Top 10 Mondo Posters of 2012

Hello everyone!  Well, it is time for a new article and one that I am really excited about because it involves my favorite company out the for movie related posters and Mondo is their name.  If you aren’t familiar with their work or what they even do, good cause that means I have less competition to acquire their monthly poster releases for a serious buyer like myself.  So what better way to appreciate this fine company and the artists that tirelessly work to create some of the most amazing poster art for movies than to highlight my favorite ten posters that came out in 2012.  I also managed to get additional bloggers to add their list of picks and they will get their own post.  For now, here is my top ten list of Mondo posters.  Some I own, some I want, but all are amazing.

If you are interested in submitting your favorite Mondo poster of 2012, please message me and send your picks in.  I am excited to see what people pick as their favorite posters.  Now in no particular order:

Pris Blade Runner – Craig Drake (Part of a Mondo Gallery and small print run)

This is a print that I tracked down since it was released many months ago.  I am and will always be a big fan of Blade Runner and Craig Drake burst onto the scene with some of the most beautiful and simplistic looking takes on the characters of the film.  Rachel and Deckard each got their own rendition, but the print that takes the cake for me is Pris.  Crisp, simple, elegant and beautiful, the simple pose from the film tells you all you need to know about the conflicted Replicant and frankly I am mesmerized every time I look at it.  The angular lines all lead up to this striking display of a troubled character.

Back To The Future Trilogy Set – Phantom City Creative

I realize this is cheating by picking three posters, but the guys at Phantom City Creative knocked it out of the fucking park with a set of Back to the Future posters that ultimately form the Delorean.  It’s such a fantastic concept that highlights the real star of the film and placing the individual posters together to form the car is just genius.  You could of course by the one poster which merges the images into one image, but why take one poster when you can have three iconic posters that make up the trilogy.

The Goonies – Raymond Ortiz

To be perfectly honest, I have never seen a more perfect poster that captures the true nature of The Goonies.  I am an unabashed Goonies fan, so much so that I own every edition of the movie and I curse my everyday for missing out on the Mondo secret screening at our local KC Alamo Drafthouse.  Raymond Ortiz created a vibrant, bright and glee inducing poster that embodies The Goonies spirit.  The print is rich with content that was featured in the film, The One-Eyed Willy skull that cascades into the waterfall of the gold coins the kids stumble upon.  The poster induces this grandiose sense of wonderment and adventure that to the kids, seemed greater than it really was.  Truly a beautiful poster that I am currently working on getting.

The Raid: Redemption – Jock

There were a lot of Jock prints out this past year that I could have chosen.  His Shaun of the Dead, Dredd, and Dark Knight Rises prints are a thing of beauty, but none come close to the simplistic, staggering design he came up with for The Raid.  A movie so kick ass that words can’t even begin to describe, received a poster that utilized the full space of the dimensions of the poster to convey the monolith of a fight that awaited the hero.  You get this giant apartment complex taking over the poster itself with the small figure of the lone hero at the very top.  If you have seen the movie, then this poster truly encapsulates the essence of the film.

Looper – Martin Ansin

If you had to come up with a poster that describes what Looper is about, I doubt you will find one that even matches the sheer beauty that Martin Ansin created.  Available in Gold or Silver metallic prints, this Looper poster might seem confusing at first to those that haven’t seen the movie.  For those that have, you will recognize what Ansin is accomplishing here.  Merging two distinct, but related images of the heroes, cutting the images and giving off the sense of a distorted reality, it truly is a phenomenal print.  Ansin’s attention to detail and care show off his impressive design skill in jump cutting the images to give the conflicting time travel movie the proper, striking elegance it deserves.

The Bride of Frankenstein – Kevin Tong  (Mondo Universal Monster Gallery)

Holy Christ, out of the entire Mondo Universal Monster Gallery prints that graced the world, none compare to Kevin Tong’s take on The Bride of Frankenstein.  The sheer beauty and grace this picture has is accented by the warm glow of the radiant heart inside the monster.  There is this fractured beauty I get from the print, where Tong lures your eyes to the center of the poster while highlighting the monster in the most vulnerable way possible.  Truly a print that made the Gallery for me.

The Iron Giant – Mike Mitchell and Laurent Durieux

This is a bit of a cheat, but frankly I couldn’t decide on which of The Iron Giant prints to have as my favorite this year.  I personally own the Mike Mitchell print and it is heartwarming to marvel at.  The Yellow Variant just depicts the purity of what the film is about, a simple bond, isolated in the woods, creating a world all it owns.  Mitchell just nails how I feel about this movie and why I love it.  It’ simple, clean, centered, the coloring is muted but perfect.  It lights up the poster in the best way possible.

The Laurent Durieux print is elegant as it is vibrant in its color palette.  As opposed to the Mitchell print, this Durieux print creates a warm, touching moment that is cemented in the particular scene that he chose from the movie.  This towering giant of metal softly holding a fawn, which is made better with the warm use of colors in the scene that just makes this a touching print.

Black Widow – Olly Moss

Out of all the Avenger prints that were made for the movie, Olly Moss in my mind just did something simple, but complex.  Utilizing the the full white space available, your eyes are immediately scanning the print for the color amongst the stark white background.  There are basically five different drawings on the poster that make up the whole of the Black Widow, beautiful in it’s minimalism, you might not even notice right away that the lips are actually a pistol.  Such a fantastic print that amongst the entire Avengers line up.

The Avengers – Tyler Stout

Tyler Stout is pretty much the man when it comes to creating memorable posters for Mondo.  So many people try to emulate his style, but none seem to find the balance that is required to compile a compilation poster of everything memorable in a movie.  Whether it is his Blade Runner, Big Trouble In Little China, Iron Man II or any real pop culture poster, his prints seem entirely busy, but seem to have this harmony amongst the print.  For The Avengers, there is a lot going on in this poster, but you will find a lot hidden amongst the grouping of the images.  Chock full iconic images or even memorable moments, Tyler Stout finds a perfect way to assemble a striking poster.

13 Assassins – Vania Zouravliov

Like most of the artists on here, you can tell an artist by their style.  In my mind, there none as striking as the work that Vania Zouravliov creates.  Only completing about 6 different posters for Mondo, Vania combines this fantasy, flowery lean to his art, but the end results are by far and away some of the most gorgeous prints out there.  The sort of prints that would be placed in a tome or turned into a tapestry.  The 13 Assassins print is something that would make a Shogun warrior proud.  Mimicking the broad brush strokes of Japanese style painting, the lush image is both fierce and harmonious.  The warrior depicted has a fluid image to his pose, poised to strike with precision, but calm as well.