For the most part, movie posters suck. At the studio level, images with disembodied heads, horribly photoshopped character collections or a man and a woman, back to back, with aw-shucks grins on their face have pretty much become the norm. Gone are the days of Drew Struzan or Saul Bass where a real artist used their talents to give a striking visual portrait of what a movie is about on a massive scale. Movie studios today think, “Put the star’s face on the poster and people will come.”
Then there’s Mondo. An offshoot of the Alamo Drafthouse, and best known for selling highly collectible, limited-edition movie posters, the company recently relocated to a brand new gallery gallery space in Austin, Texas. There Mitch Putnam, Justin Ishmael and Rob Jones (above) will continue curate and sell more posters. The company has gained an almost elitist reputation because supply and demand dictates the company is regularly is forced to alienate thousands of fans who are rabid for their work but unable to purchase it. And whether they like it or not, that hype is creating a groundswell for something new in the world of movie posters.
Mondo began as a T-shirt company, became primarily a poster company and, in recent months, has now expanded into VHS and vinyl. Just this month they officially entered the legitimate art scene by opening their own gallery. That gallery and a new documentary film on the subject of poster art, called Just Like Being There, simultaneously hit SXSW and gave just a hint at the next step in movie posters: the return of the art. Read More »
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2011 has been something of a banner year for Mondo. It brought the first work from legendary artists Drew Struzan and Shepard Fairey, the advent and expansion of the Mondo Mystery Movie, inclusion into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, licenses for DC Comics, Studio Ghibli, Pixar, Jurassic Park and much more. Now, they’ve decided to end this incredible year the same way it began – with Dracula.
Martin Ansin continues the Universal Monsters series Friday with his interpretation of the 1931 film Dracula, a film which was previously designed by Vania Zouravliov and Aaron Horkey way back in January but didn’t have the vampire himself on the poster. But that’s not all. In addition to a variant, there’s an even more limited piece that’s done on wood, shaped like a coffin. It’s insane. Oh, and a new Tom Whalen Disney piece called Two-Gun Mickey will also be released for counter programming. Check them all out after the jump. Read More »
An Olly Moss print release has become an event of epic proportions. Lines around the block, thousands of people manically mashing their F5 buttons, angry tweets from people who weren’t able to buy one. Moss is one of the most popular artists working today and, if you read /Film regularly, you’re aware of his incredible talents. Mondo has now put those talents to work on an even more exciting announcement. The poster boutique will start releasing posters for the gorgeous and influential films of Studio Ghibli and the first poster, by Moss, is for Hayao Miyazaki‘s classic My Neighbor Totoro. Totoro, along with many other Miyazaki and Ghibli films, are getting 35mm re-releases in theaters soon.
Check out Moss’ new poster, find out how to get one and read more about Mondo’s latest. Read More »
What’s better than seeing Steven Spielberg‘s classic action adventure film Jurassic Park on the big screen once again? Not knowing about it and getting an amazing, extremely limited edition poster to go along with it. Mondo, the poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse, had their second Mondo Mystery Movie Wednesday night and after weeks of speculation and misdirection (the website hinted at a sequel that ran 134 minutes), the film ended up being Jurassic Park. But not only was mystery movie Jurassic Park with a brand new poster, that poster – by Aaron Horkey – is the first in a series Mondo is doing themed around the film.
After the jump get a good look at this first-in-a-series that will only ever be sold (at retail cost at least) to tonight’s sold out audience. Read More »
Not only does Friday bring the opening of Cowboys & Aliens, Jon Favreau‘s latest film, it brings three brand new, limited edition posters based on the film from Mondo. The poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse teamed up with the Iron Man director to curate and art direct a series of posters based on the film and the results are wildly different and incredibly attractive. After the jump, check out the posters by Daniel Danger, Tom Whalen and Janée Meadows. Read More »
Monday, we exclusively premiered Mondo’s Tyler Stout posters for Captain America: The First Avenger. They were bold, brash, and exactly the kind of beautiful busy style we’ve come to expect from Stout. We also mentioned that, in addition to Stout’s Captain America posters, Mondo would be releasing additional Cap posters by /Film favorites, Eric Tan and Olly Moss. Besides being inspired by the same movie, the differences between Stout’s posters and these couldn’t be more significant. For one, Moss and Tan didn’t make movie posters. They each made a set of World War II propaganda posters, one for the Americans and one for Hydra. Which do you side with? Check out all the images and decide after the jump. Read More »
Mondo and Captain America: The First Avenger are taking over San Diego Comic-Con. The limited edition poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse, whose prints are now being archived by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has six brand new Cap themed posters: two by Eric Tan, two by Olly Moss and two by Tyler Stout.
One of the premiere poster artists on the market today, Stout’s detailed, jam-packed prints can go for upwards of $2,000 a piece and his art was recently used for the cover of Marvel’s Captain America: First Vengeance #4. Now he’s expanded that image into a jaw-dropping representation of the upcoming Joe Johnston film. Check out both images after the jump. Read More »
Paramount Pictures has a couple awesome projects in the works this week with Mondo. First up, on Wednesday, comic book stores everywhere will get in copies of Captain America: First Vengeance #4 with cover artwork by fan-favorite artist Tyler Stout. You can see a hint of that above. Then, they’ve teamed with artist Jesse Phillips to do posters for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Three thousand copies of the original will be handed out exclusively to attendees of special Tuesday June 28 screenings at Arclight Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA and a variant edition will be sold on @MondoNews Wednesday June 29. See images of all these pieces after the jump. Read More »
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