As you’ve probably noticed, movie-poster collecting has turned into a Ron Burgundy-sized “Big Deal” over the past few years:  everywhere you look, brilliantly talented artists like Martin Ansin, Tyler Stout, and Olly Moss are joining forces with places like Gallery 1988, IAm8Bit, and the newly-opened Mondo Gallery to create collectible, gorgeously-rendered works of art based on your favorite movies and TV shows, and every time one of these posters drops…a poster-collector is born.And where do we--the die-hard paper-geeks of the world-- go for our news?  For our drop announcements?  For interviews with our favorite artists?  For reckless rumor-mongering about upcoming events?  One or two dark corners of the internet might traffic in the kind of information collectors crave, but we think we can streamline that process a bit (and even if we fail, it is an excuse to ramble on about posters for the umpteenth time, and we never get tired of that).  Wanna see what we’ve put together?  Check out Limited Paper #1 after the jump, folks.What?!  A new column devoted entirely to poster-collecting?  And it’s not just wall-to-wall Mondo stuff?  And there’ll be interviews and drop announcements?  A weekly last-minute head’s up for whatever’s being released Thursday/Friday?That’s right.   And also?  We’d like you to help us shape it.That’s right.  This has all been a trick, and now you’re being put to work (heh-heh, sucker).  First, we’re inviting you to read through the piece below.   After reading all the way through, meet us at the end of the “Thing Worth Getting Excited About” section to answer a few specific questions and offer your suggestions.  Ready?  Excellent:  get to it!  We’ll see ya on the other side.  First up, our three “biggest stories” of the week:GALLERY 1988: Gallery 1988—having just come off a successful Avengers-themed show—has spent the past few weeks knee-deep in an all-new print series…one based on AMC’s Breaking Bad.  The entire series of prints (which is being revealed via a LOST-style ARG headed up by none other than Paul Scheer) got off to a start earlier this month with Daniel Danger’s My Name is Walter Hartwell White, progressed to Tom Whalen’s  Hector Salamanca, and most recently dropped a spoiler-iffic print by Anthony Petrie called Gus (if you haven’t seen the most recent season of Breaking Bad, we recommend avoiding this print until you do).

  • My Name is Walter Hartwell White (Daniel Danger) 12x36”, edition of 300
  • Hector Salamanca (Tom Whalen) 18x24”, edition of 300
  • Gus (Anthony Petrie) 18x24”, edition of 300

If you’re interested in keeping up with the Breaking Bad ARG that’s behind the posters, head on over to breakinggifs.com and start refreshing:  new posters are being revealed all summer long!

MONDO NEWS:

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Last week, Mondo released or announced a slew of new posters, and wallets everywhere took a merciless beating.  On Thursday, Phantom City Creative’s Mole People and Jeff Proctor’s The Hills Have Eyes an online drop, but the Mondo mob was clearly focused on Vania Zouravliov’s 13 Assassins:  that one sold out very quickly.  Then again, both Mole People and Hills had been available for a few weeks at that point (both dropped during Texas Frightmare Weekend, then became available for pickup at the Mondo Gallery, then they were put up for sale online), so perhaps they just didn’t have that new-car sheen that some buyers look for.

Related opinion:  whoever passed on Hills will regret it the first time they see it in person (it’s science). Related fact:  neither Hills nor Mole People had accompanying variant editions, but picking up 13 Assassins meant choosing between the white, blue, and gold editions.  Here are the specs:

  • Mole People (Phantom City Creative) 24x36”, $40 (edition of 250)
  • 13 Assassins (Vania Zouravliov) 20x36”, $50 (edition of 120 per White, Blue, and Gold)
  • The Hills Have Eyes (Jeffrey Proctor) 24x36”, $40 (edition of 200)

Meanwhile, new prints for Friday’s screening of Rocky 3 (co-presented by the fine folks at Collider.com) and Saturday morning’s Iron Giant screening were announced/released/envied by those living outside of Austin.  Jay Shaw’s Rocky 3 18x24”print—featuring a bold image choice, to say the least-- was as divisive as Shaw releases always seem to be these days, but everyone here at Collider loved it.  Here’s the specs:

  • Rocky 3 (Jay Shaw) 18x24”, $40 (edition of 270)

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Laurent Durieux’s  Iron Giant print, meanwhile, seemed to impress virtually everyone that got a peek at it, and had people turning up in droves on Saturday morning…long before the screening even began.   The print isn’t actually 24x36”—it’s just under on both sides, but about an inch or two—but it is one of the most impressive Mondo releases thus far in 2012, with colors that almost seem to be glowing and bolder patches of red than I’d expected from the preview pics.

Tonight, Mondo will release Durieux’s King Kong print during a screening of the film at the Ritz Drafthouse, but the reception to that piece (which included lengthy talks about what some interpreted as Kong’s “man boobs”) has been…well, a little chillier than the one that met Iron Giant.  Then again, very few pieces get that kind of universal love.  Oh, and before you go throwing yourself off a bridge because you still don’t live in Austin and missed this one, be aware that the remaining Giants will very likely be a part of Thursday’s online drop.  If you fail to snag one on Thursday?  Well, that bridge will still be there!  Go-Go Gadget Specs!

  • Iron Giant (Laurent Durieux) ~24x36”, edition of 425

DARK HALL MANSION/TOM WHALEN’S “Yellow Submarine”

What, you didn’t know about this?  Dude, come on.  Here’s a quick refresher, from Dark Hall’s website:  “Tom Whalen’s stunning artwork for these prints draws directly from The Beatles legendary 1968 classic Yellow Submarine and is the first time The Beatles have formally allowed a contemporary artist to reinterpret their classic film’s imagery within an art print format.”  I probably shouldn’t make any pre-release declarations about quality here (I haven’t even seen all the prints included in the Folio, so take this with a grain of salt), but:  this seems like the perfect marriage of artist, project, and subject.  Feels like a slam dunk…only question is, can you beat the world’s Beatles fanatics to the checkout when the prints go on sale?

Speaking of which!  Let’s talk details.  Tom Whalen’s Yellow Submarine Folio comes in three editions-- $300 for the yellow edition, $450 for the pink variant, $675 for the elite edition—and will go on sale today at 930am (PST) on May 29th over at Dark Hall Mansion’s website.  Each folio contains the same five screenprints, but the elite edition (only 68 in that edition, holy crap) is getting metallic inks.  Click here to see detailed pics of everything.

Here are the specs:

  • Yellow Submarine (Yellow Edition) $300, edition of 797
  • Yellow Submarine (Pink Edition) $450, edition of 135
  • Yellow Submarine (Elite Edition) $675, edition of 68

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ODDS AND ENDS:

***  Rhys Cooper’s still hard at work on the Game of Thrones banner series (you can read about the first wave of prints he released here), and recently Cooper released a look at the newest banner to be added to the lineup, a Lion-themed print (with the expected crimson and gold colors) for House Lannister.  A pre-sale has already taken place on the first wave of prints, and a second pre-sale is expected soon for the second wave.  At least, that’s the common belief at the moment.

Look, I’ll be honest:  I purchased the first wave of six variants and then promptly stopped paying attention to the future sales surrounding the series.  Tell ya what:  next week’s Limited Paper will feature reliable, fact-checked updates on the Game of Thrones sale/second round of sales.  Remember:  this is the “rough draft” Limited Paper, so I can totally pawn off laziness as “intentional corner-cutting”.

Hey, speaking of “corner-cutting” (OMG that might be the best segue ever), you do know about the difference in variants and regs on this series, right?  The photo below shows the regulars, which—as you can see—are all the same shape/size, but the variants will actually be cut out to match the shape of the image.  Those look really, really snazzy (looked for photos of the variant versions, not coming across any immediately, will toss that onto the to-do pile for subsection “Cooper”, next week’s Limited Paper).

These really are looking damn good thus far:

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***  In other exciting print news, the Phone Booth Gallery has announced a new show for June 23rd called A Distant Winter.  At this time, not much is known about the show itself…but we do know that Martin Ansin, Ken Taylor, and Rich Kelly are the artists involved (and, really, do you need to know any more than that?).  Phone Booth’s expected to release more details about the show in the coming weeks, but for now, the following message is all the information we have about the show:  “Phone Booth Gallery is proud to announce "A Distant Winter," an ambitious three person exhibition featuring Ken Taylor (whose 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea poster—seen below—remains one of 2012’s strongest prints), Martin Ansin and Rich Kelly. Opening June 23rd, with all three artists in attendance, the exhibition will feature brand new prints and original work from all three artists. Direct all preview list inquires to phoneboothgallery@gmail.com.”

You can visit the Phone Booth Gallery’s website here.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

We’re kind of in-between news-cycles/announcements at the moment, but a quick look at the calendar indicates that the week ahead is jam-packed with potential drops, at least one major show, and several screenings that may or may not have limited paper accompaniment.  Be aware that most of the following are specific to people in the Austin area, but we’ll be including potential drops, screenings, and rumored posters anywhere we hear that they might make an appearance (besides, hardcore collectors already own an “Austin Poster Buddy”, which is this summer’s hottest fashion accessory).

Without further ado, here’s what you need to have on your radar this week, potential drop-wise:

***  As was mentioned previously, Mondo will release Laurent Durieux’s King Kong print when the film screens tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse’s Ritz location (it’s sold out).   Edition size, exact measurements, and cost are to-be-determined.

*** This Thursday, the Drafthouse is holding a Rolling Roadshow screening of Pixar’s Toy Story in north Austin, and the remaining portion of Tom Whalen’s excellent Toy Story prints (regular edition, edition size of 540, 24x36”, $50 apiece)  will be sold at the screening.  Also at the screening:  all you can eat pizza (this event is sold out).

*** This week’s biggest event has to be Don’t Go Out Tonight, the all-Jay-Shaw (aka Iron Jaiden) exhibition which opens Friday night at the Mondo Gallery in downtown Austin.  Not much is known about the show itself beyond the fact that it’s Shaw covering the cult films owned/released by Blue Underground, but even that seems to indicate that Shaw will have quite a bit of material to choose from.   The Mondo Gallery’s most recent show—an exhibition based entirely on Adventure Time—closed this weekend after a wildly successful run over the past three weeks.   As an up-and-coming artist with a bold style that seems to divide collectors, it will be extremely interesting to see how this particular show plays out (we’re rooting for ya, Jay!).

*** Also this Friday, the Alamo Drafthouse’s Summer of 1982 series will screen Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist at the Alamo’s Ritz location (sold out for a while now), but—as of this writing—no poster has been confirmed for the screening, but rumors persist that a Jay Shaw Poltergeist print might be unveiled during the show (this would coincide with the Shaw gallery show opening the same night just up the street).  Then again, Ken Taylor delivered a jaw-dropping Poltergeist print in 2010, so it’s possible that this will be one of the Summer of 1982 screenings that arrives… unaccompanied.

*** On Sunday, June 2nd, the Summer of 1982 series strikes again with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.  Some of the people associated with the event (such as Devin Faraci, whose BadassDigest.com is co-presenting the film that night) have Tweeted hints that something special will be happening during the screening, but collectors remain divided on the likelihood that a Kahn poster will drop…if only because Tyler Stout just release a fairly epic Kahn print in March.  Will we get two Kahn prints within three months of each other?  Stay tuned.

*** And, finally, a head’s up to the entire poster-collecting community:  rumors have persisted for months that fan-favorite Tyler Stout might be producing a poster for Ridley Scott’s forthcoming sci-fi epic, Prometheus.  While this has not been directly confirmed by Mondo, Stout, or anyone else that might be in the know, it’s worth noting that if such a print does exist…it will likely be announced soon, arrive not long after, and would instantly become one of the year’s most in-demand prints (if the pre-release interest in Prometheus is any indication).  Press screenings for Prometheus are taking place through this week in anticipation of the film’s wide opening on the 8th.  Remain watchful, alert, and remember:  if you see something, say something.

THING WORTH GETTING EXCITED ABOUT OF THE WEEK:  MARK ENGLERT

Each week, we’ll be presenting a “Thing Worth Getting Excited About” as part of Limited Paper.  Sometimes it’ll be a print that’s particularly rare/gorgeous/controversial, sometimes it’ll be an artist we think is particularly kick-ass, and sometimes it might be an upcoming event we feel like camping out for.  If you have suggestions about a person, place, or thing that deserves TWGEB status, name-check that shizz in the comments section and either me or Steve will take it into consideration for a future column.

But before you run down to the comments section to tell us what a badass this new “Tyler Stout” dude is, take a moment to hear me out on why I picked Mark Englert as our first-ever “Thing Worth Getting Excited About”.   In fact, why don’t you hear Mark out?  Recently, Mark was friendly enough to sit down and answer a few pressing questions I’d been sitting on, and I think a few of his answers will be of interest to this discussion.

First up:  here’s him explaining how Der et en slags Ting – his wildly popular screenprint based on John Carpenter’s The Thing-- came to be:

Earlier this year, someone on (art-collecting website) Expresso Beans posted a picture of their wall and their dilemma: they had a bit too much space to hang two prints together, JC Richard's "Fortress of Solitude" and Dan McCarthy's "Hoth". The easiest solution in my mind was to hang a third print, because three prints would look great together... but no prints existed that were the same size or that would fit the theme he had going. So, I made a quick mock up of what would become "Det Er En Slags Ting". People reacted really favorably to something I pooped out in about an hour, so I thought I finally had a chance to make something great that people would buy. I started a process thread so people could track my progress and I was happy to see folks get really invested, offering helpful advice and criticisms. When the print finally got produced and delivered, it felt like a real community effort and I couldn't have been happier with the end product and the vibe of my thread there.

Yes, Mark’s first print was “pooped out” in “about an hour”.  If this is the kind of quality we can expect from Mark when he’s in “Give No Shits” mode, what sort of awesomeness should we expect from him when he’s actually operating on all four cylinders (note:  all Englerts come standard with a V-4, but make up for it in trunk space)?!   Well, funny I should ask that.  Here’s Mark talking about what he’s got on the horizon:

I have several prints on the burner.   Two more have been released since:  a gig poster for comedian Jim Norton and "They All Float", based off a favorite movie from my childhood. Coming up next is "This is my farm... I'll die here", another gig poster and I have more stuff that I'm anxious to show off once it is further along.

That next piece—It’s My Farm…I’ll Die Here-- is based on AMC’s wildly popular zombie series, The Walking Dead, and (if the pre-release demand is any indication) it’ll sell out even faster than his previous two prints.  Of course the artwork’s gorgeous (you can see the regular edition below), but people interested in buying variants are getting more than gorgeous artwork:  for every variant sale he’s done thus far, Mark’s offered fans some truly unique (and truly awesome) bonuses.  Glow-in-the-dark ink, for instance.  Might not sound like the biggest bonus ever, but have you seen the miracles this dude works with GID ink?  Check out his GID Thing variant below:

Wow, right?  Maybe not.  Let’s say glow-in-the-dark isn’t your thing—what could Mark do to get you to consider buying a variant?  Well, how about unique sketches on every one of his AP variants?

Yes, Mark took sketch requests from everyone who purchased one of his AP Thing prints, and--over the course of a couple weeks-- he got every last one of ‘em sketched, tubed, and shipped.  Probably earned himself several dozen lifelong fans in the process, too.

They’ll be back for It’s My Farm (See the regular below), where Mark’s looking to take variant bonuses one step further:  a recent pre-sale for the first It’s My Farm variant offered buyers the chance to have their likeness included in the print…as a zombie. Yes, if you purchased a variant during that drop, Mark was offering to sketch a little zombie “you” and include it with your tube.  You simply don’t hear about things like that happening these days:  if anything, artists connect with fans via terse Tweets, halfhearted Facebook posts, or…y’know, not at all.

There’s no telling where Mark’s career may take him from here (Who knows?  He may stop creating screen prints entirely, take up knitting and start selling super-special variant sweaters), but it’s exciting to see his fame rise in real time, and truly awesome to see him taking such pleasure in both the production of his art and the dissemination of it.  There may come a day when Mark runs out of ideas for extra-special bonuses and out-of-left-field add-ons, but—if Mark’s as good as I think he is—by the time that happens, he’ll probably have enjoyed a long and storied career.

You can reach Mark at tacobelvedere.com (where all his prints will eventually be made available for purchase…unless they’re already sold out, in which case you’re screwed), on Facebook, or on the Expresso Beans forums.  He may even be in your kitchen right now, making pancakes.  Better go check.

OK, folks, this is usually the point where we’d be wrapping up the column, so-- rather than giving you the normal song and dance-- we’d like to throw some specific questions your way about the column itself.  If you want your answers to go directly to the author—or if you know of an artist, a company, some rare posters, or—ugh, who knows?!—if there’s anything print-related you’d like to share, drop us a line at FeedbackMcNasty@yahoo.com (no, seriously, that’s a real account, set up specifically for situations like this).  You can also leave your answers in the comments section, but—as always—we encourage everyone to engage one another with all the civility we’ve come to expect from the internet in the past five years.

First of all, are you an active poster collector?  Movie posters or gig posters?

Do you like the idea of having a bunch of stories/announcements from the week indexed on one page?  Do you prefer a labeled, bite-size format like the one most of today’s bits of “news” were conveyed with, or would you have preferred an uninterrupted block of text/photos?   If you read the column regularly, would you probably read the Mondo news, the Gallery 1988 news, and/or whatever the “third man” news selection for the week might be?  Or would you just skim through the listings?

Can you think of a company/artist/poster series/what-have-you that you would really like to see included here in the future?  Let us know, and if there’s anything else you’d like to discuss, go ahead and toss it into the comments section.  We can’t promise that we’re going to be able to answer each and every comment, but we are absolutely interested in making you—our fellow poster collectors, poster-collecting n00bs and veterans alike, and anyone in-between—a part of Limited Paper’s development , so don’t be shy:  get involved and make some recommendations before we’re forced to publish the next installment!