The Gold Key/Whitman logo for Super Goof, remained fairly consistent over the 19 years and #74-issue run of the title.
But, for ONE EXCEPTION... SUPER GOOF #46 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1978)...
...And it's peculiar attempt to simulate the SUPERMAN logo (in "Goofy-style"?).
And, speaking of "odd", the "Superman-style logo" sported by SUPER GOOF #46 was not even specifically designed for that particular cover...
...Because the cover was a REPRINT from SUPER GOOF #9 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: December, 1967)!
How or why this logo came to be - and the reason for its lasting for only one issue (...maybe DC raised an objection?) - is just another one of those things about Western Publishing that is forever lost to history!
SUPER GOOF #9 and 46 covers by Paul Murry.
Who drew the LOGO for SUPER GOOF #46 is anybody's guess!
4 comments:
Wow, good catch. I have all the Super Goof issues and never stopped to notice the unique logo on that issue. It really is quite well done. It really makes you wonder who had the idea and went to the trouble to draw it up.
It’s an interesting anomaly, Carl.
And the really strange part is why they would use a reprinted cover to debut it – when they could have just reprinted that particular cover “as-is”, save creating space for the intrusive UPC Code box – rather than have a new cover drawn up (new logo and all)? It not as if there weren’t plenty of new Super Goof covers being created at that time. Any of them could have presented the new, Superman-inspired logo.
The greater mystery is why go through the trouble (and presumed expense) of creating a new logo in the first place… and only use it ONCE? Unless, as noted, DC raised an objection. I’m sure there have been other comic book logos that were used only once – usually for special or one-shot issues, or in the earliest of days and the more stylized modern days – but I’m hard pressed to think of one for a regular series during the “classic era”, appearing only once, and never again.
Oh, and “very good catches” are easy to make when you are reorganizing your entire collection year-by-year, as I’ve been doing off-and-on since retiring. You continue to see things you never noticed before, and that’s what formed the basis for the “Adventures in Comic-Boxing” sub-series of posts.
An interesting find indeed! My guess would also be that some lawyer complained (not necessarily DC themselves; possibly just a paranoid Gold Key higher-up!). While a fun one-off, I have to say I'm glad they stuck with the classic Super Goof logo instead of transitioning to this one. The “lopsided” nature of this logo works for "Superman”, because “Super”, which ends up in the bigger font, is really the operative bit, while “Man” is not in and of itself that important. Clark Kent is "the SUPERman". But with Super Goof, it is at least as important that he's a goof as that he is “super”; so it'd be a mistake, branding-wise, for the default logo to make the "goof" part appear so much smaller than the "Super" part, and exile it to the far upper edge of the cover.
Achille:
You make a GREAT POINT about the ineffectiveness of this one-shot SUPER GOOF logo!
There was always “something” I didn’t much care for about the logo… And YOU hit it!
Yes, absolutely, the “GOOF” is what makes Super Goof unique… not the “SUPER”… and it is the “GOOF” part that is deemphasized by this experiment in parody.
Well done!
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