Movie Poster of the Week: Wonderbros’ Saul Bass-Inspired Fight Club Poster

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As I recently covered the last remaining bit of empty wall space in my apartment with a Human Centipede poster, I had to finally admit that I have a problem. I’m obsessed with movie posters.

I’m not talking about your standard horribly Photoshopped movie poster with floating heads, terrible airbrushing and a complete and utter lack of imagination, though. The posters I love and empty my wallet for are usually created by the hands of a true artist. If I’m going to give up wall space for a 24 X 36 inch poster — frame not included in those dimensions, mind you — there needs to be some craftsmanship behind the poster’s creation.

I’m not alone, either. The DIY movie poster market is booming these days thanks to sites like Etsy, Ebay and other non-E sites. Besides the big dogs like Mondo Tees (a company that I’ve given a semester of college’s worth of money to over the years), there are tons of great movie posters out there just waiting to be discovered, ordered, framed and admired. Every week I hope to spotlight a different artist and their movie posters.

This week’s poster belongs to the Wonderbros, a trio of Houston based artists. Combined, the three siblings cover all spectrum of media including painting, graphic design and photography. Mike, Matt and Eric’s artwork spans a variety of influences, too. From religion to superheroes to cult movies — there’s a little something of everything in their repertoire.

Some of their standout work includes a series of portraits (including zombiefied portraits of people such as Kevin Smith, Billy Mitchell from King of Kong, and John Locke from Lost), a series of Picasso style paintings of superheroes and Saul Bass-inspired movie posters.

One of the posters, a vintage revisionary take on the Fight Club poster, is the spotlight poster of the week.

The artists’ work is featured on everything from prints to giant mural-sized canvases. After the artists caught the attention of Kevin Smith during a recent performance in Houston, the artists’ work was taken back to California and prominently displayed at the filmmaker’s Smodcastle theater. The Wonderbros frequently have gallery showings across Texas. You can see a wider selection of their work (including photography and graphic design) at www.wonderbros.com. To purchase some of the artists’ prints and paintings, you can visit their Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/Wonderbros. There is currently a sale going on at their Etsy shop. If you use the code “BYE2010” before January 31, 2011, you’ll get 20 percent off anything in the store.

If anybody has any tips to great artists that deserve to be spotlighted in this column, please e-mail me or message me on Twitter.

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.