Macabre Marquee is a monthly column that looks at a horror film poster of past or present, and when possible a brief interview with the artist will be included.
I love horror movies. I am also a collector and movie posters have become a bit of an obsession, which is no surprise given that I grew up in the ’80s and practically lived in video stores. The first place I would go to was the horror section and even though I wasn’t allowed to watch them until I was 12, those images on the VHS covers haunted and fascinated me. Things are different now, though. Video stores are becoming a part of our past, while everything moves towards the digital, eliminating the tangibility that comes with ownership. When Photoshop became popular in the ’90s, illustrated movie posters became just as hard to find as video stores are now. That being said, there is a new underground movement of alternative illustrated movie posters that are filling in the gaps that Hollywood marketers have been leaving behind. Original key art for a film is created to sell a movie, while these contemporary pieces are meant to sell a poster celebrating that movie. But, since the 1970s, Hollywood has relied heavily on movie merchandising to gain back production costs, so those lines have been murky for a while. And, seeing that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced in 2011 that they would be archiving all of Mondo’s prints — Mondo being the originator of this revival — it appears this underground world is no longer being ignored…
For my first installment of the Macabre Marquee, I have chosen a print for a film that I have loved since my first viewing in 1987, Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys. There have been a few screenprints of this film done over the past 10 years, but it was not until I laid eyes on Matt Ryan Tobin’s recent reimagining that I found the poster that, for me, fit the movie and my love for it perfectly. The piece was a part of a larger art show earlier this year at Hero Complex Gallery in Los Angeles titled, “Quattro With a Shotgun”, a four-artist show celebrating Action, Science Fiction, Horror, and Pulp films. Tobin is an already very popular up-and-coming artist and he has been consistently creating one beautiful piece after another, but it is his Lost Boys print that, for me, truly shines and celebrates one of the most popular genre films of the late ’80s.
Alvin's original key art
The original key art for the film was created by the late John Alvin. You may not know him by name, but you know his posters: E.T., Gremlins, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Blade Runner, amongst many others. The original image is a striking one, a photocollage, yet still keeping a somewhat illustrated look. This combination of photography and illustration was very common in the late ’80s as the move toward Photoshop in the ’90s came in full force. So, it is no surprise that we begin to see here the celebrities of the film being used to sell it, with the bigger stars near the front of the image and the lesser-known stars closer to the back. That said, the contrast between the blood-red background and the black and white images of the “lost boys” makes the detail of the characters’ likenesses really pop. They may be dangerous, but they are alluring, and they look like any other teenager — except way cooler. The tagline really sums up the film and the poster image itself: “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.” These are the cool kids that we all wanted to be, and if being a vampire is the price to pay, then, so be it.
Tobin's 'The Lost Boys'
While Tobin uses a similar colour palette, yet with more variation in tone, his poster is full of gems for fans of the film to find. Moving beyond colour scheme, the frame of the image is the name of the town itself, similar to the welcome sign we see during the opening credits of the film. The letters of the sign then act as individual frames for characters in the film — and no memorable character is left out this time, regardless of how big or small a role he or she played. From each “lost boy” to the head vampire, Star (notice the stars and planets behind Star’s head) and Laddie, from Grampa and Mom to Nanuk and the Frog Brothers, everyone has a place, even our favourite spandex-wearing sax player. It’s great to see the inclusion of the boardwalk in the piece, as well as the “Missing!” signs that are seen throughout the film. For those who are familiar, many more details are evident: the antlers David is impaled upon, the terrifying bat kite, and the antique-looking bottle of “wine”. Tobin has chosen key elements of the film to include with his characters, creating a much richer image for fans to explore, one that celebrates the film and is a piece of art in itself.
Each poster is relevant to its time, the original serving the purpose of selling a new film to a young, hip demographic and the contemporary art tapping into the nostalgia fans have for the film. This is a very special piece, and I look forward to seeing what Tobin does next.
I was actually lucky enough to get the chance to ask Tobin a few questions about the creation of the piece. Read on to find out about his process!
When you were contacted by Hero Complex Gallery to be a part of their latest show, were you able to choose what films to make prints for? I know The Lost Boys is a favourite of yours, so how did you manage that?
There is actually a really sort of funny story behind that poster. The Lost Boys is a film I’ve been wanting to do a poster for ever since I fell into this amazing underground world of poster art. It was some time in 2008 I discovered James Rheem Davis’s Lost Boys poster he created for Alamo Drafthouse. I was floored. Fell in love with it. It helped me discover alternative poster art in general. It took years but I finally got my hands on a copy and it’s my most prized print. Hangs right above my computer desk. After discovering JRD’s work, I purchased his Black Christmas poster and there was an error in shipping, so I hit him up. He ended up sending me Black Christmas and a handful of other prints on the house. I asked him to design the poster for my band at the time, to which James expressed his really digging the music. This then blossomed into a loving, hot, sweaty, guy-on-guy, purely platonic relationship where he swapped prints for my band’s merch. After a couple years, JRD ended up hooking me up with Adam at HCG, who then welcomed me with open arms as a relatively unknown illustrator, got me in my first gallery, and everything sort of spitballed from there. It’s funny how everything came full circle years later and I ended up doing the show with JRD alongside Vance and Nate. Pretty crazy! To answer your question though — yes, we got to choose! That’s the beauty of working with Adam and Soua at HCG — they really want to bring out the best in you. Adam knew I was passionate about the piece, and he knew a lot of love would be put into it. Titles were tossed back and forth, some making the cut, some not. We had to keep in mind some titles may be too niche and some may be too common. I personally wanted to tackle titles that had very little current art existing in the poster/pop culture community.
How many concepts were you working with early on, and how did you choose? How much control did you have over the final piece?
I had this concept from the get-go. I had been wanting to flesh it out for a couple of years, I think. It’s for sure a slight step out of my usual visual style in that it’s very character-driven and kind of animated, but it was an idea I truly wanted to execute. I pretty much had all the control in the world. I could do whatever I wanted. Every concept for a title HCG and I would agree upon, they just let me run with it. It was pretty amazing. Adam is very hands-on, which is awesome. He made very few critiques and slight change suggestions, which ended up being great ideas in the end, but for the most part it was free reign for all the artists involved in the show. It was great.
While this poster is similar in colour scheme to the original art, those who love the film (like ME) will have a blast finding all of the little details within your work. I particularly like your choice to use the “Santa Carla” sign typography as the framework for the piece. How did it evolve — tell me about the process itself and how you chose what elements from the film to incorporate within the piece?
I love little details. It’s one of my favourite things to include in my work; subtle, even hidden, things I find super interesting. I knew I wanted the Santa Carla sign to be the framework right away; how I was going to arrange the characters came a little later. There was lots of playing around and trying to squeeze and fit and prioritize where who went, and who to include. It was the biggest headache of all — getting it to flow naturally. Originally, I had the whole poster being torn off exposing less of the sign. It cut off so it read SANT CARL and ripped up the side with lots of wear. I planned to only feature the vampire boys, Star, Michael, Sam, and the Frog Bros. That was it…I think I knew I had to fit Tim Capello [the Sax guy!] in there somewhere too. He was actually a much smaller fixture in the first draft of the piece than he ended up being. Making him larger was another suggestion from Adam, and one I’m glad we agreed on. Adam at HCG pushed for spelling out the whole city name (also smart haha), and with that came adding Laddie, fleshed out rather than just the MISSING flyer, Mom, Grampa, Nanuk, and Max (RIP to the late great Ed Herrmann), etc. Even included the security guard from the opening sequence — ha. There are a few subtle things buried in this piece, e.g. the Chinese take-out flyer, Jim Morrison, etc. I really wanted to make this a poster for huge fans of the film like myself. Then there was the unavoidable option of screenprinting the poster on sheets of wood. Had to!
Finally, without thinking too hard, what is your current favourite illustrated screenprint for a horror film right now, this very second?
Right this second, I’d have to say Phantom City Creative’s original poster for CUB. Gorgeous. Of all time? JRD’s Black Christmas.
To see more of Tobin’s work, head down to his website or find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
And to see some of the remaining pieces of the art show, as well as keep updated on upcoming exhibitions, check out Hero Complex Gallery!
