Dork Art: The Devil's Backbone by Guy Davis

A little while ago Criterion announced the titles of their July releases:  The Life of Oharu, Lord of the Flies, Babbette's Feast, The Ice Storm, and spine # 666 The Devil's Backbone.  Special Features include new & old documentaries, the typical commentary track (no word yet if this is the same one from the previous release), some deleted scenes, & the essay booklet.  But, personally, the most exciting speical feature is Guy Davis' cover art.  I really loved monster-mentor Mike Mignola's cover for the Cronos disc, but this is just an absolute killer piece.  The Devil's Backbone remains my all time favorite ghost story - to the point where I really have no patience for other interpretations.  This style of spook story cannot be done better.  Bold words?  Nah.  Fact.

--Brad

Dork Art: Del Toro's Fright Nights

Some days I wish I lived in Canada.  Last month in Toronto, my favorite horror mag Rue Morgue sponsored a five night horror film festival hosted by director Guillermo Del Toro called Fright Nights.  To comemorate the event, Phantom City Creative produced two beautiful posters showcasing the director and the five films (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, The Innocents, Black Sabbath, & L'arcano incantatore).  So you missed the event?  The good news is that they have the posters for sale up on their site.  They measure 12 x 36; the regular version will set ya back $40 and the variant $60.  Grab 'em while they're hot.  But while you're there you might also want to grab the Buck Banzai, The Gate, and Rabid posters they did for Mondo as well.

Oh!  They also have produced the below fake promo poster for The Strain.  When the first book in that series came out Del Toro & Hogan were threatening a film series to follow and even though I have my doubts about that I'd still love to see it come to fruition.  

--Brad

Dork Art: Mondo Releases for The Devil's Backbone & Cronos

Mondo concludes its Guillermo Del Toro poster series with The Devil's Backbone and Cronos. The Devil's Backbone comes to you from Vania Zouravliov and Aaron Horkey and will come in three variations measuring 24 x 36.  It goes on sale this Friday at the usual random time; the standard costing $60 and the two variants costing $90.  The Cronos standard and variant will go on sale at a later date for a price yet named.

The Devil's Backbone is easily my favorite Del Toro film as well as my favorite cinematic ghost story.  But I gotta say that I'm a little underwhelmed by the Mondo print.  It's pretty and I love Horkey's lettering, but it just doesn't feel like the film to me.  I'm probably gonna give it a pass.  I like Martin Ansin's Cronos print a little bit better, but again I'm not in love with it.  So far, I've only scored the Blade 2 print from Mondo, having missed out on both of the Hellboys and the Pan's Labyrinth.  I'm cool with that.

--Brad