MY POSTER PAST :: part 10

This series has been a wonderfully evocative journey for me personally - uniting all these striking, familiar images is nearly like my life flashing before my eyes. But as I've asserted time and again, nostalgia is nontransferable; you may enjoy the artwork but unless you've stared at that particular glamour shot of the Batmobile for the entirety of your formative years then you may not have the same feels as I as you gaze upon it. Fortunately for you, dear readers, some of these posters come with a story (or at least some kinda explanation) and for this set I've found a few peculiarities that come with a legit "lemme explain...". As for the rest, you'll just have to attempt to enjoy them on as many levels as I do. 

- Paul

Punch-Drunk Love

My sister got me this for Christmas in 2002 and that was the last day it looked this nice. I immediately placed it in a cheap plastic frame which caused excessive waves of wrinkles to the point that it was painful to look at (which sucks for wall art). It met its ultimate fate as it hung in my short-lived basement bedroom; the plexiglass became coated in soot generated by an antique oil furnace, and the poster itself never fully recovered from an isolated ceiling leak. That's that, mattress man.

Nice Jeans!

I don't know where I bought this or when, and even in the moment I didn't even really know why. I mean I kinda know why - the irony of dumb humor dorm room pinups was never lost on me (nor was the appeal of the pinups themselves) but this one hung behind a door which was usually a sentence of banishment.

Joey

I didn't watch Dawson's Creek. I've never seen a minute of Dawson's Creek. I wasn't even really that into Katie Holmes, but I came across this for 90% off regular retail when my go-to poster store was going out of business in the early 2000s. I acquired it for pennies and helped it to realize its full potential: I bought a 12x16 frame - just big enough to fit her eyes, nose, and mouth, cut the poster to size, and encapsulated her unsettlingly sensuous WB face - making it just weird enough to be worthy. 

Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy!

For a show full of crazy shapes and sounds and colors, I loved and continued to love the quiet elegance of this stark white atmosphere - it's like a t-shirt but better. Though I will say that tall, serif "Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy!" typeface is more 1992 than powdered toast and Crystal Pepsi combined. 

Edward Scissorhands VHS

The months between the end of the theatrical run and the home video release of this movie was like a prison sentence: "How am I to live in a world with no way of watching Edward Scissorhands on any format??" In the Spring of '91 I was already aware of its impending June 27 VHS street date, but it was still like an electric rainbow explosion the day my mother and I drove past a video store (because they were that common) and we spotted this beauty in the window. Without any exchange of words my mom turned around and pulled into the parking lot - her plan was to send me in alone to ask for the poster because there was a better chance of them not saying no to an 8-year-old. But they did say no, and while I maintained a brave face in the moment, I went back out to the car in tears. The video store employee must've watched from the window as my mother consoled me because he came out and agreed to put my name and number on the back of the poster and call me when they were through with it. (I would take advantage of this arrangement with several other posters at several other video stores over the years.)