# Explain the Punisher logo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685 "2015-09-11T17:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/1 "2015-09-11T17:27:06Z")
You know, the one that looks like a skull with some tentacle thingies hanging down. Looks more like a Cthulu thing to me. What’s the deal? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/2 "2015-09-11T17:28:00Z")
Tentacles -\> The top row of teeth. Very long teeth, but teeth nevertheless. No tentacles. Not even enough to make a Japanese school girl blush. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/3 "2015-09-11T17:31:34Z")
Besides being a clever way to stylize a skull, I think it’s also a logo that lends itself well to the chest proportions of a superhero in comic art - wide shoulders, narrow waist. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/4 "2015-09-11T17:32:19Z")
Could Mean you are going to die from a USA Trained Sniper from some branch of the armed services. Might also mean your family (including children) will be killed in front of you before you do. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/5 "2015-09-11T17:34:08Z")
[Interesting article here about the use of the logo among Shi’ite militias fighting ISIS.](http://time.com/3819227/punisher-iraq-isis/) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/6 "2015-09-11T17:36:34Z")
It’s a rodent/human hybrid? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/7 "2015-09-11T17:36:43Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Besides being a clever way to stylize a skull, I think it’s also a logo that lends itself well to the chest proportions of a superhero in comic art - wide shoulders, narrow waist. This is what I always thought too. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/8 "2015-09-11T18:00:23Z")
The teeth also started out as part of his ammo belt and evolved out from there. I would imagine it is difficult to do sit ups with that belt on. [![](http://blog.adlo.es/images/2006/12/01-ori.jpg) ](http://blog.adlo.es/images/2006/12/01-ori.jpg) [http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/title/spiderman\_amazing-7.html](http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/title/spiderman_amazing-7.html) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/9 "2015-09-11T18:05:33Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Besides being a clever way to stylize a skull, I think it’s also a logo that lends itself well to the chest proportions of a superhero in comic art - wide shoulders, narrow waist. I’m trying to remember this from my brother’s comic books some 25 years ago, but wasn’t the genesis of the skull logo when Frank Castle painted it on his body armor so that the bad guys would aim there, rather than somewhere he was unprotected, and the paint ran or something? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/10 "2015-09-11T18:13:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m trying to remember this from my brother’s comic books some 25 years ago, but wasn’t the genesis of the skull logo when Frank Castle painted it on his body armor so that the bad guys would aim there, rather than somewhere he was unprotected, and the paint ran or something? That was the explanation for Batman’s chest symbol offered by Frank Miller in _The Dark Knight Returns_. Not sure if the idea predated that comic, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been used by other writers since then. The runny paint thing was definitely not part of his original story: [this is what he looked like in his original appearance](http://www.spidervillain.com/Villains/Punisher/PunisherASM129.gif), and most of his comic incarnations are fairly close to that. ETA: The version with the modern looking skull are generally don’t look like running paint. They usually have pretty crisp lines. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/11 "2015-09-11T18:47:33Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Interesting article here about the use of the logo among Shi’ite militias fighting ISIS.](http://time.com/3819227/punisher-iraq-isis/) I really like the Punisher / Monster Energy Drink logo mashup on the one guy’s bulletproof vest. Well, for several different flavors of the word ‘like’ that is. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/12 "2015-09-11T18:55:46Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > You know, the one that looks like a skull with some tentacle thingies hanging down. Looks more like a Cthulu thing to me. > > What’s the deal? He serves Zoidberg? [Zoidberg - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoidberg) And, of course, in Googling Zoidberg Punisher I get this t-shirt: [http://www.redbubble.com/people/robotrobotrobot/works/11752369-why-not-punisher?p=t-shirt](http://www.redbubble.com/people/robotrobotrobot/works/11752369-why-not-punisher?p=t-shirt) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/13 "2015-09-11T19:54:40Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Tentacles -\> The top row of teeth. Very long teeth, but teeth nevertheless. Teeth? They don’t look like teeth to me. YMMV. So why long teeth? I saw the ammo belt. Was that an intentional incorporation, or accidental that became part of the expected image? > [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Could Mean you are going to die from a USA Trained Sniper from some branch of the armed services. > > Might also mean your family (including children) will be killed in front of you before you do. Thanks, but I’m not asking who uses the logo, I’m asking why the logo looks like it does. > [@Miller](#): > > [Interesting article here about the use of the logo among Shi’ite militias fighting ISIS.](http://time.com/3819227/punisher-iraq-isis/) Just watched “American Sniper”, so that’s how the image got there. It’s appropriately scary, and backed up by the US’s presence, so it was adopted as a symbol of fear and might. Congrats! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/14 "2015-09-11T20:03:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That was the explanation for Batman’s chest symbol offered by Frank Miller in _The Dark Knight Returns_. Not sure if the idea predated that comic, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been used by other writers since then. The runny paint thing was definitely not part of his original story: [this is what he looked like in his original appearance](http://www.spidervillain.com/Villains/Punisher/PunisherASM129.gif), and most of his comic incarnations are fairly close to that. ETA: The version with the modern looking skull are generally don’t look like running paint. They usually have pretty crisp lines. Ah… my brother had a copy of “The Dark Knight Returns” also, and he got it at about the same time as he got the Punisher comics… I’m almost certainly confusing the two stories. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-punisher-logo/730685/15 "2015-09-11T21:04:02Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Ah… my brother had a copy of “The Dark Knight Returns” also, and he got it at about the same time as he got the Punisher comics… I’m almost certainly confusing the two stories. Nah, Punny himself mentioned the “target” reason several times in his own titles.