Mortal Kombat’s Dragon Brand Was Virtually Scrapped

The enduring Mortal Kombat emblem was virtually scrapped as a result of designer and co-creator John Tobias’ sister thought it was a seahorse somewhat than a dragon. This tidbit of data was revealed by Tobias himself in an attention-grabbing 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 immediately.

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 a logo of our sport and its fictional event… (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 event’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 tune of the identical title, and Boon occurs to like the band. In reality, the colours talked about within the tune’s lyrics had been finally utilized in Mortal Kombat’s arcade cupboard design by Tobias.

So far as the dragon itself is worried, 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 complete thread is an attention-grabbing learn particularly when you’re a Mortal Kombat fan like me so make sure that to test it out!