Fett Noir #4: Nightmare Alley

Well it's about time Boba got to be the big floating head on a poster. Here is the fourth poster in my Fett Noir series. My favorite part on this piece is the little book graphic (silly, I know) but I liked making it into a "Boba Fett Adventure" and rejigging the poster to fit and to give it the look and feel of a pulp novel cover. I guess that is, essentially, what film noir is anyway…a pulp novel put on the big screen.

I hope to be creating more of these soon. They are way too much fun creating.

This poster, along with my other three Fett Noir creations, has been made into a limited edition print (limited to 250 numbered copies), now available on my newly created Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/GraphicLanguage), and I have a discount on shipping if you order all four (just give me a shout and I'll pass along the top secret code)

Fett Noir #3: The Big Sleep

I have always loved the look of this classic Bogart & Becall poster and I wanted to recreate it but I was worried it might appear too simple compared to the others, but then I figured "Hey, I want this on my wall damn it!", so I added a little Mandalorian symbology in the background and voilá. 

The pose from Empire Strikes Back was almost identical to the pose on the 1946 poster. It was eerie how close.

This poster, along with my other three Fett Noir creations, has been made into a limited edition print (limited to 250 numbered copies), now available on my newly created Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/GraphicLanguage), and I have a discount on shipping if you order all four (just give me a shout and I'll pass along the top secret code)

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo has branched out to Edmonton. So this is the inaugural year for the latest venture and I wanted to tap in to my inner Vallejo (that doesn't sound wrong, does it?) with this illustration for the three headlining guests.

We're bringing in some pretty awesome people (I may have to make the trip to Edmonton and get Billy Dee to sign a few of my Star Wars posters), I don't think Nichelle Nichols has ever been to a show in Alberta so that's going to be pretty cool. Plus Mike frickin' Grell and Chris frickin' Claremont are coming to the show, among other comic book talent. So just for fun I wanted to do a fantasy art take off and I really wanted to work with the image from the Batman movie…so here you go.

Say hello to the night…

The disappointment I felt after working on the Spirited Away poster was alleviated once I was told that the movie replacing it was Lost Boys. I loved this movie when it first came out. No cooler vampire on than planet than Keifer Sutherland (How are those maggots?). I had the soundtrack and everything.

In watching it recently I have to say that some of it doesn't hold up that well, but it remains a fun movie. I like Edgar and Allen Frog and Keifer Sutherland is still one of the coolest vampires.

Spoiler! I guess, now that I think of it, the poster itself is a spoiler. But I think screenings like this are for people who have seen the movie a gazillion times. Anyway, the two scenes in the movie I liked the most were the initial reveal of the vampires as they are about to feed and the scene near the end when David is about to attack Michael both of which have David oozing out of the inky shadows. That's why the poster looks like it does. Enjoy.

By the way, this post actually came out ahead of the screening (I'm all caught up now). So if you have to get your fix of the Lost Boys on the big screen go check out the Plaza on September 22nd.

Oh the pressure

This is one of my daughter's favorite Miyazaki flicks (I think the list order is Howl's Moving Castle, My neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and then Spirited Away), it's certainly the first Miyazaki flick we ever showed her and at the time it was pretty darn magical.

I try to operate on a basic principle when I design any poster I do - would I hang this on my wall? So all the while that I was doing this poster I kept asking myself would my daughter hang this on her wall? That was the unnecessary pressure I applied to myself on this project.

After laboring over it for some time I decided to pick her brain and then get feedback from her as I developed it. In the end I had a couple of versions and of the two versions this won out. She said it was one she would happily hang up once it gets printed. Guess what - that ain't going to happen. As it turns out we couldn't get the rights to show the movie. Too bad, I liked how it turned out.

I may print one off for my daughter anyway and test out whether or not she really would hang it up or if she was just messing with her old man.

You're not Mr. Purple. Some guy on some other job is Mr. Purple. You're Mr. PINK!

This is a rough draft of Reservoir Dogs, it's one of my all time favorite movies and it was to be screened back in August. Unfortunately the pre-sale of tickets (which equaled zero tickets sold) meant that the screening was not going to take place so the poster was scrapped. I have a really rough sketch of this in a sketchbook from a few years ago and I was thrilled to be able to actually start it and I plan on finishing it one day (the dogs are going to be painted using watercolors, to give that full bleed-out look that I want to do).

Atreyu!

The NeverEnding Story was screened in August.

A young hero riding around on a Luck Dragon - what could go wrong.

Never say die!

It's been a while since I've posted…sorry about that. I've been a little busy working on things for the Calgary Expo screening series, the upcoming Edmonton Expo (the Calgary Expo is branching out) materials and my own Fett Noir stuff (going on sale pretty soon here, I'm just figuring a few things out), I'll be posting my newest posters this weekend. So in the meantime I'm playing a little catch-up on some of the work I've been doing.

First up - The Goonies. I did a couple of posters for this screening from back in July. I quite like how the bold red one turned out but we opted for the old time adventure type poster.

Fett Noir #2: Night and the City

Lando's chance to shine my friend. What better place to set a noir film than the cloud city of Bespin.

I decided to start exploring other characters within the Star Wars universe, which is why Oola gets to have a substantial role in this flick, I mean Leia can't be in everything! And I wanted to keep Wedge on as the director for this project. He strikes me as an Alfred Hitchcock kind of guy, someone who directs the film, makes a brief cameo, then lets everyone else get back to work telling the story. I always liked Wedge. He never took center stage, but he was always there when you needed him.

Enjoy.

By the way: This poster, along with my other three Fett Noir creations, has been made into a limited edition print (limited to 250 numbered copies), now available on my newly created Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/GraphicLanguage), and I have a discount on shipping if you order all four (just give me a shout and I'll pass along the top secret code)

Fett Noir #1: This Gun For Hire

I had this idea in my head for a while now. I wanted to combine a few of the things I love into one awesome poster. And here it is, a combination of film noir, old movie posters (of the painted variety), and of course Star Wars. I call it Fett Noir.

I had scribbled out a drawing a few years ago that I titled "This Blaster for Hire" - I thought I could change the title of the movie to fit into the Star Wars universe (I also had "Night and Cloud City" instead of "Night and the City" among others) - so I had this little scribble on my desk staring back at me and I kept telling myself "someday". I finally got fed up with waiting for someday and I got off my ass and actually started working on it. As I worked on it I decided I wasn't going to change the titles of the original movies. I liked the fact that the noir title is the same but the players are different.

This is the first in a series of posters and I plan on setting up an e-commerce site where I'm going to sell them online. I hope you enjoy them.

By the way: This poster, along with my other three Fett Noir creations, has been made into a limited edition print (limited to 250 numbered copies), now available on my newly created Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/GraphicLanguage), and I have a discount on shipping if you order all four (just give me a shout and I'll pass along the top secret code)

The Passenger

This poster marks the last one I will be doing for the Calgary Cinematheque. I've been doing them for two seasons now and I think I need to let someone else have a turn. It's been fun and the movies have been interesting. A lot of them I had seen before and some I never would have thought to watch.


The Passenger is a fascinating film in which a man wants to escape the frustrations of his own life and he is given the opportunity to do so. A real "be careful what you wish for" kind of film.

The best part, it was an opportunity for me to illustrate a Jack Nicholson film.

Triumph of the Wil

I've been asked to produce some shirt designs for the upcoming Expo (mark you calendars people - April 27-29, 2012), this is one that didn't make the cut but I love it anyway and I will probably make up a couple for myself and my daughter (if she'll wear it).

One of the things that will be awesome this year is that Wil Wheaton is coming to the show (yeah there are 8 other guys from the first season of Star Trek the Next Generation, but who can keep track of them all). This design is based on the first appearance of "Evil Wil Wheaton" on The Big Bang Theory, and his clever manipulation of the naive Sheldon Cooper to obtain his victory in the game of Mystic Warlords of Ka'a. I call it Triumph of the Wil. You propaganda fans out there will get the reference.

L. O. L. A.

My latest poster for the upcoming Cinematheque presentation of Lola. I was immediately struck by the vivid color in the film and I tried to capture that feeling within the poster.

Don't go to sleep

The latest in the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo screening series posters.
Friday, April 13th (oooooohhhhh) the Expo will be presenting this awesome flick in honour of Robert Englund coming to the show. Lots of fun, awesome hair, great 80's fashions and it introduces some guy named Johnny Depp to the world at large.

Belle De Jour

The Calgary Cinematheque is presenting Belle De Jour on the 4th of February (and later on the 9th). I decided to try and channel the great Robert McGinnis on this one (with his slight elongation of the female form), since I was dealing with the stunning Catherine Denuve I thought this approach would be a good direction. I think I did alright. I only hope I did the film justice.

Make it so!

Well here we have a new poster I just finished for the next Expo screening in February. We will be presenting the best of the TNG movies Star Trek: First Contact.

On a side note, in June 2011 Jonathan Frakes was at the Expo and I got the opportunity to have my First Contact one sheet poster signed by him and I told him I thought his was the best film of the bunch. He gave me that roguish Riker smile (twinkle in the eye included) and said "I know". If it wasn't for the fact that it's Trek I would have labeled it an Empire Strikes Back kind of moment.

He was a real pleasure to meet by the by.

SERENITY NOW!

I have been very remiss in keeping up my blog as of late (six months goes by pretty fast) so I am going to try and update it over the course of the next week so that people don't assume I was lost in the Bermuda Triangle or something.

I've been busy with a lot of things lately but I had to blog about this poster I just finished for an upcoming Calgary Expo screening of one of my favorite movies: Serenity. This movie made me feel like my 11 year old self staring up at the silver screen as a Star Destroyer gave pursuit to a Rebel Blockade Runner.

Serenity is fun. It's smart. It's awesome. And if you haven't seen it all I can say is -shame on you.

If you're in Calgary on December 18th go to the Plaza Theatre and check it out on the big screen, tickets are available through the Expo website or at the doors prior to showtime. If you can't wait to see it, and I don't blame you, then go buy it now. And while you're at it if you don't have the series Firefly then you should buy that too because awesomeness begets awesomeness.

The final Heroes vs Zombies

 

Nothing has really changed on the poster except that it now has the official time and date. 

I decided to donate the image to the Calgary Roller Derby Association (CRDA) so they can sell some posters and raise funds for the association. So if you're at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in June don't forget to pick up a poster and support the CRDA.

Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT!

Well I just finished the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo program guide. The fun thing about it this year was I did an illustration for the cover. I'm still playing with the whole painting in Photoshop thing but overall I am pretty happy with the end result.

The idea for the cover came from a few sources:
1 - The event organizer came up with a video ad that will run in EB Games stores. It was kind of an Ultimate Fighter (I think) battle intro: The Guild vs Zombies…FIGHT!, Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT! and so on.

2 - I found out that DC Comics will be at the show, so this seemed like a natural marriage between our media guests and the comics industry.

3 - Neal-FRICKIN-Adams is coming to the show. I grew up on his books (I had all the Batman books, the Green Arrow/Green Lantern books, and of course his run of Deadman - but student loans and rent payments took care of my comic collection pretty quick) and who can forget the cover of the oversized issue featuring a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Superman, so I wanted to pay homage to that cover and Mr. Adams.

4 - A recent poster/ad I did for the Calgary Roller Derby match being held at the Expo: Superheroes and Zombies. The reason I say that is not to plug my own work but to mention that to me Wonder Woman is Lynda Carter and by the same token Superman will always be Christopher Reeve and I wanted to keep my superheroes in the same era, - I remember sitting in a movie theatre as a kid believing a man could fly. For the record I think that Brandon Routh did a solid job in the last Superman flick and Kevin Spacey was a pretty good Lex Luthor.

So with all those inspirational sources in mind I began to go to work.

Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT!

One of the main things for me was to make it Calgary Centric, there had to be an element that said this is where it's taking place. I didn't want you to think this was for any other Expo or comic convention. So the Saddledome was chosen for the landmark (that's also where the Expo is being held, so really, it made sense). The other main thing it had to have - Shatner (as Kirk) had to look like the scrapper he always was. The shirt had to be ripped, the face had to be dirty, and the hair had to be mussed. And even though they would probably have their match under some sort of Red Sun device to even the odds, I just thought it would be fun to have Superman unharmed and Kirk roughed up even though I truly believe that Kirk would do one of those flying kicks and flatten Superman.

So there you have it.

Calgary Expo Roller Derby Poster

The upcoming Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo will have a Roller Derby on Father's Day. The theme is Super Heroes vs Zombies. It was a lot of fun to do the poster. I titled it Battle at the Saddle because the Expo takes place on the Calgary Stampede grounds and one of the city's claims to fame is our saddle shaped arena, and Battle at the Saddle has a much better ring to it than Battle at the BMO Centre. It's still awaiting some copy but I wanted to post the image now because I'm pretty happy with it.

I wanted to use a super hero who doesn't wear a cape and I thought Wonder Woman would be pretty cool, and eye catching as well. Nice bright colors to offset the grays and greens of the zombies. Wonder Woman is based on Lynda Carter, of course. And as far as I'm concerned she was, and always will be, Wonder Woman - although I'm not sure I could watch the show now (tastes change), but I remember loving it when I was younger.