The WWF Scratch Logo and the Doodler's Mind

In November of 1997, The World Wrestling Federation changed their corporate logo to reflect the new "attitude" branding. They unveiled the new logo as part of their "try lacing my boots" campaign, reflecting the 90's obsession with "extremity," shock TV and a desperate attempt to secure a silver-bullet creative campaign to whoop their Atlanta-based rivals in the Monday Night ratings war.

Perhaps unknowingly, the company followed the oldest art-punk mantra: the best logos are those which can be reproduced with in any medium and with relative ease (i.e. a stick n' poke tattoo or spray painted beneath a freeway overpass.) Wrestling lore dictates that in one of those fabled writer's meetings between Vincent K. Mcmahon, Pat Patterson, and whichever creative cronies were on good terms with the Fed, someone hastily drew the logo on the side of a frosted beer mug with their finger. The rest is, as they say, history (or...fodder for a 10-part, marginally accurate docu-series on the WWE Network).

I shan't warble on the 90's wrestling boom or the famed Attitude Era. There's many before who've done it better. What I will say is the profound impact that scratch logo had on me as a 5th grader in suburban Kentucky. It was the first WWF logo I could accurate copy without a protractor and a knowledge of color theory and as much as I love that classic chrome logo, I just wasn't in possession of the artistic chops to make it a hand-drawn reality. Like punk, the proletariat genre that brought electrified rock n' roll to the disaffected masses of Thatcherite England and Reaganite America, so too did the Fed's new user-friendly insignia appeal to the lurid fancies of a budding adolescent hesher. "I can draw that," I thought. 

So I did. I drew that shit everywhere. On my desks and notebooks. On the bottom of my skateboard. In the dewey condensation of the family's Dodge Caravan. It was like a brand I could incorporate into myself. See "Attitude" was a concept I could get behind, even in the leafy expanses of a middle class existence, and this colorful world of pro wrestling promised a wealth of intellectual and creative fodder for my torrid mind. 

This scratch logo (and the programming behind it) promised a reckless abandonment of a stodgy, traditionalist past, rattling old-schoolers and conservative journalists to their gooey foundations. This "attitude" campaign leaped forward with the gleeful and irreverent spirit of one-upping the competition and car-crash entertainment and for all that negative press it got regarding its mysogyny and redneck ideologies...it all finally had a damn logo I could draw.

Murdercore Dogs of Detroit (Logo Power #10)

From Sold Out #10

"It's all their fault!" - Ted Bundy. 

The Flexual Predator (Logo Power #9)

All Seeing Eye

In honor of the fabled Flex/Violent Reaction tour which recently hit Yankee shores, I'm inclined to unearth this guy for the second installment of Flex-based logo discussions.

The show was great, somewhat sparsely attended, but that's what I'd really expect for a hardcore house show in suburban Salt Lake City that wasn't featuring any bands on the Reaper roster *sigh*. Obstruct opened, and I'd received their No Life 7" as part of a trade I'd completed. Rippers for certain and should be sought out by all.

Here's a crappy iPhone/Picstitch shot I got, courtesy of a small room, bad lighting, and my own criminal inability to take pictures that aren't awful. Still, it should showcase SOMETHING from that night.

Top: Violent RXN/Bottom: Walk in the red light w/ the Flex

Violent Reactions set rang perfect, the inclusion of the Cro-Mags "Don't Tread on Me," an obvious hit. City Streets is a damn good LP that you should seek out.

Before the Flex had set up, I'd spent some time in the garage shilling some old T-shirts and making conversation with the singer, mostly about wrestling in the UK. Turns out he was a big Ring of Honor fan, which endeared me to the band even more, and I bought a shirt. (As the picture indicates) they played in front of some red lights, creating an ultra sinister atmosphere, and when they covered "Kickback" by Breakdown, I absolutely saw someone get moshed into (and subsequently through) a wall. Suburban discipline.

This ain't a show review though, so I'll move on to the real "meat" of the matter (i.e. cartoons in hardcore). Skinheads appropriating HC iconography shouldn't raise any eyebrows, but I like the fact that this bloke's got an eyeball drawn on the back of his hand (symbolism there? IDK man), he's planting a Union Jack into a misproportioned globe and he's carrying what's either a boxcutter or a strange looking banana. Excellente. Flexual education. Flexual deviant. Flexual reproduction. God bless a band that opens themselves up to such seamless wordplay.

Confirmation Bias Fanzine (Logo Power #6)

The pile of cocaine kind of looks like a nacho smoking a joint. Don't act like you weren't thinking it.

Found this in the satirical Confirmation Bias zine (reviewed elsewhere on 'dis blog). Too adorable to pass up. A stylized depiction of the devil's lettuce trying to screw up hardcore for everyone. NOT ON MY WATCH.
Couldn't find a credit for the artist, but again, you can get the zine here.

In Effect Fanzine (Logo Power #5)

RE-BOOT? LOL

Another one taken from In Effect Fazine. It was a forward-thinking article about "HARDCORE ON THE NET."

Token Entry Buttcheek (Logo Power #4)

PINK THINGS?

This was taken from In Effect Fanzine #11. It appears to be some sort of alien skinhead, completely naked except for a pair of Doc Marten boots, a tribal-ish tattoo on his right arm and the Token Entry logo tattooed onto his left ass-cheek. It speaks for itself really.