Gaspar Saladino

Gaspar Saladino, born September 1, 1927, spent more than six decades shaping the visual identity of American comic books through lettering and logo design. He died on August 4, 2016.

Working primarily for DC Comics from 1966 through the 1990s, Saladino became the hand behind an enormous range of cover lettering — logos, titles, captions, and word balloons — across some of the publisher's most enduring titles, including Justice League of America, Green Lantern, The Flash, The Brave and the Bold, G.I. Combat, and Hellblazer. His touch was so distinctive that he eventually dispensed with a surname professionally, signing his work simply as "Gaspar" in his trademark calligraphic hand — a rare distinction that speaks to how recognizable his style had become within the industry.

During the 1970s he also served as a "page-one letterer" for numerous Marvel Comics books, giving him an unusual cross-publisher presence at a time when such movement between the two major houses was uncommon.

Over a career spanning from roughly 1950 onward, Saladino contributed lettering and design work to more than two thousand issues. His influence on how readers experience the typographic texture of superhero comics — the weight of a title, the urgency of a caption box — remains quietly fundamental to the look of the medium's Silver and Bronze Age output.