Gimetzco's "Bargain Bin: Collected" Art Print

As you may know, Posterocalypse is fueled by my unhealthy passion for film and a bordering-on-obsessive love of art, but what may not be so well known, is that I’m also a huge comics nerd. When these three things come together to form some sort of super-powered Kryptonite-fearing holy trinity, I’ve got to tell the world about it.

"Bargain Bin: Collected" Art Print
Gimetzco (AKA Andrew Bargeron)
Multiple sizes - Open Edition
Priced depending on size

How would you describe "Bargain Bin: Collected"? Well..

“Imagine a world in which these specific films were never films at all, rather, they were comics, perhaps later to be made into the films we love...”

That’s how Gimetzco describes his print and I couldn’t have put it better myself, although I’m fairly certain that has something to do with the fact that I’m not the artist (or very concise in anything I write). I think what I appreciate most about Gimetzco’s “Bargain Bin: Collected," besides the obvious skill on display and the eerie sense of nostalgia he manages to capture so perfectly, is that he didn’t just translate the films directly to the comic format verbatim. Instead, he created a Fringe-worthy alternate universe where these films never existed and where everything, including the works of Kubrick, Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers, is just slightly off. I wonder if Bizarro Quentin Tarantino would be super relaxed and comfortable in his own skin during interviews? I’ll admit that it took me a few seconds to figure out a few of the references, but I think anyone who’s a fan of the moving pictures will really get a kick of what Gimetzco has put together.

In my opinion, the image of “Bargain Bin: Collected” at Society6 didn't do the print justice, so I thought I’d post the individual covers that make up this ode to cinema by way of the funny pages.

Inspired By: Inglourious Basterds

Inspired By: My Science Project

Inspired By: Planet Terror

Inspired By: Trainspotting

Inspired By: Teen Wolf

Inspired By: Repo Man

Inspired By: Hardware

Inspired By: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Inspired By: The Fifth Element

Inspired By: Barton Fink

Inspired By: A Clockwork Orange

Inspired By: Run Lola Run

Gimetzco’s “Bargain Bin: Collected” is currently available through his Society6 store in a variety of sizes, and is an open edition. For more info on the artist be sure to visit his blog at gimetzco.tumblr.com and follow him on Twitter @gimetzco.

Rhys Cooper's Garbage Pail Kids Prints

I wasn't sure what to tackle tonight, but when I saw Rhys Cooper's Garbage Pail Kids ("GPK") prints last week I knew I'd have to write about them at some point, and now seems as good a time as any. The reason these posters appeal to me so much is because not only do they carry on the proud (and gross) legacy of the GPK trading cards, they also happen to feature some great film references. I thought tonight I'd go over a few of my favorite Rhys Cooper prints created for Gallery 1988's GPK show. Note: All of the posters included here are still available for purchase as of the writing of this post.

"2nd Hand Rob" Art Print
Rhys Cooper
12" x 18"
$25 - Limited to 100
Inspired by: Robocop

Cooper's Robocop-inspired GPK print is bat-shit crazy (in a good way). Imagine a futuristic Detroit where, instead of an efficient cyborg patrolman policing the mean streets, a snot-nosed kid comprised of metallic bits and baubles and armed with a fork and firearm prowled the Motor City burning it to the ground and leaking oil all the while. Scary, isn't it? Rhys' "2nd Hand Rob" print is available for $25 through the Gallery 1988 website. The print measures 12" x 18" and is limited to an edition of 100. I'd also like to point out that all of these posters are screen prints, so it goes without saying that they're beautifully detailed in person.

"Allen Hunter" Art Print
Rhys Cooper
12" x 18"
$25 - Limited to 100
Inspired By: Predator

The "Allen Hunter" print is about as insane as "2nd Hand Rob" and is based on a character that's just as recognizable as Robocop. This one wasn't a hard sell for me, as I'm interested in just about anything Predator or Alien related. My favorite touch has to be that, in addition to simply sporting a necklace made up of "trophies" from his deceased victims, Allen Hunter also has a pacifier attached. Wait, does that mean he killed another Garbage Pail Kid? Makes sense. "Allen Hunter" measures 12" x 18, is limited to an edition of 100 and is available through Gallery 1988 for a measly $25.

"Chester Burst" Art Print
Rhys Cooper
12" x 18"
$25 - Limited to 100
Inspired By: Alien

I briefly mentioned Alien in the previous paragraph, so this seemed like the logical next step. This print is just creepy. Rhys' "Chester Burst" takes our favorite little chest bursting xenomorph and somehow grafts a pudgy child on top of it with very disturbing results. It's not bad enough that this abomination's freakish arms and legs seem to jut out without any rhyme or reason, but did the artist have to distort Chester's face like that? It's for this reason that I am both sickened and enamored by this poster. Like all the prints in this post "Chester Burst" is available through the Gallery 1988 storefront and costs $25. Go get it!

"Dull Boyde" Art Print Rhys Cooper 12" x 18" $25 - Limited to 100 Inspired By: The Shining

"Ultra Vincent" Art Print Rhys Cooper 12" x 18" $25 - Limited to 100 Inspired By: A Clockwork Orange

I think these last two may be my favorite. Cooper managed to meld the sophisticated horror and absurdity of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and A Clockwork Orange with the potty humor crassness of the Garbage Pail Kids. I guess it's not that huge a stretch since Art Spiegelman, the man behind the comic memoir Maus, also known as the only comic book to ever be honored with a Pulitzer Prize, is the genius who originally thought up the GPK while working at Topps (my brain exploded when I learned that). "Dull Boyde" and "Ultra Vincent" exemplify the fun that can be had when merging pop-culture and repurposing iconic imagery. And I love how Rhys has managed to recreate so much of what was special about the GPK, down to the "Peel Here" arrow and the dashes that outline the sticker boundary. These are great! "Dull Boyde" and "Ultra Vincent" are currently available through the Gallery 1988 website for $25 apiece. Both posters measure 12" x 18" and are limited to an edition of 100.

To learn more about Rhys Cooper be sure to visit his Studio Seppuku store and his Facebook page. If none of these posters float your boat there's a lot more than just these five available, so be sure to visit Gallery 1988 to see the rest. And as an FYI - I'll have a giveaway later this month for one of these prints. Yay! Free stuff!

Rhys Cooper's "A Clockwork Orange" Movie Posters

Alright, alright, so I guess I lied when I said no more Kubrick posters this week, but this is kind of a big deal and I just found out about it today. Tommy Good, the fine folks who handle all of the poster releases for Melbourne's Astor Theatre, have just announced their next release - A Clockwork Orange print by Rhys Cooper. Is your heart racing yet? I've already briefly (very briefly) explained my love for Kubrick's dystopian tour de force, so I won't delve to deeply into that this time around, but I did want to comment on the astonishing level of detail and complexity present in these prints. This design is just dripping with Cooper's trademark bloodletting splatter style artwork and can be a bit frightening to take in, but then again so can A Clockwork Orange.

A Clockwork Orange - Regular Edition

A Clockwork Orange - Variant Edition (Printed on Gold Foil Stock)

Is that Beethoven with a rather phallic looking mask? Yep. In case you couldn't tell just by looking at these posters, A Clockwork Orange is kind of a strange / brilliant / amazing movie. And as is often the case with his art, Rhys has packed a ton of stuff into this striking image, including a snake, a glass of milk laced with narcotics (no doubt from the Karova Milk Bar), a silhouette of the gang, and of course the aforementioned Beethoven bust, all set against a colorful page of sheet music. These posters seem to really capture the manic "ultra-violence" that is Alex's primary drug of choice. I'm really not sure which version I like better, the regular or the variant printed on gold foil stock. On the one hand, I tend to go with the less showy (and always cheaper) edition, but on the other hand, the garishness of the gold variant perfectly reflects Alex's bombastic personality. I'm also loving the title work Rhys did here. I especially appreciate the cog-within-a-cog transition he used to connect the "K" and the "O."

I highly recommend visiting Tommy Good, where you can find an excellent interview with the artist, but I wanted to excerpt the bit of the conversation that focused on his inspiration.

"[I've] always been a fan of Clockwork and one of the parts that fascinated me was Alex's relationship with his parents and how they had no idea what he was really like. How could you not be suss of a kid who has a combination lock on his bedroom door? He has a record player, images of Beethoven and his python under his bed, it is the real Alex who lives in there and kinda like his trophy room so that is the approach I took with the poster. Like a bedroom shelf."

Both 18" x 24" Clockwork Orange posters will be available for purchase at some point next week through the Tommy Good website / storefront. The gold foil variant is limited to an edition of 50, while the regular edition will be limited to 200, and both posters are signed and numbered. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter as well as follow @ThisIsTommyGood to get the exact date and time of the drop. Since these posters were printed by Tim Doyle's Nakatomi Inc. there's a good chance that they'll be available at some point down the road through Nakatomi, but you probably don't want to risk losing out. For additional Rhys Cooper artwork head over to his Studio Seppuku store. Finally, the only way I could properly end this post is with a quote from the film.

"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milk Bar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milk Bar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence." - Alex

Stanley Kubrick-Inspired Movie Posters by Adam Maida

I promise this is my last Stanley Kubrick-related post of the week. I found these gorgeous images today and was completely floored. I'll start with the most recent one and work my way back from there. If you're a lover of Kubrick, then you'll no doubt be in paradise for the next several minutes.

The Shining

I found this one by way of the Minimalist Movie Posters blog (which actually led me to the artist's Tumblr page, where I saw the rest of his Kubrick work) and found myself quite liking it. Is it weird that something can make you think of Christmas (the green and the red), while also conjuring images of blood, murder and insanity? The type and color Adam used for The Shining title is pitch perfect, and the dark red on lighter red color scheme really conveys the chaos and menace that this movie exudes. Unfortunately, this poster is not currently available for purchase (the next two are though), but I'm sure we'll be seeing this in his Etsy store at some point in the near future.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Here's a retro take on Kubrick's science fiction spectacle 2001: A Space Odyssey. Maida's 2001 poster has a very cool 60's look, similar to the now very recognizable Saul Bass aesthetic. He totally nailed the astronaut and the antiseptic paranoia that HAL 9000 and the vacuous void of space create. Unlike the previously mentioned Shining poster, Adam Maida's 2001 poster can be purchased and only costs $25 through his Etsy store. The poster measures 18" x 24" and appears to be an open edition. And on a completely separate note, the 2001 Blu-ray is one of the most beautiful transfers I've ever seen - it looks like it could have been filmed yesterday.

A Clockwork Orange

This is my second favorite Kubrick film after Dr. Strangelove. A Clockwork Orange somehow still manages to shock me every time and watching a hungry, intense Malcom McDowell is always a treat. Here Adam has taken advantage of, and reinterpreted, the iconic shot of the young, criminally reprehensible Alex, fake lashes and all. This poster isn't bursting with detail or brimming with double-meanings, but it's a very fitting representation of Kubrick's sometimes disturbing, always darkly comedic vision. This poster is also available as an 18" x 24" print for $25 through Adam's Etsy store. Be sure to visit his blog to see even more of his stylish artwork and if you're a fan of The Royal Tenenbaums, Adam has a created some really great movie posters in honor of one of my favorite dysfunctional families.