Illustration: Fantastic Mexican Lobby Cards

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.


Previously, I posted galleries of images of lobby cards by the master Mexican caricaturist Ernesto Garcia Cabral. ( Gallery One / Gallery Two ) Today, I'm presenting a group of images from a variety of science fiction, horror and adventure films released in Mexico. In many cases, these cards are a lot more entertaining than the movies they're advertising. Every one of them makes me curious to see what the movie is all about, which shows that the lobby card is doing its job. It's a shame that lobby cards have gone the way of the dodo in this age of cinema multiplexes and mall theaters.

But that isn't all that seems to have been lost. Check out how these images exude the essence of the fantastic. Science fiction movies today are generally ugly and mundane compared to these crazy creatures and bizarre locales. Instead of cramped, cluttered shoeboxes flying through space, rocket ships should be streamlined and beautiful. The future should be strange and alien, not urban and post-apocalyptic. Creatures should be shocking and otherworldly too. Movies today could use a double dose of fun.













And here's a batch of miscellaneous cards that use cartoons to sell a wide variety of films...


















For more wonderful Mexican lobby Cards, see The Greatest Cartoonist You Never Heard Of Before Part One and Part Two.

See also... Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Mid 30s Advertisements, Wartime Colliers, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, Casey Strikes Out In Coronet, Bugs Bunny in Coronet Magazine December 1945, Milton Caniff in Coronet Magazine

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.18.08
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