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Batman has been around since the late 1930's and has since underwent many changes to fit various decades. Artistic tastes change over time, and characters either change with those tastes or are retired. Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child was 2019's big change to the bat formula, and this is reflected in the various covers for the book. In this post I'll be discussing the Future is Young cover, which is one of two cancelled covers for the US release of the book. This cover ignored a lot of comic traditions. You'll notice the words "Batman" and "Dark Knight Returns" are noticeable absent. It's possible these would have been added to an unseen lower portion of the image, but regardless the priority here wasn't placed on the characters or the company that owns them. The new DC logo, which was heavily marketed everywhere else, has been shrunken down and sent off to the corner. Focus instead was put on the tagline "the future is young" which has been colored in hot pink and cyan, no doubt to appeal to a younger demographic (13-20 something would be my guess). In order to really sell this "in your face" angle, they've filled in as much of the composition as possible. The left and right gutters would usually be left empty, but here have been filled in with the aforementioned hot pink and merged together with the "future" text. While we're on the topic of gutters, I've got some issues with those. Mostly when it comes to the  "E" in future. The two cyan lines piercing that right side are distractingly off balance. The extend the E too much, and add too much focus to that top right corner. The designer could have made this more cohesive by only adding one cyan line extending out of the very bottom of the E, instead of two extending from the arm/leg. It would fit more with the  Y and G lines in young, and would move the reader's eye downward. Now on to the hierarchy. There's some tension on the "IS". On one hand, it takes up a third of the page but on the other, it's mostly obscured by Batwoman. This makes it slightly less readable, though the size still adds a great deal of certainty to the statement. I'd also like to mention that while Miller and Grampá's names are much larger than your average cover, the hairline strokes are still dwarfed by the bolder text. Suffice it to say, a lot of things make this a powerful cover. The colors, the unique layout, the way the word "young" merges with the figure, all of it are going towards differentiating this from anything else on the shelves, and capturing that younger audience. In fact, the message was a little too powerful. "The Future is Young" became a motto and a common tag in hong kong protests, to the point that DC was pressured into cancelling the cover. To DC's credit they didn't completely back down as the replacement cover featured Batwoman holding a molotov cocktail, however the infamous blue and pink text was noticeably absent.

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This cover was released for the US Hardcover edition and I can't say I love it. At least not as much as the cancelled covers. Don't get me wrong, this is pretty amazing work on the part of the illustrator, but the design is fairly standard affair. This is what you'd expect from an American comics cover. Full colors, all the main characters in some dramatic scene, a big bold company logo, and a title design that doesn't add all that much. It's the classic art deco DKR font which works great against a more flat background, but is shoved to the side when more complex colors become involved. If the previous Future is Young cover represented the embracing of rebelliousness, then this design would stand for a commitment to familiarity. This typeface was not used because it matched or uniquely contrasted with the subject matter, but rather because that's what the Dark Knight Returns series has always used. Moreover, you'll notice just how bright and bold the new DC Black Label logo is. The increase in branding and the use of the older type reflects the changing goals of DC. Initially, the plan was to make a striking statement, one that would surprise audiences both new and old. With this new cover, DC was hoping to simply maintain the older audience by relying on "iconic" imagery and design elements from the 1986 Dark Knight Returns.

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This edition was the French Hardcover edition, which notably features the book both in color and in black and white. I would consider this the middle ground between the Future is Young cover and the US HC edition. It's a striking image that stands out on shelves, but it still loudly echos the Dark Knight Returns design conventions. In this case though, the older elements don't feel at odds with the newer ones. This DKR title is the same used in the 10th anniversary book so it still pays homage to the original, but this feels more appropriate. The tight kerning, thins leading, and bolder lines leave less white space surrounding each letter, which compliments the heavy blacks of the illustration. The left alignment makes each word more distinct and readable. Even though the American cover has one less word, the single line arrangement makes it feel much longer, making each individual word less powerful. This cover also features one major typographical distinction from the others in that it's the only one that actually says "Batman". However, the designer has taken some steps to distance this from a boiler-plate Bat cover. The forms themselves aren't all that complex, they're not warped or bent to fit a bat shape, and they're not in the upper center of the page. It's shifted to the right, but it's so bold that I don't have to force my eyes away from the illustration to read it. The binary approach of black/white very much aids in pairing these fonts. By stripping down and going with a simpler approach, the Urban Comics cover was able to increase the impact of each individual element, and communicated the "Bat" aspect of this book better than the American one.

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I love Nameless. Chris Burnham and Grant Morrison were able to create one of the strangest, most terrifyingly detailed comics of all time. It can be oppressively gray and brutalist one moment, and brain meltingly vibrant the next, and moreover it all feels natural. But you wouldn’t know that from the cover. The illustration is a little too tame and bland considering the contents of the book, but the real kicker is the title. It’s chunky and uneven, and the color/texture choices are baffling. Nameless is many things, but puke brown/green is not one of them. I have no idea why the designer chose to go in this direction. It’s too cartoonish to be taken seriously, but it’s too bland looking to really contrast with anything. The rough stroked and brown tones create an inappropriate distressed feeling. If this had been brighter and built up with more curves, the piece would have been successful but as of now it’s distracting.

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This title far exceeds the level of polish expected of an indie comic/zine. Most importantly though, it feels like an extension of the drawing itself. It follows the same balance of thin lines and spot blacks, but the perspective pops it off the page. The border is what sells this logo. There are enough bumps and divots to show how the black changes with the contours of each letter, but it still remains such a solid shape that it pulls attention.

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I have complicated feelings about this version of the Ascender title. On one hand, it can't be stated how much this cover would stand out on the shelved, and that is in no small part due to the designer's embrace of the negative space. A lesser cover would have moved the text to the lower end of the composition and set it in black. Yes, this would have been "bold" and would have introduced more contrast, but it would have made the excessively white illustration seem lazy, and would have irreparably altered the tone of the piece. So for committing to the "white album" approach, I commend them. My issues lie more with the balance of specific characters. Particularly with the S and C. The amount of weight the add at the cap height is a little distracting. Instead, I believe the designer could have created another ligature (merging at the spine rather than just the beak) or perhaps avoided extending the C. Regardless of what approach is taken, the beak extension should be scaled back.

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I'm aware this isn't entirely based in english typography, but the principles demonstrated here still feel notable. The text is so large on this piece that it completely borders/structures the rest of the image. Certain pieces would work fine without type, often times various pieces are designed independently from one another, but this piece was clearly designed with this structure in mind. Not only are the blocky pink letters the largest elements on the page, bur they intrude from the white space into the images. Rarely do I see the hierarchy arranged with text elements above illustrations/stills.

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The kerning and color here are what really pull the weight of this piece. The fire is obviously a light source, and since the text is the exact same shade of blue, it looks like the title is glowing even without any other text effects. This was a really simple way to add a lot of depth to the piece  As seen in the french Golden Child post, I'm a sucker for ligature based titles, and it's certainly become a type trend in 2020. Even though the letters are mashed together in a way that obscures most of their silhouettes, the counters and gaps between stems give enough info to identify individual characters.

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The lines here very much remind me of the thinner variation of the "Alien" typeface. However the crossbar of the "A" and the stem of the "R" are noticeably absent. These thin strokes and amputated letters contribute to the minimalist nature of this piece, and compliment the thin orange/red line snaking its way through the flower. These stripped down letterforms work because they're close enough to the original character to read immediately, but alien enough to be unique. I acknowledge this isn't a unique design choice, but I feel it works especially well here. The modern touch is also heavily assisted by the rebelliously hot pink against the desaturated green background.

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At first the viewer will likely see this logo and think of it as a random series of shapes, rather than the carefully arranged group of letters that it is. And no one can be faulted for that, the designer was clearly pushing this logo toward the abstract end of the spectrum.  It's almost as if the letters are camouflaged, and I see a few things contributing to this. The indented stems of the H conform to the angle of the W, implying that these shapes are more intertwined than three letters would regularly be. The line weight of the upper half of the H has been borrowed by the upper left section of the W, further merging these characters together. Decisions like this make the beginning and end of each character slightly more difficult to spot. The contour of the logo is completely changed by the extension of the H's crossbar. It snakes its way through the piece, leaving no room for the readers eye to pause. Consequently, the letters are read one shape rather than three.

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I look at this text in almost the same light as the HWA piece. This one is obviously more readable as the letters aren't blended to the same extent, but they've got roughly the same goal and similar methods of accomplishing said goal. The A's extended stroke is fulfilling the same role the HWA crossbar did. However it's important to note that it isn't simply merging the figures. This text is arranged diagonally and with characters of varying heights. The stroke of the A plays a big part in giving this piece unity, and it gives direction to the viewers eye. And while we're on the topic of unity, it feels important to note the inverted yet parallel crossbar used in the E and A. Not only does this repetitive structure proved an easy resting place for the eye, but it creates an interesting spiral pattern. In short, the arrangement of the EAR, along with the various extensions on each character, create new and interesting contours.

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A few things really grabbed my attention here. The designer added some anatomical quirks to a few of these characters. The tail of the Q now begins just below the meanline which it briefly meets before descending to the usual placement of the tail. This tail serves as a perfect guide for the readers eye, as at carries the view to the bottom of the next character. To create a slightly more interesting silhouette, the designer placed the densest parts of the stroke on the diagonal edges of the Q. This slope aids in pulling the readers eye downward, toward the tail, and onto the next letter. It would be criminal if I didn't address the melted crossbar of the A. This slope somewhat mirrors the apex of the character, dramatically changing the weight and direction of the figure without rendering it unrecognizable. This curved crossbar directs more effectively guides the eye than the standard perpendicular one.

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A lot is working here. This piece places somewhere in the middle of the HWA/Ghostemane spectrum. The "modern" text itself has been manipulated and distorted but the boldness makes it fairly clear. It's "Love" that complicates things (which feels very appropriate). It didn't just take me a moment to make out what that said, it took many. Only at the time of writing this have I quite deciphered it. I think this is the result of the designer mixing both incredibly dense black lines with hairline strokes. This uneasy combination makes it impossible to identify the letters of both words at the same time. I say all this as a reminder to myself that readability is doesn't necessarily dictate quality, and vice versa.

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Out of HWA, EAR, and Modern, I believe this piece is the least readable. It's quite clear though that legibility was not the goal of the designer. Jota Cravo's type is often used on posters and T-shirts, and more often than not is meant to compliment his illustration rather than spell anything out for you. Obviously type is always meant to complement a piece, but Cravo has fully committed to that principle. His logos stand as illustrations of their own. A big part of this is the symmetry of his work. It's a busy piece with lots of spiked structures poking out of or piercing each character.

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The No Guns Live volume 1 cover feels like a perfect example of how type can massively impact the tone of a work. The colorist of the illustration went for a cool grey/brown color scheme. On it's own, that would make the piece fairly serious in the same vein as the usual grim comic cover. The rough strokes, shark angles, and off kilter angle of the text add a palpable energy to this cover. The descending strokes going toward the baseline look as if they're stabbing at the bottom of the piece. The energetic tone is really brought out by the hot pink. It's a color so disparate to the rest of the piece that it completely takes hold of the mood. The "hot pink against a serious background" has been around for quite some time, and is especially prevalent in cyberpunk, but is nonetheless effective. Unlike the Nameless cover, No Guns Life uses strong contrasting text to inform the reader of tone the content within the book.

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The direction of this text is what drew me in. The staircase of the "illai" could have easily become too contrived, but the repetition of the "i" and "l" provide enough consistency to avoid a word jumble. This staircase moves the eye from the vertex of the V up to the top of the flipped N's stem. The symmetrical arrows of the V/N create a very distinct arrowe shape, which makes this logo all the more memorable. It can be read as pulling movement downward to the text, or exploding outward to the illustration.

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There is so much happening and so little at the same time, and it very much depends on where your eye is resting on the piece. This single letter is so large that the designer was able to densely pack it with complexity. When focusing on the white space inside the counters or outside the letter itself, it's easy for the grey and white pattern to fade away. The design that makes up each bowl is unidentifiable. Is it floral? Marine? Are they eyes? Is this something microscopic? Some mixture? It sparks all sorts of questions and gives no answers. Even more unorthodox are the perpendicular counters, which go in stark contrast to the fluid and scratchy forms surrounding them.

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The font itself is a relatively proper one. Not too fancy in and of itself, but certainly not casual either. I just think this is an interesting exercise in how the texture of a typeface can change its mood. The blotchiness of each letter would usually evoke a type writer, but the vertical placement and yellow/brown color scheme completely change the mood from a classic sort of antiquated to rusted obsolescence.

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That colored diagonal feels like a simple way to add variety to some very simple looking type, and the pink GE also help blend the text with the rest of the piece. Using a plain font (as opposed to something aggressive/militaristic) on the leg of the suit works really well in changing the expected tone, just like the pink in the rest of the image did. You wouldn't expect such soft elements to work with a big death robot, but when there's enough of those soft elements they can change the tone of the entire work.

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I'm a big fan of comic zine culture. Despite its many faults, I think it's a medium that can offer a lot to smaller creators. The unpolished yet still clean look is a hard one to pull off, but I think this visions of light text does it fairly well. Admittedly there are some problems, and while I think they're almost unavoidable with this kind of work, they're still notable. For something thrown together by hand, the kerning is fairly well done but I will say the space between L and I is a little wide, and it's making the gap between the I and G seem even wider. Pushing the L to the right would definitely help center the "Light" text a little more. The shaky linework is clearly a stylistic choice, but it does lead to instances of lines trailing off or doubling over one another. The O, second S, and G have particularly distracting errors that could easily be covered with a white gel pen. The G and N also exhibit a balance issue I often see when something is quickly hand written. The right stem of the N doesn't quite come as close to the base line as it should, and I believe this is because McCarthy drew the stroke first. Had he started with both stems, his measurement would have been more accurate. The spur of the G extends too far into the axis, at least when compared to the width of the stress. I think this would be permissible if the line width were corrected.

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Gotta learn how to warp text like that, it feels so natural yet surreal. In this case, the repetition coupled with the distortion quickly sells the idea that whatever we're reading isn't true. There are many worries. The light grey faded text implies that this message keeps repeating past the borders of this shirt, it just lies unseen.

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The curved crossbar of the A is a great way to move attention downward and into that thicker stroke. This feels like a very simple way to add some uniqueness to letterforms.

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This piece accomplishes a few things that I think are incredibly difficult even for seasoned artists. As far as design goes, it's managed to communicate chaos without going overboard. It's complex, turbulent, covered in all sorts of random shapes, and warped, yet nothing here feels out of place. Chaos is often conflated with messiness, and nothing about this feels messy. It's also a brilliant example of illumination. The green glow really fills out the space and gives mass to the rest of the type.

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While I think they've made these laundry pods look a little too much like food (they're literally called gelo, come on), I'm a big fan of the loop of the "g"

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I love Michael Deforge. He makes a lot of unorthodox decisions, and usually they pay off. I don't think this is one of those times. I'd say this is a total inverse of what I discussed in The Hostage. There's too much going on here, so much in fact that I didn't even know this was supposed to be text at first. And while that's not inherently a bad thing, playing with perception can be fun, this isn't appealing enough to stand as an illustration either.

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While there are some clunky areas (the "T" has a strange lump at its base) the designer did a fairly good job at evoking the cheesiness of the 70's. The yellow and earth tones especially seem right out of that era, and the curved decoration is authentic. The black text above the title feels too clean and out of place, but my guess is that was only added for marketing purposes.

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I'm still not entirely sure why Deforge didn't use this text on the cover as well. It sticks to his unconventional style, does some interesting things with color, yet it's still readable. It's not so abrasive as to be painful to look at. The colors are simple and they're the primary ones used in the cover and various graphic elements in the book.

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I'd say we've got another inverse of the Deforge piece. I see a lot of the same goals here, this one definitely isn't shooting for readability and is more using these letters as a design, but the clear lines and limited color pallet still make it pleasing to look at.