post movie posters done in a busy/claustrophobic caricature style from the 70s and 80s

more of that Sabbath Crumb rip collected here, but collected there from a 2015 Skot ILX thread that has since linkrotted)

Haha, I'm the one who posted that article in said Skot thread.

http://i.imgur.com/ku58xMV.png
http://i.imgur.com/ii6B6xT.png
http://i.imgur.com/mbKwI9F.png
http://i.imgur.com/pgT84fW.png

yes, the Stoned Agin guy has his whole head melting and sagging in the middle, and at no point drapes his long nose over a spinning record like Kilroy draping his nose over a wall, and also is not an element of an illustration representing people listening to radio DJ Wolfman Jack! we're agreeing completely!

You are completely out of your mind sic but you do you

This is the most anyone has discussed anything pertaining to More American Graffiti in 40 years.

RIP George Segal

https://media-cache.cinematerial.com/p/500x/cozdofnp/the-new-interns-french-movie-poster.jpg?v=1587312682

The New Interns, 1964

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjZjNDY2OTEtNTZjNC00ZGFiLTg5MDQtOTI4NjdjY2MwY2NjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzQzNDEyOQ@@._V1_UY1200_CR85,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

All's Fair, 1989

https://i.imgur.com/kE4KIzh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6G4pdHx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7b5baEY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Rc8irFY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AnPq466.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EgnzDRV.jpg

i am familiar with kilroy, the positioning/hair/eyes of that figure are clearly based on the stoned agin comic.
the face above wolfman jack is clearly a lift from jayzey lynch.
the keep on truckin' figure is all but traced.
i can't find it but the riot cop jumping on the hippy's head is a copy from either gilbert shelton or crumb.
the rosy hippy face in the center is based on the fritz the cat cameo.
i like stout but he was obviously told to lift underground signifiers, poses and shots and did a bunch of swipes.
is he your uncle or something and you feel the need to defend this point or is this indicative of some larger mania?

compare cop faces here:
http://i.imgur.com/snqa98F.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/twtGZqf.png

Roth and Crumb quotes

stoned agin riff

we seriously are agreeing about what's happening here except a) you think it's bad and b)

obviously told to lift underground signifiers

Stout putting his own youthful interests of the period into the context of the way the film uses different film stocks, aspect ratios and editing styles to reflect the "mode" of each year

as a general rule i think it's bad when artists' work is egregiously ripped off in their own style without them getting paid, yes.

RIP Jessica Walter

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/00/0f/41000fe41448fa496ce429f7aab8dd0c.jpg

https://www.moviemem.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GRANDPRIXHRws.jpg

Grand Prix, 1966

It's a movie poster, Michael, what could Letraset cost - $1000?

as a general rule i think it's bad when artists' work is egregiously ripped off in their own style without them getting paid, yes.

obviously that's a strong concern of mine too, but I don't think King Features Syndicate should have sued Crumb for Segar-bodied figures either. The Stout use of Crumb references is transformative, is not the sole aspect of '60s culture being riffed on, clearly not intended as "passing off," and not the main illustrative focus of the work. (it would be cool if it turns out that Stout used some Lucasbucks to buy original art from Crumb at a con or through DiCaprio or w/e, for sure. I went looking to see if he's said anything about it, and ended up breadcrumbing through this thread...)

Speaking of, American Graffiti (1973) is still holding up above the fold, but let's glance at the quad format version, and note this presumably Spanish version too

but!

by the time AmGraf was re-released in 1978, Stout had done the first ever Star Wars merchandising art, a set of drinking glasses for Burger King.

I was good friends with Charlie Lippincott and Mick Garris. They had just been hired by George Lucas to oversee the merchandising of a new film that he was about to released called Star Wars. I went over to visit those guys; they were in this little office. It was the two of them plus Mick’s wife at the time, Kelly; she was the receptionist/secretary. It was like being on the beach with three friends watching a tsunami heading your way. Three people to handle the entire merchandising for Star Wars!

George Lucas is a very loyal guy. Any time any comic-style work would come up, George would make a call and have me hired. American Graffiti was being re-released. George wanted a new ad campaign for American Graffiti. He insisted that the ad agency, that was reluctant to hire me because they’d never worked with me before, hire me to do a whole bunch of caricatures of the cast of American Graffiti, plus a new movie poster.

I can't find a Stout-looking re-release poster, just the Drucker one with IS BACK! added next to the movie title. But here's one of those caricatures:

https://i.imgur.com/kOAxNTs.jpg

Also still holding up from gr80's original burst of posters is Rock'n'Roll High School (1979), of which Stout said

STOUT: Yeah. I love Roger. He’s an amazing guy. He was very up-front about everything, which was basically… “We’re not going to pay you much, but you’re going to get the chance to do what you want to do.” ...

His movie posters were the same way. He’d hire young people to do his posters. Obviously, they had to be competent. But traditionally, when I would do movie posters, the agency would have me do a whole series of roughs. I’d get so much per rough. From the roughs they’d select a couple of ideas to do as comps – comprehensives – sort of in between a rough and a finish. So I’d do maybe more four or five comps. Then if they liked some of those comps, sometimes they’d have me do a color comp, which was like the poster in color but not quite as finished as a finish but more detailed than a rough. Eventually we’d go to a finish. I got to bill for each of those different steps.

I always made more money from my roughs and comps than from my finishes. At that time I’d rather not do the finish. I had to work slower on a finish and there was the added pressure of it having to be perfect, whereas with the roughs and comps I could just bash ‘em out. Roger Corman didn’t want to spend that kind of money on a movie poster – so I would just show him a thumbnail sketch. He was very lucid visually; he could look at a thumbnail, completely understand it and go, “Yes, Bill. That’s what I want. Go to finish.” So he cut out all of those other steps, saving himself a ton of dough.

I’ll never forget his instructions to me for the Rock ‘n’ Roll High School poster.

“Bill, you can do anything you want — as long as it looks like Animal House.”*

(* also one of the earliest posters itt)

Stout also recalls looking at the LA Times one week in the late '70s and seeing eight of his own posters in the movie calendar section.

Heritage have a scan (backup) of his original art for the Corman/Arkush/Dante/Ramones joint.

I can't find a clear enough version of the Japanese poster to tell if it's Stout (probably not) but it's more than busy enough to note here:

https://i.imgur.com/97ScCqL.jpg https://i.imgur.com/UeNKd2t.jpg

Graffiti first got annotated by Ward back in the neolithic days:

SPIES poster is by moebius
american graffiti by mort drucker

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, October 26, 2013 6:12 AM (seven years ago)

Here's that French S*P*Y*S poster in-thread, and a backup.

Four years later, Doc noted

BTW speaking of the "and remember that other movie" type of poster --- C. Grisso posted a French version of S.P.Y.S (1974) in the early days of this thread, but the differently-drawn American poster hits that theme really hard...

Here's a clearer version - any ideas at the artist? Seems like a promising breadcrumb trail.

Doc also noted the English poster, reformatted for DVD - in quad form, it stands out that part of the Anglicisation was making it big-heads-little-bodies style.

More NEW FILMS TO THREAD... when our programme returns.

https://fffmovieposters.com/wp-content/uploads/55928.jpg

Peeper, 1975

i have some questions about the grammar of the lines beneath the top caricature there - or should the bottom line be above the top one?

lol what is happening there? it looks like an unfinished draft where some fragment of an earlier arrangement of the sentence hasn't gotten caught yet.

also solid solid deep dive post by sic.

but yes i think the one line is just out of order.... bizarre.

That's really weird. I just looked back at other posters for the film, and-when it's used-that sentence usually appears as one unbroken line. I also found another long sheet like the one I posted where it's correctly split over two lines.

So who knows? Sic?

I'll just drop this here. Did I mention that a trailer is coming tomorrow? #TheSuicideSquad pic.twitter.com/VmB9n0rFSZ

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 25, 2021

THE Suicide Squad Film Follies, 2021

less cluttered than it should be tbh

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDg4NGY3NzktMWEzOS00YzI3LTg1YzItODMzN2NjMWZlZjU4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDU2NjgyMg@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1280_.jpg

Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)

so it looks like Corman's commission to Stout to rip off Animal House led to a mini-wave of other busy/claustrophobic caricature commissions for him.

we've already seen Foolin' Around itt (hueg), and The American Success Company (hueg) itt, but the same year also had him do

https://i.imgur.com/9RHqxLN.jpg

The Hollywood Knights (1980) (hueg)

and he kept going the next year on Caveman (clearer version)

and he brought back the busy in 1987 for Amazon Women On The Moon

https://i.imgur.com/yIPl5Ij.jpg

(alternate (foreign?) version with different caricatures upthread / shamelessly hueg)

but in 1979 he'd also gestured toward the style with The Lady In Red, and at least the first of these very busy posters for

https://i.imgur.com/inKJCdS.jpg

The Life Of Brian (hueg)


https://i.imgur.com/t6lHlOF.jpg

(hueg)


Stout's own site has this alternate version, which might be one of his well-paid intermediate versions that never got used?

https://i.imgur.com/NCfmOmb.jpg



nb also the 1991 Italian new release film Brian Di Nazareth, with a Wanda-famous John Cleese added at the top.

THE Suicide Squad Film Follies, 2021

less cluttered than it should be tbh

this is dogshit btw

completely unrelatedly,

https://i.imgur.com/E8X0rlK.jpg

Cotton Comes To Harlem (1970)

less cluttered than it should be tbh
this is dogshit btw

?

the poster is a really bad hack attempt at '70s styling generally, and on that McGinnis poster especially. it should indeed be more cluttered, and not dumb photoshop

although McGinnis might be inventing half of Pen & Pixel's aesthetic right there, Gunn's style would probably fit well with that approach to photoshop

oh, i thought you were saying my comment was dogshit

sorry!

s'okay

https://i.imgur.com/U3RrGRV.jpg

Drive-In (1976)

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eT9xIq8nL._AC_.jpg

Tank, 1984

the poster is a really bad hack attempt at '70s styling generally, and on that McGinnis poster especially. it should indeed be more cluttered, and not dumb photoshop

the photoshop illustration is far from the worst part of this btw - having to cram a load of incongruous logos and stuff in does as much damage as anything, picking one consistent 60s/70s-ish style would have enabled a more coherent layout, and the heninous kerning on the very top line starts things off on a bad foot it's hard to recover from.

turns out this was Gunn's brief to "the marketing guys," before he shot the film.

https://i.imgur.com/IP3hdV9.jpg

Good catch

look at how much better those credits read!

https://i.imgur.com/17BtbhG.jpg

That's The Way Of The World (1975)

also available in busier but less caricaturey flavour:

https://i.imgur.com/S7fNHJj.jpg

woah, hadn't seen the second version of that before. makes it look like a very different (and older) movie.

btw that movie sucks, EWF are *barely* in it. only part i really enjoyed was the long montage of record producer Keitel in the studio, gradually gussying up the Carpenters analog act's dinky, cloying little tune into an overproduced slab of easy listening cheese.

Man, Harvey Keitel has been making movies for like fifty years.

54!

Co-sign on the greatness of that recording studio sequence in TTWOTW, although I will say the film's cynically silly view of the music business is a wonder to behold.

For a movie about the group played by EWF being screwed and marginalised by idiot white executives in favour of anodyne whitebread pap, it sure goes out of its way to make that point.

The recording studio scene is great, the EWF opening is great, the roller disco scene is great, the NYC street cinematography is great, and nearly every scene is well-drawn, and making a relevant narrative point. It's just that none of it coheres - you wonder if the script was more focused, and the first-time producer-turned-director fumbled it. Some top-notch shirts on Keitel and others, though.

the way it settles on Keitel's relationship with the singer in the group as the main narrative thread, and the mean-spirited way it resolves that, is soooooo half-assed and clumsy, really doesn't feel at all set up by what came before. like they had a whole other movie planned and something fell through.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzgzNjAzMjctMGY5NC00NWM2LTg0MzMtMTliODExZTIyZmY4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5MjA3OA@@._V1_.jpg
White House Madness, 1975

Keitel's character consistently abandons his interests, principles, and motivations from one scene to the next, but is never written as doing so. He just shows up going along with whatever situation he was opposed to before. until that last-30-seconds double cross

looks like the poster's Nixon is more convincing than the film's on White House Madness

why is that so terrifying?

https://i.imgur.com/enA4JgG.jpg

Booksmart (2019)

man, some of these retro ones get *so* close in important ways...

yeah, that booksmart one is right on the line