THE SCI-FI AND MONSTER MOVIE POSTERS OF REYNOLD BROWN (1955 - 1960)

 

In 1994 they made a movie called "The Man Who Drew The Bug-Eyed Monsters." It was a documentary about a truly astounding artiste named Reynold Brown, who was responsible for creating many of the everlasting movie posters from Science Fiction and Monster Movies of the 1950's and 60's.

 

 

This Saturday Night Special is dedicated to that man! Prepare to be amazed!

Let's get started with the classic "Creature From The Black Lagoon" from 1955.

We've shown you many of these posters before, mostly because of the studio, but not the artist, who for the most part, always stayed sinfully uncredited!

 

Just keep reminding yourself that this is all the work of one man, because it really is a little bit hard to believe! Again in 1955, here's the poster from "Revenge Of The Creature."

 

Another from 1955, here's Reynold's poster for "Tarantula!" I like the weird double spacing on the stars names they did to get the composition right. Reynold paid great attention to the expressions on all the little people in the background, but the posters were printed so cheaply, a lot of his detail was lost!

 

 

Still from 1955, here's "This Island Earth," a color film that deserved an even more colorful poster. Reynold's compositions are starting to also get busier.

Probably one of the reasons that Reynold could paint such good flying saucers was because "during World War II he worked as a technical artist at North American Aviation."

 

In more than one instance Reynold's poster art was more exciting that the actual movie. "Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon" from 1956 is a perfect example!

 

This is how cool Curucu could have really looked!
 

 1957 was a big year for Reynold like this killer poster from "The Deadly Mantis."

Reynold did not only paint posters for the monster movies, he did over three hundred, and many of them were for mainstream films like "The Alamo."

 

 

Small or tall, Reynold got the call, and every one of these films is a classic! Again in 1957, he did the poster for "The Incredible Shrinking Man." And never forget this was long before the internet or Photoshop, and this all had to come out of the mind of one man!

What a great poster for the 1957 film "The Land Unknown." Actually a whole lot of kids were pretty disappointed seeing movies like this after seeing a dynamic poster like this one.

Now this is one of my favorites from 1957, "The Monolith Monsters." The movie is wack, and this poster of Reynold's explodes with excitement. It's almost three dimensional! I need to take a break, I think I'll go watch it for a while right now!

This poster for the 1957 adventure film "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent," aka "Viking Women And The Sea Serpent," is ten times more exciting than the movie. 

 

You'd think that would probably be enough for most people, but Reynold was just getting started, and 1958 was really a banter year for him!

Is there a more classic poster than "Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman?" Maybe, but it's debatable!
 

From attacks by giant women to puppet people, there was no stopping Reynold!

Again in 1958, this was the poster from "Attack Of The Puppet People."
 

 

This "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" poster also from 1958 was a beaut!

Believe it or not, Reynold didn't really like making these monster movie posters that much. It was just a job to him, that considering everything, didn't even pay that well, but that didn't stop him from putting his all into each and every one of them, many times to find his artwork chopped up by some art director.

 

 

What kid in 1958 wouldn't want to go see "Monster On The Campus" after viewing this poster?

Reynold developed this style where the images popped out at you, almost in 3D. This 1959 "Atomic Submarine" poster is a good example of that.

 

Some of Reynold's early work was drawing cartoons, then he turned to illustrating magazines with artwork like this, and his work also appears on the covers of a score of paperback books!
 

This 1959 poster from William Castle's "House On Haunted Hill" is way beyond classic!
 

By 1960, the face of horror was changing, and the films based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe became a popular subject. This "House Of Usher" poster is as equally amazing as the monster posters were.

Also in 1960, the Italian horror films like "Black Sunday" were becoming very popular, and Reynold came up with this incredible imagery.

By 1970, the movies were becoming too sexy and violent, and Reynold decided after creating the poster for "The Dunwich Horror," that he had just had enough, and he went back to doing the art that he loved, painting cowboys, and enjoying life as best he could.

To find out everything they never taught you in school or history class, go to

The Reynold Brown Website

where you can find out so much more about this great man and gifted artist!