACT ME link here or in the right column of this page and let me know by email. I’ll be collecting pledges until May 11th. Or, if you’d prefer, an easy way to pledge is right on our TEAM PAGE, just let me know if you’ve done that and mention me in the pledge comment. Our team will be out there tallying on the 12th, rain or shine, hoping for good weather and lots of migrating birds. Who knows, maybe this year we’ll hit the ever elusive goal of 150 species. I’d settle for 140. And thank you for your support!

 

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #45

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Christian Duce, colors by Luis Guerrero, letters by Steve Wands.

For decades I was on the DC Comics “comp” list, which meant that once a month I’d get a box full of all that month’s new issues shipped from the printer. This was good in that I got to read titles I didn’t work on that I liked, but then I had to find a home for all the ones I didn’t want to keep. I worked out a deal with a comics shop to trade my unwanted comps for other comics I wanted to read. About two years ago, the printed comics were replace by digital subscriptions on Comixology, again all or most of the new issues provided free, and I was happy to make that switch and not have to worry about dealing with the printed comics anymore. Plus, at that time, I’d just about finished selling off the last of my comics collection, so no more printed comics, other the collected editions of things I worked on (which I still get printed copies of). Then, about two months ago, I noticed I wasn’t getting any new issues on Comixology, and hadn’t since the beginning of 2018 at least. I checked with DC and discovered that my name had been taken off the digital comp list for reasons unknown. I asked to be reinstated, and it took a while, but that went into effect about a week ago. I did not get issues that fell into the gap, though, just new ones starting now, so series I was reading have issues I won’t see unless I buy them, which I don’t plan to do (with a few possible exceptions).

This brings us to THE FLASH #45, release date April 25th, the first new issue I’ve read since #34, a gap of 10 issues. The book comes out about every two weeks, that’s why it’s so many. I thought it would be interesting to see how picking up the story at this point worked for me. Looking through the past covers and synopses on Comixology, I missed the second half of “Black Hole Rising,” three issues of “A Cold Day in Hell,” which seems to feature Captain Cold, and “The Perfect Storm” featuring Gorilla Grodd and, apparently, a massive storm trashing Central City, six issues. The issue I’ve just read is the “Perfect Storm” aftermath.

The first thing to note is that the Superman-Flash alternate cover shown above seems to be a leftover from a previous storyline, Superman is not in this issue. The art this time is by Christian Duce, and is a different and appealing look at the characters that reminds me a bit of Tim Truman. Central City is a mess, but being repaired by speedsters: The Flash, Kid Flash and a female one I don’t know. Back at Iron Heights prison, former speedster turned villainess Meena is meeting with Barry Allen as they rehash their relationship, and Barry’s crime lab partner there, Kristen, is bemoaning some bad choices made, and the escape of her former friend August Heart, the speedster Godspeed. We see Godspeed somewhere being offered a new deal. Kid Flash and the female speedster say farewell as she heads back to wherever she came from, and then Kid Flash and Robin have words. Finally Iris West and Barry have a heart-to-heart talk at the Central City Crime Lab, where she learns more about Barry’s secret identity, and a surprise guest appears.

This kept my interest despite the gap, though it did point out how the soap opera aspects of a monthly series tend to remain about the same despite the appearance of change. Still, not a bad read.

Recommended.

Pulled From My Files #83: PUNISHER 2099

This and all images © Marvel.

In 1994 I was asked to design a logo with a very long title, as above. I had already designed the 2099 seen here, and this existing title was scheduled for a new look. Acronyms (words made of the first letters of a longer name or phrase) that have periods after each letter are always a design problem, and I thought my solution on this one was pretty good. 

I don’t have marker sketches 2 and 3. This one may have been part of a second round, because now the name is even longer.  The A.D. I had already designed, another acronym, is included. My solution for the periods in S.H.I.E.L.D. on this one I also clever, but harder to recognize. I really like the eagle, but probably didn’t design it, or adapted an existing design. Imagine if the acronyms were written out, you could fill an entire cover with the logo.

Sketch 5 opens things up a bit, and this was the version they went with. The periods in S.H.I.E.L.D. are gone, thankfully.

Here’s the finished logo in ink on plastic vellum, identical to sketch 5.

And the way it looked when it first appeared on issue #28 dated May 1995. Too long, too big, but it works reasonably well. It only lasted for five issues, though, making way for a new logo for the last two issues of the book.

More of these when I have time.