In which Mike posts about DC Comics logos in the Year of Our Lord 2015.

§ May 11th, 2015 § Filed under dc comics § 9 Comments

So Reader Allan asked:

“I was browsing the DC Comics wikipedia page and realized today is the 10th anniversary of when DC announced the change of the DC Bullet logo to the DC Swirl and everyone lost their minds. Remember when that was a thing?”

Well, in fairness, folks with comics blogs at that particular moment in time lost their minds about just about anything, so what can you do? But yes, folks weren’t happy, but you know how we all are about anyone fiddling with our beloved superhero funnybooks.

At the time, ten years ago (and that I can refer back to something I posted on this site ten years ago puts some creaks in my joints, I’ll tell you what) I said:

“…A new DC logo? The heck? What was wrong with the old one? Okay, I guess we’ve had the DC Bullet for a while, and maybe we were due for a change…but all I can think when I look at this new logo is ‘boy, that’s going to have to be replaced in a few years.'”

And yeah, there was nothing wrong with the old bullet logo, really:


…aside from maybe being a little old-fashioned, which just won’t do when you’re a forward-thinking multimedia brand forging ahead into the 20th cen…er, 21st century. The replacement logo:


was a little fancier, and probably looked better in front of the cartoons and movies and whatnot…though, come to think of it, did that bullet logo ever get branded onto any of the cartoons or movies? I can’t really recall. Just imagine the DC Bullet spinning around here in place of the logo that replaced it:


I was right when I stated in that old post that they’d have to change the logo in a few years, because not much later we got this slightly more austere, if perhaps more professional “grown-up publisher” logo:


…which I’ve become used to, I suppose, which I’m sure comes as a great relief to DC Comics, Inc. I do like its use in the ending credits of the Arrow TV show, with all the arrows whizzing by:


But a part of me still misses this old logo:


I hope when the eventual direct-to-video Swamp Thing cartoon happens, that’s the one they’ll use.

9 Responses to “In which Mike posts about DC Comics logos in the Year of Our Lord 2015.”

  • Walaka says:

    I think I still have my 50th Anniversary trinket-pin of the bullet logo… but to me, the “real” one reads “Superman – National Comics” around the edge and “DC” in the center of two concentric plain black circles.

  • I’m old enough to remember when it read National Periodical Pub.

  • Tim B. says:

    Wasn’t the change to the current peel design at least partly due to the fact that DC shoes logo features stars and DC comics had failed to trademark this or copyright it (I’m not a intellectual property wonk so could be both or one of them) DC shoes did and subsequently DC comics had to change the logo removing the stars aspect.

  • My favorite has always been that last one. It took me years to get used to the bullet when they switched to it.

  • philfromgermany says:

    I still like the bullet best, but was just fine with the swirl when the update happened. The peel is just bland though.

  • Andrew Leal says:

    I still haven’t recovered from the loss of the Comics Code Authority seal of approval.

  • CG says:

    The peel continues to look like a maxi-pad logo.

  • philip says:

    I do like when they put characters in the “peel.” Otherwise it kind of looks like nothing. Maybe that’s why they have to write “DC” underneath it twice? Anyway, curious design. Wonder what they rejected.

  • Snark Shark says:

    the bullet logo was the best! the replacement sucked, then the BAND-AID logo sucked even more!