Pulled From My Files #45: CABLE LOGO

This and all images © Marvel.

In 1992 I was asked by Marvel editor Lisa Patrick to submit logo sketches for Cable, an X-Men related character who was being given his own series. I did three marker sketches initially, all using thick letters and bold outlines. This one is the most traditional approach.

Sketch 2 puts the letters in a block and adds three-dimensional telescoping around it.

Sketch 3 was going for a futuristic look which seemed to match the character, and utilizes more abstract shapes and an unusual double drop shadow.

After these sketches were sent in and reviewed by the editors, I was asked for more. I think it was suggested I do something similar to Alex Jay’s design for X-FORCE from 1991, a group which Cable was then part of, a sensible idea.

Here’s my fourth sketch using that idea. Some letter shapes are picked up from previous sketches, but I’ve added triangular elements to the A and E.

Marvel liked sketch 4, but asked for another version using the Jim Steranko X-MEN logo from 1968 as a model.

There must have been a sketch 5, but I don’t have it in my files, I only have this finished logo made from it. It would have been inked on Denril plastic vellum over the sketch.

The logo first saw print on issue #1 of the series cover-dated May 1993. It has a gold foil and embossed treatment, and is partially obscured by the character, but is otherwise as I sent it in. Later covers show the logo more clearly. I also did the cover lettering for this cover, one of many I did for Marvel at the time.