Disposable Lit Reviews

DH Publishing, 2002
96 pp.
ISBN 0-9723124-0

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Silly man that I am, I’ve agreed to review an unreviewable book. What can you say about a book of movie posters?

Well, I can say this. Since the posters in this book date from the 1950’s through today, there’s a good cross-section of poster design. There’s a high proportion from the ’60’s and ’70’s, which stands to reason since, say what you will about those decades, they certainly were visually bombastic the world over.

I can also say this: It’s pretty egalitarian. What other poster compendium would treat pinku movies (or, as we say over here, “porn”) as an equal to other genres? The book’s divided into the following categories:

- Yakuza
- Sci-Fi and Monster
- Samurai
- Pink
- Horror
- Animation
- New Cinema

Of course, with only 80 posters in all, we don’t really get an in-depth survey that shows the evolution of graphical styles within and between film genres — but how many people are willing to pay what it would cost to print that many posters on good paper?

Which leads me into the next thing I can say: It looks swell. Each poster gets a full page; Beat Takeshi’s Brother gets no more or no less space than Son of Godzilla or Molester’s Train.

I can also say this: The fact that each poster gets a full page doesn’t mean that there isn’t necessary commentary. Along with a two-page intro by Chuck Stevens, there are short section commentaries for each genre by Tetsuya Matsuda and Kairakutei Black, plus a few sentence of specific detail below each poster.

And I can finally say this: The posters are also for sale. DH Publishing, the Japanese house putting the book out, includes the current sales price for each poster featured, and also offers to help find interested buyers get their hand on examples of each.

Hey, whaddaya know! I managed a (short) review of an unreviewable book! (I’d include some poster scans to round things out, but hey — I’m not about to break the spine of the book to put it in the scanner.)

Nathan Shumate