This new feature got such a great response, I’m going to make it a little bit more frequent than once a week. If you’re wondering what We’ve Been Framed is, it’s simple. It is a new feature where we will showcase Mondo posters framed in fan’s homes, offices, screening rooms, etc. A lot of times, people just see the poster images on our site, so this is an attempt to show them in “the wild.”
Today’s poster is the now sold out NIGHT OF THE CREEPS from Dalyn. If you look closely, you can see where some of the cast signed this poster including Tom “Thrill Me” Atkins. Looks good, Dalyn!
If you’d like to see your framed poster on the blog, shoot me pics at Justin (at) MondoTees.com.
With the awesome email I got from Craig and his 100th Alamo poster purchase, I thought it’d be cool to feature other fans and pictures of their framed Mondo posters. I put out a call for framed poster pics on our Twitter and got some great ones! This will be a weekly series so keep them coming!
The first installment of We’ve Been Framed comes from Jamie and features our poster for SPINAL TAP.
This poster came out looking great with the metallic silver ink and looks amazing framed. Thanks, Jamie!
If you’d like to send in any pictures of your framed posters, shoot me an email at Justin (at) MondoTees.com.
Last Sunday, I got an email from super fan Chad Breshears who informed me that he had hit a milestone in his poster collection. With the purchase of the IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS poster, he had purchased 100 posters from us since our humble beginnings so many years ago. Chad has also assembled a website of his collection and dedicated a page for his Alamo collection. Take a look at it HERE.
It’s really interesting to look at how the poster series has evolved over the years. Take METROPOLIS for example:
METROPOLIS 1998
METROPOLIS- GOLD VARIANT 2009
I want to make this a recurring thing on the blog, so if you have framed any of our posters in your house, apartment, office, screening room, or wherever, send an email to Justin (at) MondoTees.com. I really loving seeing what people have done with them and I will feature them on the blog. Thanks so much for the support over the years, everyone!
I attended the opening of the Masters of the Universe art show at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles recently, and there was a long line of people waiting inside to get a glimpse at 100 different artists’ interpretations of He-Man, Battlecat, Skeletor, and even Orko. What was my personal favorite? The girnormous mouth of Castle Greyskull. I’m not sure if that thing was for sale or not, but that would make the coolest fireplace ever. The show runs until January 29th, so if you’re in Los Angeles, check it out. I revisited the gallery yesterday, and it was a lot less crowded. Given the monsoon levels of precipitation LA has had recently, this is a perfect rainy day activity.
Just be warned that stopping by can be hazardous to your health. I ended up picking up a Goonies Never Say Die and a Pee Wee’s Big Adventure print by Dave Perillo from their Crazy 4 Cult show back in 2009. They have a wealth of prints available from the MOTU show, and earlier stuff, so buyer beware. Your wallet has the power.
We talk about VHS quite a bit here on the blog and today, I’m very excited to review the new VHS for HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Yes….I said that and I can hardly believe it myself. I’m reviewing a new release VHS!
There are a lot of “throwback” products these days. Lunchboxes, toys, t-shirts with the worn look, etc. Most of them are complete trash, so I’m really going to put the screws to this. I’m actually going to go into my collection and pull some VHS out from that era and compare them to the HOUSE OF THE DEVIL release. Let’s see what we find, shall we?
FRONT COVER
VHS tapes have a long history of amazing covers. Entire books have been written about them and movies were even banned in the UK based just off the imagery on the covers alone(called Video Nasties). To this day, artwork is a MAJOR part of what makes people rent or buy your film. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL understood that and made some of the best poster and box art I’ve seen in a long time. It was even recognized as having the best horror poster of 2009 in Rue Morgue magazine. I really appreciate the fact that they didn’t try to make the art EXTREME or SHOCKING. The people that did this must have a real knowledge and love for the genre.
The HOUSE OF THE DEVIL VHS is packaged in a white clamshell VHS box and has faux weathering on it which I normally despise, but it really works for this project. They added a cool “New Release” sticker on the box like so many other VHS in my collection have, too. Even though they reused the poster art (great choice) the format and layout of the box totally works. They kept everything really simple, didn’t over think it and it came out great.
Here is the VHS next to another big box of DOCTOR GORE. Notice the real wear at the top of DOCTOR GORE compared to the “wear” at the top of HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. From the pictures and even in person, you’d never tell it was designed that way.
Here it is compared to the HALLOWEEN rip-off, THE NIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN. It totally matches the feel and tone of the old VHS. So far, so good.
BACK COVER
The back cover is inspired as well. There are lots of different styles for back covers and they went with text only which I kind of prefer. Some of my favorite big box VHS’ have went this route, too. Many tapes went with the notion of more is better and threw a shitload of images on the back cover of monsters and women. Don’t get me wrong, that’s cool and all, but I much prefer the simpler text. Also, click on the image to zoom in and read the write up. It’s pretty incredible. There are actually some write ups simliar to this that actually give away the entire movie. So much so, that it will end with a line like, “Then Jim killed the demon and got into his car and rode away. The End.”
As you can see, the back cover is almost exactly like the back cover of DEATH DREAM (minus UPC code). It’s also worth mentioning that they were both released by Gorgon Video which was one of the biggest distributors back in the day. Gorgon still carries a lot of weight and get lots of respect from cinephiles and VHS nerds. I thought that they might’ve put the Gorgon logo on the new tape as an homage, but I think it’s an official release.
ACTUAL VHS
It’s uncanny! I keep on looking for something they slacked on with this and I can’t find it. IT’S JUST NOT THERE. Even the inner label has been recreated EXACTLY, just inversed.
The video played fine all the way through. I was kind of terrified by the thought of them adding in tracking issues or making the image all fucked up, but thankfully, they didn’t. The video is clean. Speaking of Gorgon Video, they even put the old, AMAZING animated Gorgon intro before the movie. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the video:
I don’t know about you, but watching that TOTALLY puts me in the mood to watch a movie like HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. The only thing better than the Gorgon Video intro was the 80′s HBO intro. I swear to you that the music in the HBO intro is WAY more inspiring than anything in ROCKY. I want it played at my wedding, funeral and at any other major even in my life. Rant over.
SPINE
When I pulled it out of the package this afternoon, the first thing I thought was, how will this look next to other titles on the shelf? Observe:
It’s totally legit. I guess if I had a bitch at all about the VHS, it’s that I would’ve liked to see the Gorgon logo on the back of the tape instead of the spine, but that’s like saying I’d like 2 cherries on my sundae instead of just 1. The fact that I’m reviewing a new release VHS in 2010 has not been lost on me. It’s kinda unbelievable this exists. The final test…this VHS in with the general population!
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a dream come true. I did NOT expect this thing to be as quality as it is. From it being a Gorgon release to the design to the goddamn inner label, this thing is perfect. You’ve seen the pics….it totally goes toe to toe with almost any video in my collection and it looks great on the shelf. I hope they sell a billion of these so that maybe Gorgon can start putting out limited runs of VHS tapes for movies in the old style. I know I’d buy them. If MOON came out on VHS with a cool sci-fi case or something like that, I’m in line. Speaking of selling a billion, you can help with that. We’ve actually had a lot of people asking where they can get one and I just looked on Amazon and you can get the DVD and this VHS for only $23.99. Click HERE to buy. That’s pretty nuts. A truly great deal.
Seriously, even if you don’t have a VCR, be ironic and buy this….this is one of my favorite things this year, for sure.
Poster by Tyler Stout. 24″x 36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 450. $40
THE MONSTER SQUAD VARIANT
Poster by Tyler Stout. 24″x 36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 120. $80
Tyler Stout is back with this amazing poster to the 80′s classic, THE MONSTER SQUAD. Last weekend, the Alamo Drafthouse screened the film with cast members in attendance including writer/director Fred Dekker. During the Q and A session, Fred Dekker proclaimed that this poster was the best piece of art ever created for the film! High praise indeed considering the original THE MONSTER SQUAD posters are beautiful themselves.
We have very limited numbers of these posters left, so buy now!
We also printed up a special batch of the shirt Andre Gower wore in the movie. These are printed on super soft American Apparel shirts. Supplies are limited as we almost sold out of these at last week’s show.
UPDATE: About a minute after this post went live, the 9:50pm screening SOLD OUT.
Tomorrow at the Ritz on 6th St., THE MONSTER SQUAD will be screening with cast members in attendance. Who you ask? How about:
Director of THE MONSTER SQUAD, Fred Dekker
Writer, Shane Black
The leader of the Monster Squad, Andre Gower
The Wolfman, Jon Gries
“Toughest Kid in the 8th Grade” Rudy, Ryan Lambert
Not only will all of these dudes be there, but we will have the classic STEPHEN KING RULES shirts for sale and a brand new THE MONSTER SQUAD poster for sale. You definitely want to attend this. If you don’t have tickets yet, get on it! The 9:50pm show still has slots open so click HERE and get to purchasing!
This is great- Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ from the perspective of the Thing:
I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front.
I am being Copper. I am rising from the dead.
I am being Childs. I am guarding the main entrance.
The names dont matter. They are placeholders, nothing more; all biomass is interchangeable. What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else.
I see myself through the window, loping through the storm, wearing Blair. MacReady has told me to burn Blair if he comes back alone, but MacReady still thinks I am one of him. I am not: I am being Blair, and I am at the door. I am being Childs, and I let myself in. I take brief communion, tendrils writhing forth from my faces, intertwining: I am BlairChilds, exchanging news of the world.
(What do you guys think about the recent news that a prequel is in the works? I will admit that my reaction was a stream of angry expletives, but I was shortly after distracted by the fact that a Dune movie is being made by the guy who made District 13. Maybe they’ll get rid of all that pesky orating and political subtext and just have a bunch of people ninja flipping off sandworms and porn stars feeding people their underwear.)
We are very happy to be releasing a new, limited edition screen printed poster for the legendary Terry Gilliam’s newest film THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS.
When thinking about what artist we would tap to illustrate this poster, we had to keep several things in mind. Not only did we need someone that could compose an image that was wondrous and full of imagination, like Terry Gilliam’s films, but it had to be simply put…beautiful. THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS is most definitely all of those things and the poster we produced for the film had to match. Enter: Martin Ansin. Martin has done a few posters for us so far and he is quickly becoming one of Mondo’s go-to guys. His poster definitely captures the spectacle and luster of Gilliam’s latest.
Poster by Martin Ansin. 24″x36″ screen print. Printed on special speckletone paper. 6 colors. Hand numbered. Edition of 150. $35
The Alamo will be showing this film starting this Friday, January 8th. Click HERE for showtimes. If you don’t live in Austin and would like to find a showtime near you, click HERE.
