With 'Kong: Skull Island' right around the corner, it is about time for the fan art to start surfacing. Even better when that fan is an accomplished illustrator. Jonathan Burton has designed two exclusive 'King Kong' posters for Mondo Tees, and boy are they cool. Both depict Kong from the storyline of the original movie; one on Skull Island after capturing his beloved damsel in distress, and the other during the intense battle between Kong and the airplanes in New York City. Two very different art styles, both equally stunning!
Jonathan Burton talked briefly at Mondo Con about how these prints came into creation:
"The KONG project has been a huge pleasure to work on particularly as the ideas were voted on by Mondo fans at the MondoCon 2 panel. The audience was split between these two and I’m flattered to be asked asked to produce both. The challenge for me was to make them both work as individual posters and as a pair.
The ‘Jungle’ poster is a nod to the spirit of the original 1933 posters playing on the fear of the immense monster. He is KING in his own habitat. Whereas the ‘City’ version (paying tribute to the Art Deco style of the film’s opening credits) shows us Kong on the defence dwarfed by the man-made skyscrapers fleeing from the human captors.
As Carl Denham says, “He’s always been a king in his world, but we’ll teach him fear”
Linking them together we have Ann Darrow in each, Jack Driscoll and Carl Denham are in both with very similar poses. The titles are in exactly the same place and the tag-lines help express the connected themes of a strange giant beast obsessed with the beauty of Ann Darrow ending up being controlled and destroyed by man."
Some of you might not know about Mondo Tees. Heck, I didn't until Coleman sent the news of these posters my way. The artwork they distribute is top notch, and always on the leading edge of pop culture. They have your fandom covered with everything from the Avengers to the X-Men, and what is that right there in the middle? Yep, it's city-stomping kaiju. Let's take a look back into Mondo's past and see how they represent our favorite giant monsters.
Godzilla
If you were following Godzilla 2014 before its release, you saw this image at some point. This truly stunning piece comes from Phantom City Creative
Mondo also has some interesting Godzilla art with variant options. This one by Tom Whalen has amazing style to it, and the english variant is an up-sale worth every penny.
This great piece comes from Shan Jiang. The visual style of the art is both shocking and eye catching. The approach Shan took with this print makes it one of my favorites on the site. I feel like I could find something new each time I look at it.
Pacific Rim
This one comes from Kevin Tong and features Gypsy Danger's fight with Leatherback. I think the art perfectly captures the essence of Pacific Rim.
I don't know how Ash Thorp managed to create such a powerful piece not only once, but twice with the variant cover. The contrast in colors really make the subjects pop and the action almost jumps out at you.
King Kong
You didn't think the two masterpieces you saw up top were the only 'King Kong' pieces from Mondo did you? Oh no my friends, with Kong being around since the early 30's, he has had plenty of time to build up some fan art. This striking piece from Burlesque of North America really stands out.
Laurent Durieux really shows how to capture both the spirit of the time period and the emotion of the scene.
Last but certainly not least is William Stout's rendition of one of the most iconic scenes in the original movie: Kong defeating the mighty T-Rex.
These posters just scratch the surface of what Mondo has had in the past and sadly all of these prints have been archived and are no longer available, with the exception of the first two Kong posters by Jonathan Burton which are now available for purchase on Mondo's website.