Creator Profile: Gaspar Saladino

Gaspar Saladino was a comic letterer and logo designer who worked actively in comics for 62 years. He lettered some of the most significant comic titles like Arkham Asylum and designed or redesigned Avengers, Green Lantern, Swamp Thing, Metal Man, House of Mystery, and others.

While studying at the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan he inked for Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc. comic book packager. After serving in the military, he sought employment with DC Comics and was hired as a letterer. During the early days of his career, he lettered Henry Boltinoff’s humor strips in Action Comics.

In the 1950s to 1960s he worked on DC editor Julius Schwartz’s titles like Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space, Justice League of America, The Flash, and Showcase. He lettered the first few issues of Warren Publishing’s Eerie in 1966. At that time, he was also taken off of the interior lettering to do almost all lettering on DC covers.

In the late ’60s he started freelancing for Marvel under the pseudonym L.P. Gregory, working on Iron Man, The Avengers, and Tales to Astonish. He also lettered the DC-Marvel crossover Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man in 1976 and lettered the special oversize Superman vs. Muhammad Ali.

When it comes to logos, Saladino designed the logos for DC’s Swamp Thing, Phantom Stranger, Metal Men, Adam Strange, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and Unknown Soldier. He redesigned character logos, such as Green Lantern, to give them more contemporary styles. For Marvel he created and updated logos for The Avengers, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Captain America and the Falcon, and Marvel Triple Action. He designed logos for all of Atlas Comics titles in 1974 and in the 1980s he designed logos for Neal Adams’ Continuity Comics and some for Eclipse Comics.