The Voord

An original movie campaign painting by Tom Chantrell for the unmade Hammer film, A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY, circa 1969. Based on a book by John Blackburn, the story featured a Cold War setting and a deadly virus that transforms females into mutant beings. Chantrell's visualisation shows the mutation in process and in typical fashion (for both Chantrell & Hammer), the campaign artwork features some over-the-top nudity (that would never have been allowed on any kind of General Release material).To help secure financial backing for proposed Hammer Films projects, artist Tom Chantrell would frequently be called-upon to create artworks that would best visualize the kind of movies they were looking to produce.With a plot featuring Cold War intrigue, Nazi mad scientists, and a pandemic that threatens to destroy humanity by mutating people into fungoid monsters, it is not hard to see why A SCENT OF NEW-MOWN HAY (1958) became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and an instant science-fiction classic.

Brian Bysouth's magnificent painting for the 1973 film, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD. I've always been a huge fan of the Charles Schneer and Ray Harryhausen collaborations and to my mind Golden Voyage of Sinbad marks the end of their better efforts (I was never that keen on Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger or Clash of the Titans, which followed on from GVOS). The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is also notable for landing featured actor Tom Baker the subsequent starring role of Dr Who as a result of his performance in the movie (Dr Who producer Barry Letts was really taken by Tom Baker's performance in the Sinbad movie). Studying the artwork in person, I can reveal that Bysouth extended his painting to all three sides of the image area, which were subsequently masked off with pasted paper overlays during production for the resulting printed poster. For whatever reason, the former owner of this artwork had decided to peel away the masked-off areas and captioned materials (see additional image for a photograph of the overall board). Captioned materials have now been re-created by my print-maker friend in Los Angeles, Lloyd Braddy, who has done an exceptional job (thanks again, Lloyd). This acquisition goes to the top of my list of personal favorite movie poster paintings that I currently own. Framed artwork prior to the addition of Lloy Braddy's recreated captioned materials: Overall image . . . Bysouth extended his painting to the outer areas of the art board, kind of loosely zapped in, with the intent that the central image would be masked off, eliminating the outer sides.

CATACOMBS (1988) Movie Poster comp by Lee MacLeod. Catacombs (also known as Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice) is a 1988 American horror film directed by David Schmoeller and starring Tim Van Patten, Ian Abercrombie, and Laura Schaefer."In the 17th century, an order of monks in Italy capture and entomb a demon that has possessed a member of their group. 400 years later, school teacher Elizabeth Magrino (Laura Schaefer) visits the monastery in order to do some research. What she and the current monks do not realize is that the evil hiding within the catacombs has unwittingly been released."

OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983) movie poster comp by Lee MacLeod. OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN was a 1983 Canadian-American horror film directed by George P. Cosmatos and starring Peter Weller. It was written by Brian Taggert and based on the novel The Visitor by Chauncey G. Parker III. It was filmed on location in Montreal, Quebec but set in New York City. The film won two awards at the Paris Film Festival."Mild-mannered everyman Bart Hughes has a great life in New York City. When his wife and child leave for a vacation, Bart stays behind to work on a project that should get him a promotion. Some sort of rodent in his basement starts to bother him and consumes his time. Bart becomes obsessed with it and eventually starts losing his mind while trying to kill the creature, destroying most of his house in the process. The film's title comes from research Bart does and which he shares at a dinner party, stating erroneously that rats have no known origin."

REMO (1985) prototype movie poster painting by Vic Fair for the UK release. Bryan Bysouth handled the finished (used) art. Printed poster of Bysouth's final:

BEHIND THE HIGH WALL (1956), movie poster painting by Reynold Brown (shown in its frame): Various printed posters utilizing the design:

Vic Fair prototype artwork for the highly-regarded 1981 movie, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN.For his prototype artwork, displaying a high degree of finish (for what is effectively a prelim), British artist Vic Fair chose a simple but very effective design of the Meryl Streep character’s portrait enveloping a key moment from the movie. As good as the idea might have been, the design was rejected in favor of what appears to be a mostly photographic image for the resulting movie poster campaign (that still managed to retain much of Fair’s original concept).“In the history of British film posters there are few characters as significant and influential as the designer and artist Vic Fair. During a career that spanned close to forty years, many of them spent as part of the same ever-evolving agency, Vic lent his inimitable style to several of the most iconic British movie posters ever printed. He designed marketing campaigns for most of the big film studios and distributors, including for the likes of Hammer Films and all of the posters for the very British ‘Confessions…’ series of bawdy comedies. Over the years, Vic also developed a strong working relationship with many of the British film industry’s leading directors, including Nicolas Roeg, Terry Gilliam and Michael Winner.One of the things that really set Vic apart from his contemporaries were his skills at developing concepts that were unique and stood out from what was often a sea of other ideas, depending on how many design agencies a distributor might have been working with. He had a natural talent for concepts that used ingenious juxtaposition of elements to create surprising layouts and he wasn’t one to shy away from risqué concepts.

Sydney Jordan tells me that an artist named Thayen Rich provided the finishes on your daily.

Tom Chantrell's finished Movie Poster painting of the 1962 sword & sandals epic, THE 300 SPARTANS. Image measures approximately 28" x 21".Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of them his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army now thought to have numbered 250,000. The actual heroism of those who stood (and ultimately died) with Leonidas helped shape the course of Western Civilization, allowing the Greek city states time to organize an army which repelled the Persians. Set in 480 BC.Extract from a Frank Miller interview (when questioned about his later retelling of the story): ". . . it was a product of my entire life. I’ve loved the story ever since I saw The 300 Spartans, starring Richard Egan, when I was a young kid in the ’60s, and I researched it as thoroughly as I could. It’s as pure a story of heroism as I could find. Our version would probably be the Alamo, in terms of the overwhelming size of the enemy."

Tom Chantrell’s original (prototype) movie poster painting for Elia Kazan’s 1969 movie, THE ARRANGEMENT. Despite turning in a nicely painted image for consideration to spearhead the UK cinema front-of-house advertising campaign, British distributors for this American-produced film opted to go the route of a photographic movie poster image and Chantrell’s artwork remained unused . I bought this painting from the Chantrell family, via their art agent.

I post art on CAF purely to see if anything is good enough to warrant a Marcus Wai comment, which I regard as a seal of approval!  Comic Art Gallery of Terry Doyle at ComicArtFans.com

How about B&V as sexy rock chicks with a spaced-out Jughead? I've had this cover for a while:

Ah, Jesus toast, does it work as well as Jesus soap?

Well, a few years ago CGC here deleted my thread (and I got a temporary ban) for posting the image of a movie poster painting I bought . . . the printed poster from which would have been displayed on front-of-house cinemas where people of all ages would have seen it at the time of the movie's release! THE VICTORS (1963) - movie poster painting, in Terry Doyle's 2. MOVIE POSTER paintings Comic Art Gallery Room (comicartfans.com) What do I think about that? I think that some people have an over-active imagination and see what they want to see . . . Bit like someone looking up at the skies and seeing the shape of a face in the clouds. Nah, they're just clouds . . .

What if Borat is in the composition?

If cartoon bikini girls are your thing . . . may I recommend the CAF galleries of Chris Vickers? Who knows . . . maybe he could be persuaded to do some commission work? Comic Art Gallery of Chris Vickers at ComicArtFans.com No shortage there of scantily-clad women to sate your deepest desires!

It's from a story called 'Basebuilder' (1981), when Jeff Hawke became Lance McLane. Not sure who assisted but I'll ask Sydney next time we speak.

Magic the Gathering - Armored Skaab by Volkan Baga

Frank Frazetta, THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S This amusing illustration was created for the pressbook used to promote the film THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S (United Artists, 1968), directed by William Friedkin. The image depicts Bert Lahr (best known as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz) as Professor Spats. Signed with a trademark "F" in the upper right corner (as well as a full signature on the reverse), this piece measures 10" x 13.5" overall, with a general image area of 7" x 11.25" on heavy illustration board.

During the mid-1980s, Titan UK reprinted a two-volume selection of classic strips from the long-running UK science-fiction strip, Jeff Hawke, by Sydney Jordan. This was my first exposure to the strip, which was originally carried by a single newspaper, The Daily Express, that neither myself nor my family ever bought. The two reprint editions were given a touch of class up-front by sporting Brian Bolland covers (Bolland had assisted Sydney Jordan on one of the latter Jeff Hawke strips, so there was a connection of sorts). The first two strips of the reprint Volume One, 'Overlord' and 'Survival' (circa 1960) saw Jordan's layouts being finished by an artist named Colin Andrew. Andrew took inspiration for his finished art by channeling the works of EC artists such as Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta and even Johnny Craig. This morning, I received two daily 'Overlord' originals directly from Mr. Jordan (now in his 90s), following an earlier purchase of several months ago of six 'Survival' episodes. These would appear to be the last examples from the two stories as he's now exhausted his search and can find no more. Larger scans can be seen in my CAF Galleries at: Comic Art Gallery of Terry Doyle at ComicArtFans.com

An amazing selection of 120 Movie Poster original paintings dating back to the 1920s surfaced in auction from Ewbanks Auctioneers (UK) on Friday February 28, 2020. It was a no reserve auction and every painting sold. I acquired a total of five painting from the sale (on display within my CAF). In addition to the Movie art, there were also several hundred Circus poster original paintings (some of which can be seen in the shots).Here's a selection of photographs of paintings on display at Ewbanks on the morning of the sale, taken by one of the members of my 'Original MOVIE Art and Marketplace' FB group. New members always welcome:https://www.facebook.com/groups/131047770909401/

Most of my movie art has been posted on an earlier specific thread, but as this one covers a broader range of vintage illustration art, I think the repetition is probably justified. THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS is a 1949 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean. The film is based on The Passionate Friends: A Novel by H. G. Wells. It describes a love triangle in which a woman cannot give up her affair with another man. The film was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.No idea who the artist is on this one but it's beautifully painted. I was gifted with this artwork in appreciation for a small favor I performed for a Spanish collector friend!

Thanks! A friend of mine calls this painting, "Those T*ts and A**es".

Ha! How about . . .

. . . and 2nd McGinnis . . .THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY (1969) - movie poster painting (and printed poster for comparison):