Eric Garza, Creative Director
In no particular order, here are ten posters that we released in 2018 that really knocked me for a loop.
THE INVISIBLE MAN by Jonathan Burton
Excellent in the company of excellence. I could've filled all slots of this 'Top XX' list with any of the posters from our UNIVERSAL MONSTERS gallery show way back in January. But it's Jonathan's brilliant poster for James Whale's THE INVISIBLE MAN that won out at the time of this writing. Just a perfect concept expertly executed. Jonathan made this look so easy.
LABYRINTH by Jeremy Bastian
This was our first time working with Jeremy and I can't wait to see what comes next. I used to watch this movie all the time as a kid and Jeremy has done such a perfect job of capturing exactly what I saw, and what made me obsess over it all those years ago. The illustration work is absolutely insane that it'd be easy to get just as lost admiring the level of detail as you would Jareth's labyrinth. This is a poster that pays loving tribute to every aspect of this '80s magic spell.
SUSPIRIA (Madame Blanc) by Sara Deck
Sara absolutely crushed this. Equal parts beautiful and hauntingly arresting. This is one of the movies we were most excited for this year and hopeful we'd be able to develop any sort of poster for it. When Sara's roughs came in, we were completely spoiled for choice as they were all equally spellbinding. In the end, we developed two posters - one focused on Tilda Swinton's unbelievable Madame Blanc and the other featuring Dakota Johnson's hypnotic Susie Bannion. I'm not sure what sort of deal she struck to possess the talent she's got, but I thank Mother she's willing to share it with us all.
HEREDITARY by Greg Ruth
Greg Ruth is so talented it's actually insane. It was tough to pick a favorite from this year, but in the end, I had to go with HEREDITARY. This movie completely turned my world upside down, and Greg's poster reinforces that same unsettling feeling I had sitting in the theater watching this family absolutely crumble.
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - THE DEMON'S QUEST by Phantom City Creative
Phantom City Creative's body of work for BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES is among my favorite things we've ever worked on at Mondo. Justin is so dialed in to this world and its characters and stories that it seems second nature now. This poster for THE DEMON'S QUEST is so, so good, and the idea to render and pay homage to INDIANA JONES/Struzan-style adventure epic is simply perfect.
MOONLIGHT by Sara Wong
One day Nicolas Delort emailed us sharing an incredible piece of art he had come across for MOONLIGHT after he had moved on from the project. It was this beautiful illustration by Sara Wong that completely captured the raw and delicate beauty of Barry Jenkins' unbelievable film. It knocked us right off our feet and I'm so proud Sara allowed us to partner up to release a screenprint of the poster. I can't wait to work with Sara again and see what she delivers next.
MEGA MAN by Sachin Teng
Sachin is one of my favorite illustrators working today and this poster is a great example of why. I grew up playing a lot of video games (I still play a lot of video games) and one of the first things that springs to mind when you think of MEGA MAN are the various powers and abilities you acquire when defeating baddies. It's sometimes easy to forget Mega Man is robot despite having the face of an adolescent boy. Sachin's decision to deconstruct his body in the process of attaining these power-ups is a novel and brilliant idea that Sachin executed perfectly.
ANNIHILATION by Rory Kurtz
An absolutely flawless poster from an artist at the top of his game. Concept, colors, composition, and execution. Rory delivered confidently on all parts that resulted in not only one of my favorite posters of 2018 but of the last few years.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR by Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor faced a Herculean wall with this project and he scaled it without breaking a sweat. The sheer challenge of incorporating a thousand of the MCU's mightiest into a coherent and dynamic composition is no small feat, which Matt delivered upon with total grace. Between his Marvel work this year and his gig poster contributions, Matt is on an entirely new level and I'm eager to see what he has in store for us next.
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Martin Ansin
This poster was originally planned for release at MondoCon 2015. Three years later and it's still just as gorgeous and perfect of a poster as it was all those years ago. I think we had alluded at MondoTalk in 2016 that that there was a poster pending approval that many, if not all, agreed was the best poster Mondo had ever done... this is it. Praise be for Martin Ansin.
Honorable mentions:
TMNT/TMNT II: SECRET OF THE OOZE by Matt Ryan Tobin
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE ("Rainbow Dance" as we called it) by Robert Sammelin
GHOSTBUSTERS by Tom Whalen
DOCTOR STRANGE by Johnny Dombrowski
