Located in Richmond Hill, New York, they hit the ground running with an inventory that consisted almost entirely of psychedelic art and, most notably, blacklight posters. In fact, if you saw or owned any blacklight posters from the 70s through the 90s, the odds were pretty even that it came from Funky. (I had a few myself, but in my experience blacklight bulbs typically tended to melt every lamp I'd screw them into.)
Their supremacy in the world of "Blacklight Art" was more than enough to secure their legacy in classy home decor, but in the 1980s they gracefully (actually, skillfully) changed with the times by successfully securing the licenses to a ton of music artists. Like, all of them; they offered popular prints for Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, Metallica, and Ozzy, but they also had the monopoly on recognizable Classic Rock images of Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Queen, and The Beatles.
If a big neon wizard or a picture of David Lee Roth in midair wasn't appealing enough to the youth culture, they also leaned hard into the pinup category, offering tons of tantalizing portraits of oiled bodies of both sexes in various states of undress. By the end of the decade, Funky had dominated the bedrooms and dorm rooms and basements and garages of at least two generations of fine art collectors. And they weren't done.
I have personal experience with the blacklight trend even though I was a teenager two decades after the height of its popularity, but if you're anywhere near my age then you remember how a gaudy wave of superficial 60s and 70s "retro" nostalgia abruptly became big business in every corner of the culture, and suddenly I found myself in my bedroom behind a beaded curtain listening to "Within You Without You", lit by a 16'' Lava Lamp and a glowing Grim Reaper on my wall. In other words, blacklight ornamentation came back in a big way. Maybe bigger - not that I was old enough to visit a "head shop", but the expansion of this otherwise niche artwork into mainstream retailers and shopping malls (i.e. Spencer's Gifts) made them that much more accessible to minors like me. All they had to do was swap out KISS with Sublime and it was like no time has passed.
Funky's biggest "competitor" (and former Poster Past subject) was O.S.P. Publishing - a company that also put out plenty of posters of music artists and centerfolds, but also had the monopoly on major motion pictures. As far as movies, Funky's involvement was sparse and notable. They had a deal with New Line Cinema, and with that they managed to produce some artwork from Elm Street to Lord of the Rings for public consumption. The other really huge deal they landed was with comic books - both Marvel and DC. So if you remember those big illustrated prints of Superman or various X-Men that had that specific Fox Kids aesthetic to them, they were probably from Funky. In fact, they managed to hold onto the license long enough that they were able to put out a series of prints for the 2002 Spider-Man movie.
The company's end is tired and predictable: The Internet came along and they dissolved into the ether. Again, not just because the Net killed retailers, but it also wounded the concept of decorating your environment with pictures that would ultimately distract you from... The Internet. Me, I don't march to that beat -- but I did do a quick inventory of what's on my walls right now and sadly I'm currently displaying only one Funky Enterprises print - of New Kids on the Block (though I have an embarrassing amount of Funky brand Britney Spears posters rolled up in my closet). Additionally, I'm currently only showing two O.S.P. posters (Bram Stoker's Dracula and a Dick Tracy Madonna print). But I suppose that makes sense - over the years, the ratio of movies to bands to boobs probably evened out statistically, with Cindy Crawford, Danny DeVito, and Freddie Mercury all vying for my attention. Really nothing's changed.
- Paul
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