Bonneaud Appétit!

First up from The Stanislas Choko Collection is Jacques Bonneaud, who might very well have been the first modern-day poster artist workaholic. He never took vacations as every day at dawn, he would go to work alone at his studio, utilizing his talents for composing dramatic scenes with stunning portraiture and sumptuous colors. Often described as unrelenting, monastic, and unsociable (since he had few friends in the biz) — Bonneaud was a fast worker, which was rare in the lithography world.

But all of his hard work certainly paid off! Over a 35-year career from 1922-1957, he did over 2,000 film posters — even though he wasn’t a huge movie fan. Before each assignment, he simply read the script and took a cursory look at a few B&W publicity stills before he went back to the drawing board.

Unfortunately, at age 60, his style went out of style and he spent the last remaining years of his career at a print shop designing advertising labels for dairy products. However, his gorgeous work still lives on and now you can see it all here.

Sometimes Lesser Is Morer…

From the school of McGinnis comes Ron Lesser, a celebrated illustrator of steamy pulp paperbacks and Civil War art, who is probably most famous in the movie poster world for his work on High Plains Drifter and Ryan’s Daughter.

Whichever of his many styles you prefer, his range is impressive as he seamlessly draws sexy babes, Confederate soldiers, cigar-chomping cowboys, soulful Indians and Impressionist landscapes with equal aplomb!

Bug-Eyed Burton!

Tim Burton is reuniting with Ed Wood writers, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, on Big Eyes, the story of Margaret Keane, famous for creating the big, bug-eyed child paintings from the 60’s. If you’re not familiar with the tale, it’s a fascinating portrayal of art, greed, and entrepreneurship, namely because Margaret’s salesman-schmoozer husband, Walter, took credit for all of her work!

And we all know Burton is no stranger to the art world since last spring’s MoMA exhibition.

Heir to The Line King?

Most of the time here we talk about movie posters — but today we’re going legit! Theatre, that is. Because ever since the colorless caricaturist, Al Hirschfeld, passed away seven years ago — Broadway has been looking for an illustrator to pick up the slack and The New York Times showcased a few up-and-comers.

Below is Victor Juhasz‘s takes on the recent B’way productions of Glengarry Glen Ross and Talk Radio

Just Like A Dylan

But the coolest Dylan poster by far — at least IMHO — is Milton Glaser’s infamous insert poster below, along with a few other greatest hits.

McCarthyism Is Good

No, no, not Joseph McCarthy and the Hollywood blacklist! I’m talkin’ Frank McCarthy (1924-2002), the longtime illustrator whose career spanned over 50 years, doing magazine covers and paperbacks (Avon, Bantam, Dell) and brought us the high-octane one-sheets for The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape (Paul Crifo did the International version), and many more, including split-duties with Robert McGinnis on the James Bond posters for Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.

Mr. McCarthy quit commercial work in 1974 and, like many of the other greatest poster artists of his generation, such as John Solie, Howard Terpning, and Robert Tanenbaum, moved to Arizona to focus his talents on Western art.

The Rolling Road Show Comes To Town

Starting tonight, The Rolling Road Show by Levi’s and Alamo Drafthouse celebrates the “We Are All Workers” Tour by rolling out a bunch of free movie screenings all over the country featuring such films as Dirty Harry, On The Waterfront, Jackie Brown, Rocky, There Will Be Blood, The Blues Brothers, Convoy/Red Dawn, The Godfather Part 2, and Robocop…So check your local listings!

The movie posters below were all done by sizzling-hot young Brit artist, Olly Moss.

Akikomatic Is Back!

A few months ago, I wrote about Akiko Stehrenberger, one of the most creative illustrators/art directors working in movie poster advertising today — and it appears that she’s keeping plenty busy with lots o’ cool new stuff!

Youssef the Man!

I’m usually not a big fan of re-imagined, hipster movie posters — but while looking up artwork on Wes Anderson, I discovered the minimalist marvels of Toronto-based designer, Ibraheem Youssef, who has garnered quite a following on SlashFilm and the like…and deservedly so!