First, check out his profile from comicbookdb.com.  There, the story ends in the 70’s.

Where I pick it up is in the 80’s, when the artist knocked out several posters for  21st Century Distribution and Almi Picures, companies that specialized in importing and “Americanizing” many European and Asian genre films.

His signature only appears on one poster (Eye of the Evil Dead aka Lucio Fulci’s Manhattan Baby) but there are a few technical, thematic, and composition elements that all point in the same direction.  

Here are some examples of his non-movie poster work:

The residual spinning from the whirlwind weekend that was the 2012 edition of Rue Morgue’s spooktacular Festival of Fear has finally slowed to a manageable pace.  Let’s have a look at some of the things I did, people I talked to, and crap I bought.

A number of months ago, I was asked to host a few panels at the mega-con.  The first of them was called Collectible Poster Art and featured a free-for-all geek out between Toronto artists Jason Edmiston, Gary Pullin, Justin Erickson, moderated by me (the other panel is covered here, including coverage of the poster panel).  I took it as an opportunity to shine light on these illustrators, as well as those behind their favourite movie poster designs.  

(left to right) yours truly, Gary Pullin, Jason Edmiston, Justin Erickson

Rather than rely on technology and muddle my way through a restricting powerpoint presentation, I opted for the real thing, so a handful of my own posters were brought out for the occasion.  We talked about video posters-

We talked about weird, rare European posters, like this French pantalon for RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, Civil War Zombie variant

The discussion got into withdrawn posters, like this 1-sheet which quickly went on to be renamed THE GATES OF HELL after George Romero shut ‘em down.

  …and to address the issues of what to do with oversize posters (display, storage, appeal, etc), the largest poster in my collection, this Italian 6-sheet for THE EVIL DEAD.

We finished the event by feasting our eyeballs upon Jason Edmiston’s artwork (here’s the treatment sketches and final painting for MANBORG), up close and in the flesh- something I’ve wanted to do ever since I first saw his stuff.

For me, a collector of nearly 25 years, this was a extremely gratifying experience.  I don’t often get to show off bits from my collection and the intermittent oohs, ahhs, and paparazzi moments let me know I chose some goodies.  Part of my personal goal with this event was to stress the importance of hand-rendered art to movie marketing and to get people inspired about illustration.  Whether or not any of it  connected, I can say I did my part with passion and enthusiasm.   

Super special thanks goes to Michael “Schwartz” Schwartz for the pics.  Schwartz’s own kick-ass poster collection can be seen here.  Also thanks for Jay at The Horror Section blog for covering the event!  Good to see real ‘heads in the crowd!