MY POSTER PAST :: part 11

It's been nearly two years since my last post in this series - not because I've run out of poster stories to share, but because I'm always struggling to unite a bunch to better help me justify grouping them together. (My rigidness about such things comes as no surprise I'm sure.) I think I've come up with a good one this time: I call them "Surprise Posters" - as in wall art that I didn't know I was getting until I got them. I don't know if I'm describing it well so go ahead and look at the posters to see what I mean (I'm sure most of you already have).

- Paul

This Room is Protected by The Real Ghostbusters

My father still reminds me of the trials and tribulations of procuring me The Proton Pack, The Headquarters, et al. (He and my mother were successful on all fronts.) And as much as I loved all those plastic toys, I loved this free "sign" that came in the box just as much; even at 4 years old my interests were already leaning towards interior decorating. Of course, at that age there was no way I would've been able to articulate how much I loved the contrast of the red and yellow against the solid purple -- I was just happy to have an official "Keep Away" notice to let Freddy Krueger know I meant business. 

Now You're Playing With Power

Again, playing a Nintendo was cool, but having the visual reminder in my room that I actually owned a Nintendo was just as cool. Having said that, I've always thought this was an ugly poster; I think any kid would've preferred a big colorful image of Mario or Link over this frustrating composition of jagged grey shards floating in space. But I did and do adore the collage of screenshots of various games sprinkled throughout; they make me nostalgic now, but in the moment, they just made me love life. 

The Mask

I really didn't like this movie. I might've actually hated it, and I think a lot of that hate came from being really excited for it and then being so let down. I was so excited, in fact, that I bought any magazine that featured any images of Jim's awesome green face - one of which came with this super sleek pullout pinup within its pages. The magazine (whatever it was) also had a very similar publicity shot of Alec Baldwin as The Shadow -- that movie stank too, but these beautiful images with the clean uncluttered environments and the stylish costumes actually only accentuated my old, stained, torn, horrible pink wallpaper. My cousin got the same magazine with the same posters and they looked so goddamn good hanging on his nice clean freshly painted white walls. I literally tore everything off my own bedroom walls because of these posters in the hopes that my parents would perform an all out renovation. (They did not.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

Here's a nicer story. To you this is just an image on a screen, but it was actually a "mini poster" that was roughly 10x14 inches. But it was special because I got it for free at the movie's opening weekend: a cold rainy Saturday in March of 1991. They were handing these out in the lobby and I was too shy to grab one until my father insisted that I do - and I got the last one, and I clutched it as I sat in a theater packed with cold wet youths. And then when the Turtles first jumped onto the screen and the title card came up, everyone in the theater cheered. You don't forget memories like these.