The iconic Mortal Kombat dragon logo was was inspired by a prototype name originating from a Queen song

pcinvasion.com:

I grew up in the ’90s when games like Mortal Kombat started becoming popular. I recall playing the original Mortal Kombat for the first time on my Sega Genesis. It was pretty much love at first uppercut. From then on, whenever I saw that dragon logo I felt the warmth of its familiarity and the anticipation that someone was probably going to soon get cut in half. It was usually me. But where did that design come from? Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias recently took a trip down memory lane to talk about the creation of the dragon logo, and how it counts its inspirations among Queen.

Tobias not only provided a lengthy tale on its creation on Twitter, but he came prepped with the receipts. His Twitter thread is chock full of original design sketches of the dragon, as well as the prototype name and logo for Mortal Kombat. He shared early sketches of the game’s arcade cabinet, and more. Tobias also mentioned that the logo was nearly scrapped after his sister thought it looked like a seahorse.

And now that you mention it, it kind of does.

Side Note: I almost tossed the dragon icon sketch aside when I was at home working on it at my drafting table and my sister mistook the dragon for a seahorse ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/d1omW1as1A

— John Tobias (@therealsaibot) September 22, 2022

But to circle back to the question: from where did the logo originate? In its early stages, Mortal Kombat was called ‘Dragon Attack,’ named after a 1980 song by the rock group Queen. It was changed later to Mortal Kombat by Tobias and the game’s other co-creator, Ed Boon. However, the duo needed a recognizable logo for their blossoming fighter franchise, something “like Superman’s ‘S’ or Batman’s bat symbol,” Tobias wrote.

The dragon’s design