A Pop Culture Feature
An industry gold standard was established in 1982 when the guide was released, revealing the marketing expertise and work of art the DC brand has always been known for. This hardback is a timeless piece and proof of the superpower of our heroes.
Alert! 1982 called, and it wants its style guide back! In the early 80s, under the leadership of Jennette Khan, then president of DC Comics, took an unprecedented level of commitment and control in the licensing of its brand and iconic properties. For the first time in its nearly 50-year history, establishing a consistent “look and feel” across all licensing became a priority. To keep it all unified, the DC COMICS Style Guide was created to provide the marketing language to all affiliates looking to profit from the DC heroes and villains.
It was one of the first of its kind in the industry, and quickly realized its potential. Khan always championed and believed in the collective power of the DC brand. As an interest in the properties became increasingly popular across all mediums, specific quality control parameters had to be maintained. The style guide was the ultimate lookbook and bible that provided the guidance necessary to keep the looks, approximate sizing, proportions, and colors of not only the main DC Comics trinity of heroes but also significant IPs, including villains, sidekicks, and title art.
The original book was produced as a looseleaf binder, then populated with dividers and art pages. The legendary José Luis García-López was recruited to provide the pencil art that Dick Giordano would finish. The pair were long-established and in a league among their contemporaries. Their clean approach and lines provided the perfect standard rendition of DC heroes, including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and many of their supporting cast members and arch nemesis. “The Big Three” serves as the cornerstone of the Style Guide.
Bound to be a hit!
Carefully curated and combed over, the editors of Standard Manuals, who released the 2024 version, carefully scanned pages from the original volume (there weren’t very many left intact) to restore the book to its full beauty. The cover image was grabbed from one of two surviving binder covers and properly scanned to its all-new glory for this hardcover commemorative release. The entries for the primary three heroes at the center of the DC pantheon and the rest of the Justice League, The Marvel Family, and The New Teen Titans are also relevantly featured.
Although the Style Guide effectively captures a snapshot of DC in the early eighties and most significantly before the advent of the publishing-wide reboot of the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline that would revamp many of the key players, it still is a feat of marketing achievement and artistry with images that remain till this day components of much reverence among fans and artists alike. Superman’s ¾ red cape was an interesting novelty. Still, it was the mainstay length of the character’s signature look until John Byrne subtly redesigned him and gave him an imperial-sized cloak.
Cosmetically, Batman’s lines and lengths have remained the truest over the decades, with most of his enhancements coming from details admonished onto his suit that have evolved into the Kevlar defining of his armor. The most significant change came in the new millennium when Wonder Woman was elevated from wearing a largely ornate one-piece bathing suit and adorned in full practical battle armor to emerge a proper mythological warrior. Her star-spangled suit remains iconic, but the suit that has become more recently associated with the heroine is far more forward-appropriate.
The Style Guide is far more than nostalgia in abundance, especially given the inclusion of promotional art that was suited to the popular “Super Powers” Collection toy release and the characters crafted for that line; it sets the benchmark by which all superhero properties would be weighed and measured up to. DC established itself as a pop-culture art form, laid the roadmap for its competitors to level up, and, with a fully realized style guide, provided a framework to illustrate its marketing superpowers. The DC Style Guide was replicated in limited quantities and sold exclusively on shop.DC.com
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