Late movie poster legend John Alvin's original The Lost Boys poster designs are being made available for the first time ever. Three never-before-printed designs will be up for sale during a special 35mm screening of the iconic vampire movie this Friday in New York. However, one of the limited edition prints will be available to purchase online exclusively. If that wasn't enough, full recreations of the Vampires Everywhere and Destroy All Vampires comic books that the Frog Brothers had in the movie are going up for sale.
John Alvin reportedly went through dozens of designs when working with the studio on The Lost Boys. Sadly, many of his designs from that era were only saved through polaroid images, which is kind of a bummer. However, there are three complete designs of Alvin's that were pitched to the studio, but ultimately not used because they didn't match the vibe of the marketing back then. With that being said, they certainly fit in very well today. The first design is of a stop sign, with the word "Vampires" scrawled like graffiti at the bottom. The sign has also been bashed in at the top left corner. The Bottleneck Gallery and Justin Ishmael worked very hard to get these poster designs and the comic book art.
The second design is arguably the best as it features Michael flying just outside Sam's window, only his legs visible, with the iconic tagline that reads: "Sleep All Day. Party All Night. Never Grow Old. Never Die. It's Fun to be a Vampire." The iconic official logo is printed at the bottom. The third and final poster is an online exclusive and it features the Murder Capital of the World, Santa Carla from the vantage point of Sam's Grandpa's house, with only Sam's bedroom light on. The third poster will go on sale June 4th and it is 13 x 19 inch giclée in an edition of 125. It costs $50.
The first two posters are available at this Friday's screening at The Roxy Hotel Theatre, starting at 5:30 PM. Tickets for The Lost Boys screening are nearly sold out, but you do not need a ticket to purchase the posters. The John Alvin posters are 18 x 24 inch screen prints with the text editions going for "$50 in an edition of 150, and the art print variants costing $60 in editions of 50." All of the work done before the screening has been conducted officially with the help of Alvin's widow and frequent collaborator Andrea Alvin. All of the posters that do not sell at the event this Friday will be sold online June 4th with the third variant.
Getting The Lost Boys original poster designs was pretty easy for Justin Ismael, who basically only had to contact Andrea Alvin. However, getting the original artwork for the Vampires Everywhere and Destroy All Vampires comic books seen in the movie required some detective work, which immediately sent Ishmael to Santa Cruz, California. Ismael ended up at Atlantis Fantasyworld, which is where parts of The Lost Boys was shot. The location of the store has changed a few times over the years, but it is a must-stop location on a production tour of the movie.
Atlantis Fantasyworld has the original prop comics from the movies, which were scanned for the new additions going up for pre-order on June 4th. Vampires Everywhere and Destroy All Vampires weren't real full-length comics, so Justin Ishmael had some further work to do to track down the original artist and publisher to see if he could get some additional material for his prop versions going up for sale. He was able to get copies of the original artwork, which has been re-colored for the limited edition replicas. They do not contain a cohesive story, since one was never written. Instead, they are just awesome pieces of The Lost Boys history for fans to get their hands on.
For further information about getting your hands on the John Alvin Lost Boys prints, you can head over to The Bottlerock Gallery. This is kind of a big deal and the first two variants at the screening might sell out, so hit up someone in the New York City area to grab you one, if you can. If you can't score one then, start hitting refresh over at the site on June 4th to pick up the online exclusive and possibly some leftovers.
