Trying to find the exact font from this vintage “MONGKLIKE” tee. Checked all dripping styles (Nosifer, Melted Monster, etc.) — none match. Any leads?

Question

I’m trying to identify the exact font used on this vintage T-shirt design that spells “MONGO CLIKKE.” I’ve already checked most of the dripping or melting-style fonts (Nosifer, Melted Monster, Drip October, etc.), but none of them match the unique letter shapes — especially the “O” and “G.”

 

It might be a custom hand-drawn design, but before assuming that, I’d love to know if anyone recognizes it from an old typeface, logo font, or a limited release from the late 80s or early 90s.

 

Any insight, reference, or historical background would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance for taking the time to look!

Comments

According to Last.fm, “The Mongo Clikke (MC) was a collective of Hamburg-based hip hop artists which existed from 1997 to 2000.” so I’m assuming this shirt was from that period?

Answer 1

It’s not a match, but this has a lot in common with Creeper, an early digital font with an unknown origin. Many SWFTE fonts were copied from Solotype (which were usually also copied from other sources) and other printed source books. A similar font that is readily available for licensing is Creepy.

Comments

Another digital variation is PostCrypt, also of unknown origin. 

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Over on Fonts In Use, we had pages for both Creeper and PostCrypt (which weren’t linked).
I have used this opportunity to dig a little deeper. Both versions are now consolidated under what appears to be the original name: Crypt was around by 1991 and originated at software company MacroMind, Inc.

 

I haven’t seen a phototype version of this design, and it’s not included in the 1992 Solotype catalog.

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Thank you! I knew there must be more to the story.

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Thanks so much, everyone, for the super quick reply. With your help, we’ve been able to trace the Crypt back to ’84 — it was originally produced for Apple. Creeper then became Crypt and later Post Crypt — basically identical, just from different companies.

 

By any chance, could you also help me out with the crown? Do you know if it comes from any of the Wingdings or Webdings libraries? It doesn’t seem like it was custom-designed.

 

Really appreciate all the insight you’re sharing — love how deep this community goes.