My social media feeds occasionally ignite with discussions of the extraordinary hand-painted movie posters from Ghana. In case you’ve never heard of this, these date mostly from the 1980s, when mobile theaters would travel from town to town in Ghana, with little more than a generator, a screen, and a projector. Because these entrepreneurs didn’t have access to either the original movie posters or even printing presses, they hand-painted their own posters.
These posters were large – sometimes nearly six feet tall – and are often far more exciting than the movies themselves. It was the artists’ job to sell the movies, and sell them they did, with vibrant colors and an emphasis on sex and violence.
Of course the original posters are now highly collectible, and the whole phenomenon has been covered by such mass media sources as CNN and the BBC; there’s even a gallery in Chicago (Deadly Prey) dedicated solely to selling these posters.
Iliad is pleased to offer Extreme Canvas 2: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, an extraordinary book all about these posters. This large hardback coffee-table book includes hundreds of the posters reproduced in full color, along with more history of this pop culture moment.
We have two copies available: both are in very good condition, one is unsigned at $125, and a second copy is signed and inscribed by author Ernie Wolfe III and is priced at $200.
