Under Cover: The Little Box of Horse Laughs

A box set of four books published by Harlin Quist in 1977.

Each 16-page book is 3.75 inches / 9.5 centimeters square.

Patrick Couratin is the series designer.

The books are color-coded; below are the jackets.

Nestor by David McNeil and Henri Galeron

Ulysses by David McNeil and Brisepot

Jason by David McNeil and Nicole Claveloux

Nazareth by David McNeil and Tina Mercie

(Next post on Monday: American Film Theatre)

Lettering: The New Superadventure Colorforms Set

When I was at Continuity Associates, Neal Adams had the Colorforms account. In the early 1980s, he gave “The New Superadventure Colorforms Set” lettering and production work to me. The lettering, four figures of Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin and Batman, and the background were drawn separately; a photostat of each was made. The photostats of lettering and art were moved around to make the final composition, which was photostatted and delivered to Colorforms. Below is the final production art for the toy box; the border measures 10.25 by 13.25 inches / 26 by 33.7 centimeters.

Related Posts

Neal Adams’ Ring of the Nibelung

Neal Adams Monsters

The Dynamite 3-D Poster Book

Neal Adams in the 1940s and 1950s

Neal Adams’ Mercury Tracer Advertisements

(Next post on Monday: The Little Box of Horse Laughs)

Creator: Ed Benguiat

ED BENGUIAT

October 27 is his birthday.

 

Art Director & Studio News, November 1954

Reproduced in Art Direction, May 1963

 

Art Direction, September 1963

Art Direction, August 1964

Detail from U&lc, December 1977

Allan Haley reviewed ITC Benguiat in

Step-by-Step Graphics, November/December 1989.

Selected pages from the ITC typeface booklets.

Art Directors Club

U&lc Online

Wikipedia

The ITC diskette included a Type Designer Card. 

Further Reading

The New York Times
Ed Benguiat, a Master of Typography, Is Dead at 92

Rochester Institute of Technology

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Herb Lubalin, Part 1

Herb Lubalin, Part 2

Herb Lubalin, Part 3

Herb Lubalin, Part 4

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Herb Lubalin, Part 6

Herb Lubalin, Part 7

Herb Lubalin, Part 8

Herb Lubalin, Part 9

Herb Lubalin, Air Mail Stamps

Herb Lubalin, School Days

LSC, the Name Is Familiar

The Talkative Type

Herb Lubalin and the 37th Annual of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design

Lubalin, Smith, Carnase Typefaces

A Few Details About John Pistilli, Lettering Artist

 

Frank Bartuska

Toni Bonagura

Photo-Lettering Inc. Catalogs

Tom Carnase

Victor Caruso, Photo-Lettering Inc. and ITC

Tony Di Spigna

Peter Dom

Joel Kaden, Photo-Lettering Inc. and ITC

Vincent Pacella, Photo-Lettering Inc. and ITC

Tony Stan, Photo-Lettering Inc. and ITC

Tommy Thompson

Ah! Big Little Book

Photo-Lettering’s Decotypes

Psychedelitypes

Push Pin Studio in the Alphabet Thesaurus, Volume 3

(Updated December 23, 2025; next post on Monday: Superadventure Colorforms Set)

Anatomy of a Logo: Ironwolf

Around 10 o’clock in the morning on March 23, 1992, DC designer Robbin Brosterman called and offered the Ironwolf graphic novel logo to me. I accepted. The next day a two-page fax arrived. The first page was her cover layout and the second was an ad for the book with an Ironwolf logo by Todd Klein from 1987. (The book collected the three Ironwolf stories from the 1972 Weird Worlds issues 8, 9, and 10.) I called Robbin and we discussed the logo design. She wanted the logo to match the width of the box for the art. The lettering should be tall and condensed, and perhaps similar to black letter or with elements from Klein’s logo. On the fax, I made a note that sketches were due April 3.

On March 31, I began work on the logo. For one design I used Gothic Tuscan Pointed from Rob Roy Kelly’s 100 Wood Type Alphabets published by Dover. In place of the “W” I inverted the letter “M”, so almost all the vertical strokes were parallel. 

On tracing paper, I outlined the Gothic Tuscan font without the points on the baseline. The second sketch used the pointed elements of the logo in the ad. On the bottom sketch I stripped away most of the serifs and made the letters angular. Then I refined the sketches.

On April 2, a photocopy of the designs were faxed to Robbin. She called back and wanted to use design number two with some modifications: taller letters, new design for the “I” and more space at the top angled stroke of the “W”.

Later that day I made two photocopies of the design. I trimmed one of them and pasted it over the other; you can see where by the yellow rubber cement stains. I changed the ”I” and adjusted the height of the strokes in the “R” and “F”.

This design was faxed to Robbin and she approved it.

On April 9, I enlarged the design and carefully measured the the width and angle of the letter strokes in red.

I placed tracing paper over it and made more modifications. The width of the logo was constant with a significant change to the design of the “W”, minor changes to the “O”, “L”, and letterspacing adjustments.

I positioned the tracing on a light box then a sheet of LetraMax was placed over it. The inking was quick and easy.

Ironwolf: Fires of the Revolution was published August 1992. Robbin did a superb book and jacket design. The paperback edition was released April 1993.

At this year’s New York Comic Con, I saw Howard and returned some artwork I had misplaced. On the topic of digital tablets and smartphones he doesn’t care for them as a way to read comics. He said he’s a “page layout guy” and these digital devices obviate his skillset. A couple of days later, I recalled Norma Desmond’s line, “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small!”, from Sunset Boulevard: “Comics are big. It’s the screen that got small.” Of course, you could substitute movies, magazines, etc. for comics.

(Next post Saturday: Ed Benguiat)