Author: Postercowboy

Galerie filmposter.net always intented to be more than just another vintage movie poster shop. The masterplan always was to turn the place into a sort-of movie poster and pop culture art gallery.

With that in mind, I created THE DARK CARNIVAL in 2023, a rather unique installation of vintage movie and circus posters, original poster art (for both circus and movie posters), folk and outsider art, pop culture icons, and personal memories.

Today, I sold another US Onesheet for THE WARRIORS. I first saw this movie on the big screen in the summer of ’79, when I was 15 years old and it has stuck with me ever since. The film even has a character named ‘Cowboy’… Somewhat similar to the Postercowboy, he goes widely unnoticed most of the time.

One of my favorite pieces in the exhibition (and also one of my favorite possessions) is an original 1979 US Subway Window Card for this film, here’s a link to my Google 360° view:

The Subway Window Card was a format used exclusively for display in the trains of the New York and Los Angels subway systems. As you will remember, the subway plays a central role in the movie, and this is the perfect size as well. This size is by far the rarest and (in my humble opinion) also the most desirable movie poster made for the film.

But it gets even better: The poster is signed by pretty much everybody who was somebody in the movie. And these are original 1979 signatures, not something collected at fan fairs or collector shows decades later.

I bought this on ebay maybe 20 years ago, and it has been framed and displayed ever since, first in my home and now at the shop. The ebay seller told me that she had found this at a Salvation Army yard sale. That’s the kind of event that has the goods on one side of the yard, and a chain that separates them from the potential buyers. When the chain is lowered, everybody jumps forward and tries to grab his favorite piece(s). The seller told me that she had had her eyes on the poster from far away and she immediately secured it. I did not ask her, but she probably paid a dollar or something. I absolutely wanted this, so I put in a VERY serious bid. Imagine my delight when I won this at a lousy $170!

Here’s a more detailed view of the signatures:

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From the Rockin’ H Archives: While the Postercowboy started out as sort-of good guy in the first issue , in the second instalment he has turned his back on society and now leads the life of an outlaw.

Back in the day, the good guys would wear a white hat and the bad guys a black one. Always a smart dresser, the Postercowboy now appears in an all-black outfit. This should become his trademark for the entire run of the series.

Here‘s the cover of THE MYSTERIOUS POSTERCOWBOY #2, published by Rockin‘ H Comics in late 1948:

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For more than 20 years I have been printing give-away postcards, and if you ever ordered a poster from me you will have received one of them. In the past, they were usually based on vintage movie posters and they showed either the entire poster or sometime I used a partial image and played with it.

It got a little bored with this and decided I had to do something completely unique and use my own designs. Here’s the first set of new postcards, fresh from the printer:

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Very few people even know about this, but the original Postercowboy had his own comic book series once, aptly titled THE MYSTERIOUS POSTERCOWBOY. This was an English language publication, produced and printed in Berlin, Germany by the Postercowboy’s own Rockin’ H Production firm.

The target group was apparently Allied soldiers stationed in Germany. In an attempt to cash in on the high value of the US-$, the book shows a price tag of 10c, which was the common price for a comic in the US. This equaled 42 Pfennig for German buyers, more than four times the usual going rate of a comic book at the time.

Unfortunately, the series was only a moderate success and the few surviving copies are so rare, they are not even listed in any of the big comic book price guides.

From the Rockin’ H Archives, here’s the cover of the very first issue from 1948:

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Regional RBB Berlin and Brandenburg television was here and did a feature on the gallery. I think it turned out quite well, short and pretty much on the point.

But judge for yourself, here’s the link:

They call me ‘Berlin’s hidden Cinema-Jewel’, so I guess the late great Billy Joe Shaver had it right and there may still be hope after all… Here’s a Youtube link:

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December 8 in Berlin still feels like November and Guy Clark is singing in my head:

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For those of you who are unable (or unwilling) to come and visit Galerie filmposter.net in person and see my DARK CARNIVAL exhibition, here‘s a link to the next best thing, a 360° view on Google:

THE DARK CARNIVAL is a permanent exhibition, so with the exception of my (truly exceptional) original artwork for MATA HARI everything you see on display is not for sale.

Now I have a shop that has no regular opening hours, and you can‘t buy anything you see. True Postercowboy style and just the way I always wanted it!

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Sorry for starting this post with what is called a ‘Rohrkrepierer’ or ‘barrel burst’ in German, but the obvious answer to the above question is of course NO, Stetson most likely did not copy my post. At least not that I know of. Actually, the entire quote is ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery mediocrity can pay to greatness’. I guess there are numerous things Stetson could be accused of these days, them being a worldwide corporation and all, but ‘mediocrity’ is certainly not one of them. At least not when it comes to their hats. They don’t come close to the quality of their 1950s models anymore, but the ones made in their original factory in the USA on mid-century machines are still top notch, no doubt about that.

So what brought this question up? I’m not the only one who couldn’t care less about the annual ‘Black Friday’ hype, so yesterday I came up with the idea to declare ‘Black Hat Friday’, and I thought of myself as mighty smart and the idea as mighty unique. Needless to say, my post did not include any kind of sale, which was part of the idea.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my Inbox this morning to see this message from Stetson, that came in at 7 am this morning, about sixteen hours after I posted my original entry:

I mean, take a look at this ad: Not only do they copy my Black Hat tagline, they also show a cowboy with a black hat, who’s wearing a bandana and hides his face, and they refuse to offer a sale as well.
Could this all be a coincidence? A case of ‘great minds think alike’ perhaps? Could it be that the great people at Stetson are actually following my silly little blog? Am I perhaps on to something really BIG here?

And while we’re at it: The Postercowboy is a life-long fan of Stetson hats, and he considers the Open Road one of the greatest cowboy hat designs of all time. There’s a reason that one has been around since 1937. That said, the black hat in yesterday’s post is NOT a Stetson, it was custom made by Texas Hatters just right outside of Austin, TX sometime in the late 90s.

So could Stetson’s ‘Black Hat Saturday’ ad be some kind of payback for not showing one of their hats in my post? Only The Shadow knows…

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