Today is a big one as we have two new offerings from a couple of heavy hitters…Martin Ansin and Ken Taylor!
First up, we have Ansin’s unbelievably beautiful poster for James Whale’s BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. This is the second poster in our official UNIVERSAL MONSTERS series and they just keep getting better.
Poster by Martin Ansin. 24″x36″ screen print w/ metallic inks. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 235. Click HERE to buy.
We also have this glow in the dark silver variant available!
Poster by Martin Ansin. 24″x36″ screen print w/ glow in the dark metallic inks. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 100. Click HERE to buy.
As always, Martin puts great care and a lot of thought into his designs. Here is what he had to say on his creation:
“The poster started while I was watching the film, and the reanimating-a-heart-on-a-plate scene came up. “We must be patient – the human heart is more complex than any other part of the body.” It just outlined the main theme of the movie for me. For the visuals, my main references were antique medical illustrations, which showed the right mix of science and gothic horror.”
Next up, we have Ken Taylor on the Richard Pryor print titled “Thank you. Good Evening! Hope I’m Funny.” Earlier this year, we here at Mondo got obsessed with Richard Pryor’s stand up and movies (BLUE COLLAR!) and wanted to do something to honor this legendary performer. The print features a contemplative Pryor with the background paying homage to Pryor’s most memorable stand up moments.
We got in touch with Pryor’s Planet and worked closely with company president Jennifer Pryor to make this happen. We will have several for sale here and Jennifer will also be getting a super limited micro run of these prints on wood. Keep an eye out on PRYOR’S PLANET for details on her release.
Poster by Ken Taylor. 18″x24″ screen print. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 160. Click HERE to buy.
Today is a very special day as Ray Harryhausen turns 90! Harryhausen is one of my favorite artists of all time, not just in cinema, but in any field. I became enamored with him like many other people when I was a child and before I moved down to Austin, attended several screenings with him in attendance in Kansas City where he brought all of his original models. It was such a thrill to be able to see them in person.
If you’ve been following Mondo the last year or so, you can definitely see how much we’re into him. We put out the CHILDREN OF THE HYDRA shirt and based the Medusa chandelier in the store off of his design.
I leave you with this video of EVERY creature Ray Harryhausen ever made in chronological order. Tonight, in his honor, I’ll be having a mini Harryhausen marathon!
The last BEHIND THE CURTAIN blog post we did caused about 70 comments or so and people seemed to really enjoy my frankness and honesty. Well, I’ve decided to go into that mode again and get real with all of you about how I release prints. You may be thinking, you release them online, what’s the big deal? I’m going to go through the process of how I actually put them up for sale so you can possibly improve your chances of getting your print of choice. I especially wanted to do this, not just for our current fanbase, but for the huge influx of people that just found out about us from the STAR WARS and STAR TREK announcements. Oh yeah, welcome everyone…we’ve got some great stuff lined up for in the coming year.
So, we have several ways of promoting/ announcing that a print is about to drop. As some of you have probably seen, we get covered by a lot of media sites…AICN, Chud, SlashFilm, I09, Twitch, Joblo, etc. Not counting any kind of reporting on our releases, we mainly use TWITTER, FACEBOOK and our NEWSLETTER to let people know that we’ve got something going on. Here is the order of how I do things. Take notes…this could definitely help you get an advantage over others in getting the print.
I always lead with a blast to our mailing list. I recommend clicking HERE and signing up for it. This will have links to the sale and info. We don’t ever do “spam” mailing list things that says like “Here’s what we’ve been doing!” or whatever. If you see an email from Mondo in your inbox, it’s most likely something going on sale. So, time wise, if you get an email from our mailing list on a sale, you will have about a 10-15 minute lead time on everyone else. If a print is going on sale at noon, it’ll probably hit your inbox at about 11:45 or 11:50. Obviously, the time of when the email hits your individual inbox varies, but it’ll be in that time range. So, step 1 to improve your chances of getting that print, sign up to our mailing list. It’ll be your new best friend.
I don’t know what I’d do without Twitter. I really love it. It’s a great way to get instant feedback on releases and it’s a great way to answer fan’s questions. You can always email us at Store@MondoTees.com to ask questions, but if there is something you need to know about store hours, edition size, whatever….hit me up on Twitter. I’m officially addicted to checking @replies and my email, so I’ll get back to you ASAP. Besides all of that, I tend to drop a lot of hints on the release times and often even show previews of what’s coming up. On the day of release, I will post a blog post here and then copy the link, go to Tweetdeck, paste it in there and Tweet it. So, besides watching the blog, following us on Twitter is a really good idea. Most of the info you absolutely need to know will hit Twitter.
I’ll be honest, I don’t use Facebook as much as I should. I’m working on utilizing it more, but if you fan us (or whatever it’s called now) on there, you will get the Tweets I make on Twitter about releases. No new content…basically just Twitter again on a different site. This is the third thing I post to when I’m releasing posters.
To recap, in order, this is how I do things when a print is about to drop:
1. Send out an email blast to our Mailing List about the sale. You have about 10-15 minute lead time.
2. Post blog about the sale and post it to Twitter.
3. Post the Tweet from Twitter to Facebook.
I hope this helps. I know life would be much easier if we could just post times on when stuff was going to drop, but we just can’t. With the traffic we get on release days and even with our crazy new servers, it’s too big of a risk. If the site crashes, nobody gets posters and it’s a bigger mess than just doing it this way. If you have any questions, as always, you can hit us up at Store@MondoTees.com or just reply in the comments. We’ve got some great stuff coming this week, so try these tips out on that and see if it goes any smoother on release days.
This last Friday, we had a get together at our shop in Austin, TX to celebrate the release of the first poster in our new STAR WARS poster series. We were joined by the 501st legion aka a Stormtrooper, Tusken Raider and a working R2-D2! We had a line forming at about 4pm and the first 5 people in line got vintage Gonk/ Power Droid figures!
I have to say that I’ve been to lots of conventions and have seen LOTS of costumes, but the ones the 501st were sporting were some of the best I’ve seen. Friend of Mondo, Gerald Lack, brought out his camera and his collection of Star Wars toys and had the guys pose with their smaller selves.
We were also treated to some Stormtrooper and Darth Vader cookies courtesy of Anna. So good even the Stormtrooper decided to get cannibalistic with them.
The night was amazing and we completely sold out of the Gonk poster. Thanks to all that made it possible and special thanks to the 501st and LucasFilm. We’re going to be releasing a new STAR WARS poster soon so keep an eye on this blog and our Twitter account for news. I leave you with more pictures from the party and a video of the amazing R2-D2 dancing.
UPDATE: The print is now sold out! Thanks to everyone who ordered one. We are very excited about this new series. This is just the beginning. If you missed out on the poster today, we will have some for sale tonight at the Mondo shop at 1120 S. Lamar Blvd. in Austin, TX. Super limited quantities.
Mondo is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with Lucasfilm LTD for a completely licensed and official STAR WARS poster series. We have been secretly working on this for over a year, but we are finally ready to unveil the first in a series of original, limited edition screen printed posters. First up in the series is Jeff Soto with a GNK Power Droid or, as he is known to most people, Gonk.
“Scrap Yard Power Droid” by Jeff Soto. 24″x36″ screen print. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 350. Click HERE to buy.
We asked Jeff to explain why he wanted his entry to be a power droid and here is what he had to say:
Star Wars was a pretty big deal for me as a kid. I was only 2 when the movie came out, and I can’t even remember if I saw it or not in the theater. The characters and story were known to many of us mainly from the toys! The toys! Oh they were wonderful, and we played with them for hours (and wore out the BEST and Sears catalogue)! One of my favorite action figures was the Power Droid, and I didn’t really know much about the little guy, but for some reason he (I pictured it being male for some reason) captivated my imagination. I realized at some time that he’s barely even in the movie, which added to his mystique. Over the years he functioned as the worn out, floppy-legged power supply for numerous Transformers, GI Joe’s and Construx. He is small and cute, and found a place in my childhood heart. I still have the little guy. This piece is an ode to the Power Droid!
Here are some images of the print in progress. This is truly an intense piece of art.
If you miss out on this online release and are in Austin, TX, come by our brick and mortar store at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. We will be having a release party starting at 5pm with copies of the poster for sale and will also be joined by the 501st Legion!
Last I heard, Stormtroopers, R2-D2, Tusken Raiders and several other characters would be in attendance! This is a very exciting time for Mondo and we’d love to see you all out tonight. If you have any questions about tonight or the series, feel free to email us at Store@MondoTees.com or respond in the comments. Thanks all for their support throughout the years as you all helped make this happen! If you want the quickest updates, sign up to our TWITTER account and our MAILING LIST.
P.S. Most people know that I’m a toy nut, so the first few people in line tomorrow night at the shop will be getting a vintage Gonk toy from my collection. Get there early!
As you might have heard, we just reopened our brand new shiny store with the release of the Tyler Stout IRON MAN 2 variant poster. In addition to online sales, we are going to begin having more and more release events at the shop. So, to kick our soon to be released new series properly, we will be having a party one week from today, June 25th, 2010 starting at 5pm. What is the poster we’ll be releasing? Can’t say. TOP SECRET. I’m not at liberty to give many hints, but I will say that it’s a project that has been long in development and the artist is someone we’ve never worked with before. We’re also incredibly proud of it. We’ll be releasing the poster at some point next week online and then we’ll have a limited amount at the release party. Feel free to speculate as to what you think it is, but I’m pretty sure everyone will be smiling when they catch a glimpse.
One of my favorite things in life is opening an email and seeing great art. Imagine the look on my face when we got this final image for the 2010 Fantastic Fest poster in.
This year’s art was provided by IRON MAN 2 poster artist, Mike Saputo and as you can see, it’s serious. This design gives nods to Lovecraft, the Cthulhu, Dr. Strange…all the things that matter in life.
This will be available at Fantastic Fest as a screen printed poster and we’re also working on shirts right now using elements from this. I don’t know about you, but I wish I had some Wait Mate to tide me over until September.
UPDATE: Both the regular and variant sold out in a little over an hour. Thanks for making this a very successful first release in our STAR TREK series of posters.
Mondo is proud to announce a new partnership with CBS and the beginning of a new poster series featuring the universe of STAR TREK. CBS has literally given us the keys to the TREK kingdom and we have free reign to do what we like with the world Gene Roddenberry created over 40 years ago. We felt that the first poster in the series had to feature one of the coolest villains ever to grace the TV or silver screen, Khan, played by the late Ricardo Montalban. We asked Martin Ansin to design the first poster and we think this is truly one of his best:
Poster by Martin Ansin. 24″x 36″ screen print w/ metallic ink. Hand numbered. Printed by D&L Screen Printing. Edition of 300. Click HERE to buy.
Martin put a lot of time and energy into this print and we asked him to give a little insight into what he was thinking as he designed the poster:
“I wanted the poster to work in a rational way, almost like a chart; many bits of information are shown as graphic elements…
In there you may find several references to the Space Seed episode: modified DNA, a shadowy hand that could take over the globe, the universe or just a small planet (spoiler!), some data sets, and even Castor and Pollux (the Gemini constellation), a tip by Prof. Rob Jones; as the original writers meant for Khan to be a reflection of Kirk, like Castor and Pollux, they too are connected through their attributes as leaders.”
We also have a very special wood variant for sale with only 35 copies made. Click HERE to grab one.
We will also have a very limited amount of the regular and variant poster for sale at the Mondo brick and mortar store starting at 5pm, so if you couldn’t get one during the online sale, you’ll have a second chance at 5pm.
I love the candy, it’s true, but sometimes I have a taste for something more exotic…something different. So, where better to look for something different than in Japan?! Mondo is now going to be stocking exotic treats and candy in store at our Alamo S. Lamar location. Our good friend Ricky Velocitron in Japan sent us a giant box of Kit Kats, Aero and Crunch bars and they’re on sale right now in store. Here is a look at what flavors we have in stock.
BITTER ALMOND, RASPBERRY AND PASSION FRUIT (one of my faves), DARK CHOCOLATE and MILK COFFEE
ALOE YOGHURT
KINAKO which kind of tastes like peanut butter. VERY good.
STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE
FLAN
WASABI!!!
Not only do we have awesome Kit Kat flavors, we also have Strawberry Crunch bars. Like I said, this is all on sale now. Come in and try some. Oh, by the way, not pictured or mentioned yet is the FRUIT PUNCH flavored Kit Kat. Prepare to have your mind blown.
Last Friday, Mondo reopened its doors with a new look. After only taking about a two week break we were back in action with our first sale….the all metal Tyler Stout variant for his IRON MAN 2 poster. They sold out the night of the reopening, but we have some photos of the lucky few people that were able to snag one. Our good friend Crab Rangoon also came by the store and snapped some photos.Thanks C.R.!
Keep an eye on the blog and on Twitter as we have some major announcements coming this month and info on another big release party at the store.
