The World's Greatest Superheroes Part 8: The Gimmick Gang

He was broadly considered one of the greatest letterers in American comic books, and The World's Greatest Superheroes was lucky to have him. Despite not being included in the strip's credits, Gaspar Saladino's breezy and open lettering style is instantly recognizable, and serves to both elevate and ground the visual elements of the storytelling.

The Brooklyn-born Saladino boasted a career in comics which lasted well over half a century. In addition to having lettered tens of thousands of comics at DC and elsewhere, he was also a celebrated logo designer, Marvel's go-to guy for their iconic splash page design, omnipresent in DC's in-house ads, and the innovator of custom styling for individual word balloons (such as he did with Wein's and Wrightson's Swamp Thing). 

For all of his accolades, however, Saladino had never actually appeared in one of his comics -- or has he?

In this storyline from early 1980s, a criminal "Gimmick Gang" takes Metropolis by storm. Somehow, the crooked quartet manages to time their robberies to coincide with major disasters -- ensuring that Superman will be too busy to stop them! How can they predict deadly emergencies with such accuracy? Well, it seems that there may be a fifth member of the Gimmick Gang keeping track of breaking news -- and he's someone at the Daily Planet!

It's spoiling little to say that the mononymous Planet employee "Jaspar" immediately draws suspicion to himself as being the potential mole. And while I've never personally seen a photo of Saladino with a perm and Ron Mael mustache, it was 1980 and these things were known to happen. The nose is spot-on, though.

Also appearing in this story arc is one of those World's Greatest Superheroes we keep hearing about. Wonder Woman briefly shows up to take care of a mine disaster, freeing the Man of Steel to confront the Gimmick Gang once and for all!

08. The Gimmick Gang
(1980-03-14 to 1980-06-15)
Starring: Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Wonder Woman
Villains: The Gimmick Gang
Creative Team: Levitz, Tuska/Colletta, Saladino

* * *  To be continued  * * *