A 2010 movie poster for the 1968 film ‘Head’ by Wayne Shellabarger.
Back in 2010 Criterion had the fantastic idea to have director Jim Jarmusch select a number of notable artists including Daniel Clowes, R. Crumb and Hunter S. Thompson’s pal Ralph Steadman to design movie posters for various Criterion releases. The posters made their debut during an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival which Jarmusch curated in 2010.
A poster for the 1963 film ‘Shock Corridor’ by Daniel Clowes.
If you’ve not seen the artwork that Clowes created for two films in Criterion’s collection directed by Samuel Fuller—1963’s mental hospital fever-dream Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss—you are in for a treat. I’ve assembled a number of the posters done by a wide range of artists that pay homage to films by Wes Anderson, Hal Ashby and David Cronenberg just to name a few. In 2014 Criterion published a massive book Criterion Designs that features a collection of artwork created for films in their catalog including many of the ones featured in this post.
‘Crumb’ by R. Crumb.
‘Easy Rider’ by Scott Campbell and Erik Skillman.
‘The Naked Kiss’ by Daniel Clowes.
Clowes’ ‘Shock Corridor.’
‘Something Wild’ by Connor Willumsen.
‘Naked Lunch’ by Evan Bryce.
‘Harold and Maude’ by Jordan Crane.
‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ by Ralph Steadman.
‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ by Eric Chase Anderson (brother of director Wes Anderson).
‘Monsters and Madmen’ by Darwyn Cooke.
‘The Last Picture Show’ by Jason Latour.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘The Criterion of shit movies’: Arrow Video’s lionization of lowbrow