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.

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.

This is NOT a Film

I have not seen this (not a) film yet but the synopsis of it sounds fascinating. The director Jafar Panahi, at one time, made a film that his government deemed offensive propaganda against the Islamic Republic and he has been banned, for 20 years, from making films because of it. So This Is Not A Film is about his plans for another film.

I wanted to showcase the fact that his mind is free and although trapped in the confines of his own home politics won't stop him from creating.

I'm happy with the end result. I've been drawing on designers, illustrators and painters who have had an influence on me and this is my tip of the hat to René Magritte. I suppose the title helped to lead me in that direction ( his Treachery of Images painting has always made me smile) but I like to think I would have gotten there of my own accord.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

And I mean that.

The new campaign for the upcoming Calgary Expo will be out and about very soon and I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out.

For the billboards I started off with something that was not guest specific, this one went unused as far as the billboards go but you can find it on a series of postcards and a few ads. I then used some guest images in the ads. My favorite right now is the Walking Dead billboard. I think it's a fun play off of the other three.

I'm going to put all the copyright info here because I don't want to get sued. So here it is: ® & © 2012 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. Images from AMC’s The Walking Dead © Matthew Welch/AMC.  FUTURAMA TM and © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Illustration of Spider-Man Meets Stan Lee © Olivier Coipel (Penciller), Mark Morales (Inker). All images are copyright their respective creators.

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.

Expo Billboards

The new billboards are here! The new billboards are here!!

I haven't seen the Elvira board but I did see the Shatner and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. We ended up going with only two board this year, the Tia Carrere image that worked best was too low a resolution for a billboard and Katee Sackhoff had to postpone her visit (she will be here next year). so we opted for just the two boards.

Shatner's board is the one that changed. The headline used is one that was brought to the table by the event organizer early on. It's pretty funny.

Now I have to drive around and check them out - ROADTRIP!

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.