The long-lasting Mortal Kombat emblem was virtually scrapped as a result of designer and co-creator John Tobias’ sister thought it was a seahorse fairly than a dragon. This tidbit of knowledge was revealed by Tobias himself in an fascinating Twitter thread during which he delved into the emblem’s historical past after discovering his very first drawing of it. The dragon was initially left-facing, with the developer later utilizing each right-facing and left-facing dragons. However for trademark functions, one needed to be picked, so Tobias went with the emblem we see at this time.
The story of Mortal Kombat emblem
Right here’s a lately found picture of the very first drawing of #MortalKombat’s dragon icon. I designed the icon as each an emblem of our sport and its fictional match… (thread) #MK30 pic.twitter.com/vVIDr4K9aP
— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
Tobias’ drawing above was digitized by Mortal Kombat artist John Vogel, and it was impressed by what may have been collection’ title had Ed Boon and Tobias not modified it. That title? Dragon Assault.
The inspiration to make use of a dragon because the fictional match’s image got here from “Dragon Assault,” which was in competition as our sport’s title earlier than @noobde and I modified it to “Mortal Kombat.” Right here’s my tough marker sketch of the marquee emblem… (3/9) pic.twitter.com/g3UY2X2boX
— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
Tobias didn’t say why the duo finally selected Mortal Kombat, however he did reveal that Dragon Assault was impressed by Queen’s track of the identical title, and Boon occurs to like the band. In truth, the colours talked about within the track’s lyrics have been finally utilized in Mortal Kombat’s arcade cupboard design by Tobias.
So far as the dragon itself is anxious, the inspiration got here from a golden dragon statue that Vogel noticed on the desk of Halfway’s normal supervisor, Ken Fedesna. That statue nonetheless exists.
Bonus Kontent: @noobde lately snapped a photograph of the particular dragon statue that we used… 30 years later! pic.twitter.com/scFTo4KAKZ
— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022
The total thread is an fascinating learn particularly in the event you’re a Mortal Kombat fan like me so be certain to test it out!
