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DC Comics Bringing Back The Old Logo? Revealed At San Diego Comic-Con

Last night DC Comics registered a new logo with the trademark office. And it looks remarkably like the old one. Are we all-in?

Back in May, I reported that at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, DC Comics would be revealing a new logo. I wrote "Bleeding Cool has heard the rumour that DC Comics is changing its logo again. It will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Currently that is intended to be announced during a panel at the show. However, the details are being kept such a secret that few even know what it looks like yet, just that it will still fit within the current DC logo dimensions. So let's see, shall we?"

Well, last night it seems DC Comics registered a new logo with the trademark office. But it looked remarkably familiar. Here is the registered logo, labelled "The mark consists of DC stylized letters on an angle in concentric outlined circles with 4 stars equal distance in the surrounding outer shaded circle."

It has been registered for "Motion picture films featuring comedy, drama, action, adventure and/or animation, and motion picture films for broadcast on television featuring comedy, drama, action, adventure and/or animation; digital versatile discs featuring music, comedy, drama, action, adventure, and/or animation; stereo headphones; CD ROM computer game discs; mouse pads; sunglasses and cases therefore; downloadable software for use in playing online computer games; downloadable computer game software; computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones; video and computer game programs; computer and video games which are designed for hardware platforms, namely, game consoles and personal computers; CD-ROM and digital versatile computer game discs and computer programs, namely, software linking digitized video and audio media to a global computer information network; downloadable audio-visual media content in the field of entertainment featuring animated motion pictures, television series, comedies, and dramas; downloadable publications in the nature of books featuring characters from animated, action adventure, comedy and/or drama features, comic books, children's books; cellular telephone accessories, namely, cellular telephone covers and cellular telephone face covers; smartphone battery chargers; holders adapted for mobile telephones and smartphones; downloadable computer game software for gaming machines, namely, slot machines and video lottery terminals; encoded magnetic cards, namely, cash cards; and decorative magnets"

Basically everything then. And it is pretty much the same logo known as DC Bullet designed by Milton Glazer that DC used between 1976 and 2005.. The corners seem to have been sharpened up a little. But it's not a refiling of the old lapsed logo, it's a new filing. Could DC actually be going to use the one DC logo that everyone loves as the actual DC logo going forward?

In 2011, Bleeding Cool first heard that DC was to change its 2005, and in 2012, Bleeding Cool scooped the look of new design. It replaced the DC Spin/DC Swoosh designed by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios from 2005, which itself replaced the DC Bullet designed by Milton Glazer from 1976. I was told, confidentially, that the 2012 logo was partially a result of a YouTube video two years previously of my then-five-year-old daughter Eve Johnston mocking the then-logo and calling it D.G. Comics. Or, at least, it was used as evidenced by those internally who wanted a change. Certainly, according to traffic records, that video was linked to by a lot of Warner Bros. board meetings at the time.

Then the logo changed again for DC Rebirth in 2016, courtesy of the Pentagram Design Agency. A return to elements of the DC Bullet, starting "The new DC logo is a mark that leverages over 80 years of heritage with an eye toward the future." But now is it time for another refresh already? It has been eight years I suppose, twice as long as the previous one lasted. And it is time for something… All In. Even if it looks like the old one that everyone actually likes.

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