The first time I saw the main US poster for The Monster Squad it was in the small black and white ad in the Arts & Entertainment Movie section of the Orlando Sentinel just over 27 years ago. Even in that tiny format I was excited by the design and the artwork, and it wouldn’t be until almost 20 years later when I realized who was responsible for designing and painting the image. Craig Nelson is a prolific poster artist have painted works for movies like Slapshot, Homeward Bound, Moscow on the Hudson, John Wayne’s The Cowboys, and Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie, but his work I am the most familiar with is obviously The Monster Squad.
The idea of working all of the monsters into the night sky framing the Squad as they loiter on Dracula’s hearse is such a cool idea. It’s almost literally the Mt. Rushmore of monsters. But this poster wasn’t the only idea Nelson had as there were a couple of earlier concept roughs that illustrate the range that the studio was looking for. First up, let’s take a look at another variation on the same basic idea, except instead of arranging the monster’s visages as a giant cloud mountain, they were more general floating otherworldly heads in the storm behind the kids…
The same basic gist is there, but it’s not nearly as effective at conveying the epic nature of the movie that the finished piece achieves. Even still, it’s really cool to get to see a rough variation that would lead to the final piece. This second concept was a much more tongue in cheek pass at the poster featuring a rubber dart and a completely different tagline…
Honestly, the concept isn’t horrible, I actually think it’s cute, but it would have probably hurt the film even more than the unfortunate marketing already did. Again, it’s awesome to get a chance to see what was being kicked around before the final version was approved and painted. I wonder how many other ideas were bandied about?
Also, since I just realized today that Mr. Nelson also did the fantastic painting for the Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie poster, here’s that work as well. I totally saw these two flicks as a double bill of sorts on August 22nd, 1987. I had no idea Nelson did both posters!
So, on to today’s Monster Squad trading card…
Since there was never any MS merchandise produced, specifically a Topps trading card set, I thought it would be fun to make a mini set of 80s-style digital trading cards for my favorite movie of all time. So come back each evening for Trick or Treats and collect them all!
Today’s card is #15, The Monster Squad Clubhouse!
