She Talks in Her Sleep

Of the three Indy films (I haven't watched the 4th yet), I've seen The Last Crusade the most times by far. I think it would have to be my favorite because the relationship between Indy and Henry Sr. is so damn hilarious. The film has all the awesome qualities that makes the series so great: ridiculous action sequences, exotic locales, unbelievable treasure, the vermin of choice, and a hot chick, but the bonus element in Crusade is the side-splitting banter between father and son. Their facial expressions alone are worth watching it over a few times. Especially Henry Sr.'s face when Indy finds out his father also slept with Dr. Schneider.

With the Crusade poster, I also tried to keep the series consistent with a lot of the same criteria I used in the 1st couple of posters. Among them include the limited color scheme, the big head at the top right, the chase scene on the bottom right, the logo down below, the filmed in color banner, and a background silhouette of one of the key settings. I wanted to play up the love connection between the Joneses and Elsa because it plays an important part of the plot so Indy and Elsa are almost equal in scale and you can also make a visual "triangle" between the three characters. Because it's my favorite on the Indy series of films, I really wanted to get as much as I could into this one. The story is dense and so is this poster in comparison to the previous two. I certainly hope you guys dig it!

This poster should be available soon from Acme Archives .

No Ticket!

Ok, this may not look like much at 1st glance, and it isn't, but this here's the beginning of a poster that I've gotten a ton of inquiries about. Yup, that'd be Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the 3rd in a series that I had no idea would even sell. I'm sure glad that the others went over pretty well and I thank all of you who have been waiting around for this one. Hopefully you'll dig it as much as the 1st two and the knowledge that the 3rd one is now on its way will keep the 'where the F is it?' e-mails at bay. The time line on this is a month or two because of prior obligations, but I'll be sure to post the progress as soon as I get into it.

Because it's in chicken scratch form, here's few of the details in the layout: HUGE Professor Henry Jones Sr., Indy galloping on horse, Elsa holding Grail diary, the Grail knight, the Grail tablet, the zeppelin, fighter planes, tanks, the Castle Brunwald, and a bunch of baddies. In the end, the poster composition and color scheme is very similar to the 1st two and should sit side by side with 'em quite nicely. Enjoy!

You Call Him Dr. Jones, Doll!

Here's the completed Temple of Doom poster. I ended up adding a bunch of elements that tied it more into the Raiders poster such as the logo, the limited color scheme, the large 'head' in the upper right, the little 'filmed in color' banner, and the action scene at the bottom right. I figured these changes would make a more cohesive series in the end. Throughout the design process, I constantly move things around to find that balance. Short Round and Willie moved from right to left, top to bottom, and I even seperated them where she was on the upper right and he was at the bottom where the mine cars are. After all these years, I still don't get it right the first, or second, or third, or even fourth time. And that is why I'm an alcoholic!

The Temple print should be available soon at Acme Archives.

No TIme for Love Dr. Jones!

Here's my initial sketch for Temple of Doom. Of the 1st 3 films, it's the one I've seen the least so I had to go back and watch it a bunch of times as a refresher. As a kid, I remembered it as being my least favorite of the series, but It's pretty kick-ass when you're older and haven't seen it for a while. So much is packed into it. At times, it might feel a bit segmented and even rushed once the action gets going in the mines, but it's still better than 98% of the films they make nowadays. Them 80's were a glorious time! Thanks for joining me in "Tanner at the Movies." Steer clear of that popcorn "butter" dispenser. That stuff ain't made from nature.

Cue John Williams

I finally finished up that Indy piece for Acme Archives. My idea here was to create something that looked as if it came out when the movie took place, circa 1936. I was heavily influenced by Mexican film posters from the 30's & 40's. They had that western/dramatic/action feel nailed down. Check out that Cine Mexicano book if you can. Them dudes sure knew what they were doing way back when. Now that I'm done, I think I'm gonna hitch this port-a-pottie down the street to my truck. It's already on wheels so it should be a pretty simple procedure. I might even cruise the 101 during rush hour and charge a buck and a quarter for pit stops. Adios amigos!

Check out IndianaJonesShop.com for info on the piece.

King Taco

It seems like I'm designing poster after poster nowadays. It's not that I'm complaining or anything because they're a ton of fun to do. Guess my problem is the more I do, the harder it is to come up with something new. But I guess if it were always that easy, it probably wouldn't be that satisfying in the end. A great example of that is that Police Academy where they go to Russia (#6, i think). Talk about a letdown. Anyways, here's an Indiana Jones thumbnail of a poster that's due in a week. I'll post the final hopefully soon.