Today in Comics History, October 8: Happy birthday, Kirk Alyn!

Born on this day in 1910: Kirk Alyn, the first actor to portray Superman in live action in two serials! He was Blackhawk in another movie serial!


from Fifty Who Made DC Great one-shot (DC, 1985)

Separated at Birth: In space, no one can hear the sound of the men working on the chain gang

L: Mystery in Space #18 #18 (February-March 1954), art by Murphy Anderson and Joe Giella
M: Justice League of America v.1 #22 (September 1963), art by Murphy Anderson
R: Tom Strong #12 (June 2001), art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, and Carrie Strachan
(Click picture to Takron-Galtos-size)

The World's Imitatedest Comic Magazine Logo!

A few months back I posted one of my patented Bully-Mega-Posts™ about the history and evolution of the title logo for the Fantastic Four comic book—and my love of that wacky, quirky, retro lettering that signals the World's Greatest Comic Magazine:


A thing of beauty. A joy forever.

On one of my many gleeful skips through the online treasure trove that is The Grand Comic Book Database, I found a few more examples of this font at work, but as opposed to my earlier examples, on non-Fantastic Four comics that celebrate the fury and the fun that is the FF not only in the logo but in parodying or pastiching famous FF covers.

The cover of the first issue Fantastic Four has been parodied or homaged dozens of times (a whole lotta them by John Byrne), but here's a cover that salutes not only the design but the logo of FF #1: last year's ultra-fun Fin Fang Four:


And when you're talking about fun comic books, you've got to include Alan Moore's genre-spanning Tom Strong series from ABC, which was to my little eyes one of the most gleeful celebrations of the joy and wonder of comics. Tom Strong referenced the FF logo not once but twice, adapting classic Kirby covers for Mister Strong and company, first in Tom Strong #15, substituting fire for water in a salute to the famous FF #4:


...and again in Tom Strong #21, homaging FF #26:


I know Mister Kirby was of two minds about referencing and homaging his work, but I hope he would have realized it's done out of respect and admiration in cases like these. Me, I just love any time anyone can adapt that 1960s Marvel design and those glorious bombastic caption boxes and jaggy-edged lettering to the modern day. Gotta love that "America's Best Comics" line at the top of the page!

Tom Strong referenced many, many different historical comics logos and covers in its run. Possibly I'll run 'em down some day in this blog, but for the moment my eyes are full of wonder and sparkle over these adaptations of my favorite comic book title logo. Excelsior to you, Fantastic Four logo...'nuff said, true believers!