It's nice to be caught up! Here's my favorite of this little update - the Belgian for Persona:
I used to think that the deco version of the US onesheet for The Cotton Club was the best until I came across this East German version:
This copy of Highlander II is German:
Finally, but a great one nonetheless, here's an awesome video release poster for Pumpkinhead -- thanks Brude!
Rest of the Update for May 26, 2010
A small but worthy update today, consisting mostly of Japanese material. I was finally able to get a copy of Baisers Voles for a reasonable price:
I don't much go for the old westerns, but I couldn't resist this one for McLintock:
As time goes on, I come to enjoy the 2-panel format more and more. This one for The Visit is not a particularly rare or expensive poster. I picked it up because the portraits are so damned striking:
These two are unknown titles for me. Both are pre-World War II and quite rare simply for that fact.
From old to new, here's a great advertising B2:
And finally, the oddball of the bunch, straight from my childhood:
The rest of the May 25, 2010 Update is here.
May 16, 2010 Part II 9:24 p.m.
Of the 72 various posters that comprise this update (not including the bus shelters that I posted earlier today), there are four that clearly stand out from the lot.
First and foremost, this is the B1 for Ghost in the Shell Innocence. I would say that the poster for the original Ghost in the Shell is iconic and in high demand. A B1 is equally hard to come by for either. To now have the B1 for both the first and second films, I'm really beside myself with joy. Here it is:
The next in order of importance for me is the second B1 for London Calling which I now have thanks to one individual who knows who he is. I had the other version for awhile, but by far this is the better of the two:
I posted this one about a month ago to the Latest Acquisitions thread of AllPosterForum.com The Hurt Locker is a great movie of our time. While Avatar is wonderful, I am pleased that The Hurt Locker took both the Best Picture and Best Director awards. This is the B1:
Finally, with amazement I present this B1 for the 1958 Osaka International Festival. This poster is nearly as new as the day it was released, printed on wonderful heavy stock with a process that reminds me of stone litho posters.
Find the rest of the update here
May 16, 2010 Part I 11:35 a.m.
Here's a nice way to spend a Sunday morning - updating my site with new bus shelter posters. New, of course, is a relative term. These are new insofar as I haven't posted them to my site. But, they have been around for months now in my office waiting to be posted. I've spent some time catching up with things I had to do, like getting poster orders out for a few friends that have been delayed for about 8 months. Also, I had a stack of about 500 posters that I had to go through to finalize those deals, and I had to tube them up for storage. They had accumulated in a stack for over a year. Now, we're caught up.
This is the first of the updates. These are all bus shelters for advertising posters, most from Amsterdam. These two are really cool, I think:
This next one is too cool. These area all double sided bus shelters, and soon I'll put this one in the lightbox to see if it displays there as good as it looks here:
I think these Red Bull ads are great.
Follow this link for the rest of the update: May 16, 2010 11:35 a.m.
So, for the third year, my wife and I attend AMC's Best Picture Showcase. In previous years, we went on a Saturday morning starting at about 10:30 a.m. and we watched all 5 best picture nominees until about 11 p.m. With the change to 10 nominees, however, the real question concerned how AMC would handle it. As it turnes out, in a few places, they did a 24 hour marathon of all 10 nominees. Can you imagine?! I was burned after 5. We didn't do that. Instead, there were 5 for each of two Saturdays. It's quite a thing watching that many movies in one day - sorta surreal.
As an advertising poster collector, I have wanted the onesheet for this event for years, but I could never find one. It's no wonder = only a handful of theaters across the country did this event, and most I'm sure threw out the posters after it was over. This year, I was determined to get one, and I did. Here it is! I'm glad to have this memento in this particular year, where we had for the first time since the 40's 10 nominees, and were we had the number one movie of all time get bumped by Avatar, both of which were done by the same director. AND, it being the favored for at least a best director or best picture award, getting bumped for BOTH by The Hurt Locker. AND, with the fact that The Hurt Locker director (I've liked her since Strange Days) is the ex-wife of the Avatar director! What a year to finally get this poster!
Prices for Avatar posters have been crazy. I wonder if they will tank like the prices did for Titanic posters. Most think they will hold some value over the long haul. Me? I don't care. I collect because I like them, not because they are valuable one way or another. So, I'm always happy with them. This is the German A1 for the Avatar game.
Having faced the predictions of 2012 and the movie for the event, I have to say that I've wondered if we have the precursors of damnation at hand with all the earthquakes all over the world. I can't think that I'm the only one who's wondered about this. Has there been a time with more recorded earthquakes? I don't know. But, I do know that this B2 for Earthquake is apropos of our times.
There's rare Bond posters and then there's RARE Bond posters. This is a RARE Bond poster! It's a double sided Japanese B1 advertising poster for Brioni's suits. I don't think there's a more rare posters for Bond, at least among the newer Bond films.
Of all the posters in this update, I'm pretty amazed that these next two B2's are among my favorite so much so that I put them here on this page. Women and guns - what a cool combination!
The modiness of this one for Nostalgia is fantastic.
Since I have committed to focusing on particular collecting areas, I have been much more satisfied with updates like this one. They are less a chore and more a thrill, processing the new posters and picking the ones to put on this page. By rights, all of them should be here, but I force myself to pick a few that really are the very best in my eyes. This time around, I'm posting my favorite first, which is an 11 x 17 theater poster designed by a friend of my daughter for their high school's production of Alice in Wonderland. The friend also played the lead roll, thus showing a dual talent. The poster design is really very good, and I was thrilled to pull this copy off the door of the theater, both as a memento of the experience, and as an example of a fine work to include in my collection.
While I wish that the Japanese changed the key art for the theatrical release of Alice in Wonderland, I'm still happy to add this B1 to my collection:
And now, AVATAR! I haven't seen it yet, and will do so for the first time when, for the third time, my wife and I attend AMC's Best Picture showcase. With 10 movies, the event has been split into two Saturdays - February 27 and March 6. The first set opens with Avatar and it will be in 3D. I'm looking forward to it. Commorating that event, here's the Indian 6-sheet:
Ok, time for some fun ones. Here's the 27x40 theater ad for the tv show Alias which I wish would never have ended.
Lost is also coming to and end! Here's the theater ad for the final season, again a full 27x40 instead of the flimsly commercial posters at 24x36. This particlar poster was not easy to come by.
Years ago, I watched Tales from the Crypt on HBO. I was really happy to find this pair of theater ad posters for the series, both a fullsized at 27x40.
Another awesome theater ad poster for an IFathom Met event.
I've discovered that video releases are really great collectibles if you avoid the trash and focus on the more rare releases like this set for the Animatrix. Each is about 12x24 and released by Warner Home Video.
Here's another cool set of video release posters, this time for the James Bond films in a special 11x14 Japanese format.
More Bond: A superb Japanese B3 for Casino Royale:
And a great B1 for Never Say Never Again:
This is a great, fun set of B1's for Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle:
Finally, a beautiful b2 for a movie simply titled, I Am:
The detail in this poster is incredible - between the high quality of the ink an paper used, it's hard not to think that the hands are real:
Finally, the German A1 for Hal Hartley's Simple Men:
I couldn't be alive in the world today without at least acknowledging the existence of Avatar and the fact that it is now the Numero Uno in history, and that it's director has directed the top two grossing films in history. While there's a lot of folks that would say the movie's no great shakes, these statistics warrant at least a nod to the creative genius of James Cameron. I bought the Avatar lenticular well before the records were broken and so, in homage to the beast, here it is:
Ok, here's some of the other 97 or so in this update. First, this is an awesome B1. I don't know exactly what movie it's for - Halloween 2 or Boogey Man or whatever, but it's damned impressive in person:
For a long time, I've had the regular onesheet for Clan of the Cave Bear. It's a beautiful poster, but I have always considered it marred somewhat by the credits. I have wanted the advance, no-credits version for a long time, but it's very rare. Finally, I was able to pick up a linenbacked, folded copy for a very good price. The only improvement that could be made is a rolled copy, but this one is really in superb condition and, for once, the linen actually enhances the poster's look and feel.
One of my favorite movies is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America. I've long had a folded copy of the onesheet, and only halfheartedly kept on the lookout for a rolled copy. I was thrille dto finally find a rolled copy in superb condition.
I have a LOT of advertising pieces in this update, but two of the highlights are these from a Drive-In Invasion movie marathon for a few years. Classic art on top of modern times, these two are really wonderful additions to my advertising collection.
For those who collect the Alamo Drafthouse posters and similar type prints, you know exactly what I mean when I say these two festival posters are printed with extraordinary ink on wonderful, heavy stock. Holy Crap are they nice!
This special screening poster for Peeping Tom and the Berkeley Underground Film Society is also printed with special ink on heavy stock. The image is wonderfully textured, and unfortunately you have to hold it in your hands to appreciate the work that went into creating this print.
A fellow collector is also in the biz producing movies, and I was able to get this Shockerfest International Film Festival Poster which has at least once featured one of his films. It's an awesome image.
This is a Japanese b2 that was given out as a promotional item on behalf of Volkswagen at select screenings of Twilight New Moon in Tokyo.
Last but not least, another fellow collector was kind enough to get me one of these sweet holographic ad posters for Star Trek's remastered editions. Very rare to see such a nice treatment for a video poster here in the United States.
Go see the rest of the update for February 2, 2010!
January 16, 2010 10:18 a.m.
I've finally gone through all of the small material that I have, mostly consisting of Chirashi. I have collected these bits over nearly a decade as they were included in poster tubes I received mostly from Japan. Often thrown in as "bonuses", for the most party they are nothing more than flyers that can be picked up for free in most of the local cinemas in Tokyo. What I like about them is that I don't pay for them, and it's fun to collect them and the various images. Sometimes, the image is so good on the chirashi that I end up tracking it down in the larger b2 or b1 format.
Sometimes also I have purchased chirashi. Once, I purchased a lot of 100 pieces for $12. It was a great deal to me, because for $12 I had a lot of fun looking at the images. Also, I have two chirashi for Pi that I recently bought. These are more rare pieces that use art that so far I have not seen on any larger poster. Finally, I bought a set of 10 chirashi for the Star Trek movies. It was neat to pick them up in one order.
There are some miscellaneous pieces too. There are little flyers that are freebies to advertise DVD releases and such. These pieces are mostly around 3" x 7" and are usually to be seen by me as binding for rolls of posters. There are some other one-off pieces too. Have a look, and I hope you find them all as neat as I do. Two links on the left will take you there. The collection is split into two part, each with just over 300 images.
Happy New Year!
I'm happy to be posting an update on the last day of the decade. I think I'm safe in saying that while the poster-collecting has been good, the world outside of posters has left a lot to be desired. Yet, I'm doing ok, andmy family is safe and healthy. So, I have no complaints.
I've made a few format chages to the site. First, there is no longer a "new arrivals" link on the menu bar. Rather, I have made the date and time, above, a hyperlink to the new arrivals for that date. When you scroll down to the prevous new arrivals date of December 6, you'll find a link there to the new arrivals for that date. In this way, I hope to be able post updates more qickly, rather than let the 230+ posters in this update pile up like they did. I DID NOT obtain this number in the last three weeks. Rather, the last update of December 6 just made a dent in what hadpiled up over the last six months or so. With this update, I am officially up to date, except for some large format posters and a few other scattered items.
Periodically, I will update the main sections with the posters contained in the new arrivals sections. Once I do that, I will move the new arrivals sections from this area to the archive area, to make room for the most recent postings.
I'm in the process of scanning in the many chirashi that I have collected over the years. This has been a fun collecting point because, other than a lot of 100 that I bought for 12 bucks or so some time ago, I have sourced these from the freebies, gifts and wraps that have come in poster tubes containing japanese posters. I have a few hundred, and they have pretty much cost nothing to collect. The images are wonderful, but it's a time consuming process to scan them. Photography is not practical due to the size. Scanning is a pain because of the moire that occurs and the need for an extra step to apply gaussian blur to help offset the moire. Anyway, that might be the next update - a new chirashi section!
For now, here's some of the highlights from this update - talk about hard to pick these few from the large number!
The prize, I think, is this B1 for Alien. There's a few other prize B1's in this update, including La Chinois, but I have to put this Alien B1 up front because it's so damned rare, and it's so different from the other art out there for any of the Alien movies.
Next, these are the Danish, Japanese and German versions of Breathless, and they are, well, breathtaking as a group:
I picked this up at one of Bruce's auctions recently, a speed for Kwaidan. I've never seen it before, and neither did anyone else before that auction. It's pretty damned nice in person:
A very subtle b2 for Father and Daughter:
A not-so-subtle pair of b2's for Ichi the Killer:
For a long time, I was looking for the b2 of Tentacles because it's such a cool poster (I guess they all are!). I was astounded to find a B0!
Finally, rounding out the update, here's a set of three ad posters for the Miami Book Fair that I attend pretty regularly with my daughter. Now that the new forum has a dedicated ad section, I'm pleased to begin highlighting these great posters to a larger audience:
That's it. Enjoy the rest of the update.
What huge displacements have occurred in my collecting recently! Many of you know that I've been sloooowly selling off bits of my onesheet collection because I decided to focus in on advertising and Japanese material. I still collect onesheets mind you, but much less and more for fun to fill the lightboxes with new releases and forthcoming movies that I like. Right now, I have the Avatar lenticular in one box, and the Mad Hatter version of Alice in Wonderland in the other. There are some worthy onesheets that I will continue to collect.
The real surprise is how things have changed for me in the last six years or so of collecting. When I started, I was enamoured with double sided onesheets and I would buy nothing else. Then I started buying international onesheets because so often the art is much better or alternatively cooler than the US counterparts. Stepping across the international boundaries, I started finding French paper, then some Russian and Polish paper. I realized that slowly, my horizons were broadening. When I came across the first B1 in my collection (it was Saruri - the Japanese title for Memoirs of a Geisha), I bought it because the seller mistakenly described it as a double sided onesheet. What arrived was what is to this day one of the most beautiful posters in my collection - My First Japanese B1. That's about all it took. I coveted the large size of the B1, and at that point, I limited myself only to B1's! There I went again with the limits, and again I threw them out. You'll find around 500 B2's in my collection now, and they have found a place in my heart. At this point, my love of the Japanese art has much overshadowed my roots in the onesheet. But, there is a commonality of sorts with the advertising onesheets I started with.
I think my first advertising piece was a THX poster I bought years ago for five bucks. Then, I got my beloved King Tut mylar from Muvico years ago when the Exhibit was in town, and that was for free. I discovered that not many people collect ad posters -- that is, posters used in a theater to advertise things other than films. I also discovered that these things are thrown away and it seems no one preserves even the images of them. Well, that really hooked me. Cheap, hard to find posters. A collector's dream. Fast forward years later, and I have over 400 advertising pieces in my collection. It has broadened to encompass various formats other than onesheets, including Japanese material and bus shelters (which I adore - I display them in a bus shelter sized lightbox in my living room!).
How focused things have become! There are 118 posters in this update. Usually, I cull 5 or 10 to put on this page as examples of the best of the lot. Going through these posters, I just could not single out more than two, because to me, they are all wonderful. These two I chose solely to highlight just how superb advertising and Japanese posters are. First, here's a bus shelter from Amsterdam advertising Jaegermister:
When I saw this, I clearly discovered what I enjoy so deeply about advertising material. These images are the icons of my time. I know that looking back twenty years hence, I will relish these posters and these images, and they will serve as a physical linkage to the past that would otherwise fade with my softening brain. Have a look at the other advertising posters listed in the New Arrivals. You'll see what I mean.
Then there's the Japanese material. There's a bunch of it listed here, but I think this B1 for Mystic River is the finest of the lot:
I hope you enjoy these posters as much as I do. There's some other changes afoot. The New Arrivals section is indicative of the overhaul I'm giving this site. It's too cumbersome to view the images given the large number now hosted here. Also, it's too damned difficult to update the image catalogs with so many to be included in each catalog. Finally, I am no longer going to annotate individual posters with any information. It takes too long. Also, I don't need to do it any longer insofar as I started that practice to keep me focused on why I was collecting in the first place. In other words, I've grown a bit.
Note some terminology in the file names listed for the posters. RDSH means rolled, double sided and that the picture is mine. RSSH means rolled, single sided and my picture. F stands for folded. The rest is pretty self explanatory. From each poster listed, with its file name, the goal is to be able to determine the country of original, whether rolled or folded, and whether single or double sided. If no country of origin is listed, its US or international release. I do not labor over tagging Japanese b2's as roled or folded. Most are either rolled or soft folded. That's it! Enjoy!