Wednesday, July 27, 2011

MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978) Theatrical Posters

 
Here's a colorful selection of international one-sheets issued to promote one of my favorite Star Wars imitations, the 1978 Toei space epic, Message From Space. I've always loved the U.S. poster (top), ever since I saw the art in a newspaper ad back in '78. I'd love to find a better scan of the one directly below it; the art is magnificent! My favorite, though, has to be the Egyptian (?) one at the bottom; isn't that Marvel Comics' Starlord?

6 comments:

  1. These are very cool posters! The second is great. I notice that the big boxy ship on that one resembles the Galactica, but not particularly on the rest. The time frame is too close together, I think, for that ship to really be a knockoff of the BG.

    The presentation of the Egyptian/Arabic one actually makes it look like the top window of a pinball machine, complete with two 'score windows' in red.

    On the one above that, where the two humans are emerging from a flower, it almost suggests that this is a French sf/art film.

    On the French poster, the girl seems to be evoking the image of Barbarella as well as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Commander Cody--she looks like she should be wearing a jet pack.

    The other one with the comet streak/fireball is a great use of color and design, and the text doesn't stand out as a distraction.

    These are great!

    Gordon Long

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  2. Yes, that sure if Starlord. In fact the art is stolen directly from a Marvel Super Special Magazine Starlord cover. Issue #10.

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  3. I like how the last poster had that Star Wars vibe to it, while making the male character look kind of like the Marvel character Starlord.

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  4. These are great--I've never seen the second and last one. That movie is 12 kinds of awesome, I just ordered it on DVD last week.

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  5. The second poster kind of has a Steve Ditko vibe to it.

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  6. I'm a bit late to the game, but that German poster looks to have been put together from bits'n pieces of other artwork, the figures in the foreground remind me of a book cover image I saw but I cannot remember the artists name (Melvyn?) but the spacecraft on the right hand side of the poster is by Vincent DiFate and illustrated a George R. R. Martin short novel.

    Still, if you have to steal, steal from the best...

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