Bongo Comics, the comics distribution arm of the vast Matt Groening media empire, is apparently redesigning most of its logos to be blander and textier, for inexplicable reasons. Take a gander:
The new Futurama logo sorta kinda mirrors the slanted, perspective-y logo being used for DVD releases of the Comedy Central seasons, so I guess that change makes sense. Replacing the iconic Groening-lettered Simpsons logo is just baffling, though, and the loss of the Bongo Comics Group badge in favor of text on a yellow box is a shame.
The first comic books to use these new logos hit the stands arrive in January 2012. They’re also bringing back the “Simpsons Illustrated” title – it was the title of a Simpsons magazine from the early 90’s featuring the first Simpsons comics – and using it for a new quarterly digest “featuring the best stories from the combined Simpsons comic titles.”
Ideally, Bongo should have used this opportunity to take a page from DC Comics’ “New 52” initiative and revamped all their series. You know, maybe make The Simpsons a little darker and grittier. Have the Bart Simpson series feature Bart as a teenager getting into Archie-esque shenanigans. Retcon Comic Book Guy and Professor Frink into Simpson relatives, so their repeated appearances seem less superfluous. Reimagine Futurama so it takes place in a steampunk era. Make a Maggie manga. The sky’s the limit!