08 Nov 2011

While inking a short 4-issue run on Marvel’s Heroes for Hire recently I added a familiar logo to a store sign in the background.  This was in the Spider-Island: HFH one-shot (Oct. ’11), page 12, panel one, with pencil art by Kyle Hotz, inks by myself (and background ink assistance by Enrique (Zeke) Savory, Jr.).

This practice has been done by artists forever, often to show tribute to classic artists by naming them (ie.”Kirby Bakery”) or to post logos or messages for fun or self-promotion, sometime even ambitious or controversial ones like Starlin’s ‘Cosmic Code Authority’ on the cover or negative remarks about an editor and I’m no exception in my body of work.  In this recent example, since Kyle listed a ‘Jemma Press’ on one sign, I added my non-profit on the adjacent one, slightly cropped by the smoke in the panel image.  Then it was a waiting game to see if copy of some kind would be placed over it (the story was done as a plot, not a script, so I didn’t know what lettering would be used).  Nothing was and now, the fanboy that I am, I can brag that we exist in Marvel Universe-616 (whether anyone cares will be a whole other matter).