Tom Whalen Gets His 'Twilight Zone' On With His Year Long Subscription Based Poster Series From Dark Hall Mansion...

Tom Whalen is one of the greatest artists working in pop culture art right now. His work is often shown at Gallery 1988, Crazy 4 Cult, and many other shows and galleries around the country. If there is a big pop culture show, it usually features something from Whalen. I met him at Philly Comic Con a few years back, and the dude was super low key and cool despite being so well known in the geek poster community. So when I read that his next project would revolve around one of my favorite TV shows of all time and would take place over the course of the next year, my interests were immediately piqued. Whalen is teaming up with poster company Dark Hall Mansion to complete a subscription based series of posters based on classic Twilight Zone episodes. The series will run over the course of the next 12 months and will feature 10 posters. So a person pays for the full run up front, and then receives the newest entry to the collection via mail. The price seems high ($450 for the full 10 poster regular run or $650 for the 10 poster variant run), but when you consider that it works out to just around $45 - $65 a piece it is a bargain. The best part is that once you buy the run you are locked in... no need to try and snag EVERY release independently and end up missing out on one or two, therefore failing to complete the set. The episodes that will depicted are unknown, but Whalen is a great artistic talent and I am sure whichever ones he picks for the series will be executed to perfection. The posters are all 18 x 24, and will be set runs (230 sets of the regular posters, 70 of the variants) so don't sleep. The prints will be made available on Tuesday, August 19th at some time between 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time on the Dark Hall Mansion website. Which episodes do you hope Whalen takes on? These are going to be great.... check out the first sample poster (based on the classic episode 'Eye of the Beholder') after the jump... 

Modern Deco Universal Monsters Poster Series by Tom Whalen For Dark Hall Mansion

Dark Hall Mansion is an interesting organization geared towards the preservation and celebration of poster art. The gallery collaborates with artists from all walks of the industry to work on projects that celebrate the poster art genre and turn out some of the best works this side of Mondo. Their most recent collaboration is a with one of our faves, Tom Whalen, and the subject of the collaboration is the classic Universal Monsters. His 6 posters are unbelievable, and they need to be shared immediately. Perfect fodder for CCD All Horror Week. Check them all out after the jump....

Around The World In 80's Daze With Tom Whalen & Dave Perillo

Gallery 1988 is doing God's Work... there is no other way to state what is going on at the Cali art space. These dudes continue to curate beautiful shows highlighting pop art and the coolest pieces that are being posted about all over the Internet by people like me. For the next few weeks Gallery 1988 is running a show called "Around The World In 80's Days", a show highlighting 80's movie travel locations by Tom Whalen & Dave Perillo. Whalen is one of my favorite artists in the game & Perillo is no slouch, so the pieces are fantastic. My favorite has to be the ad for Falkor Air. So great. All my Cali peeps need to get over to the Venice Beach gallery and see these pieces in person. You can also try to grab a print by clicking here, but most are sold out!!! Check out my faves after the jump....

Land of the Lost (Comic Con Exclusive) by Tom Whalen

Another day, another San Diego Comic Con exclusive announced. Tom Whalen is one of my favorite artists in the game right now, and he makes some great work. He will be appearing at the Huckleberry/Toddland booth (#3449) alongside Tim Doyle & David Perillo during the con. One of the pieces he will be selling is his excellent Land of the Lost piece, which will come in two versions (the regular Green version for $60 bucks and the variant Purple piece at $85 bucks). Stop by and check out these three artists works if you are in the building, because their stuff is absolute fire. I love that Whalen decided to take on one of my favorite childhood shows in Land of the Lost and use that for his Comic Con exclusive. Check out both prints after the jump...

Remembering Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair

Original Dragon's Lair Arcade Cabinet

I always loved Don Bluth's 'Dragon's Lair' when I was a kid. It was always the coolest game at The Bow Wow which, for all of you guys not from Howard Beach, Queens, was a huge arcade on the corner of 163th Ave and Crossbay Blvd. This place was like heaven on earth, with well over 100 arcade cabinet games to play. They had all the newest titles, but as they all came and went, 'Dragon's Lair' stayed put. The vivid graphics were just so entrancing, they blew the doors off even the best games of the time. Sure, there wasn't much to the game (it wasn't easy but, you were merely controlling the motions of the hero, Dirk the Daring). Dirk was a real hero, bumbling as he may be. And Daphne had some boobies on her, so that didn't hurt to make the game popular amongst the fellas. Throw in a bad ass dragon named Singe and you got yourself a hell of a package.

Dragon's Lair by Tom Whalen

The game was popular on computers of the time, and then they made versions of the game for various systems such as Super Nintendo and X-Box. It also lead to a short lived cartoon series (only 13 episodes) that was pretty much a perfect animated copy of the game itself. I have always loved the styling of Don Bluth's artistry, and the cartoon-y yet awesomeness of the characters is hard to ignore. I hope this little trip down memory lane jars some memories of this great game and cartoon. Do you remember 'Dragon's Lair'? Did you play it in the arcade? Did you watch the cartoon? Let us know in the comment section below.

Dragon's Lair by Tony Washington

Also, check out this cool behind the scenes review of the original 'Dragon's Lair' game by The Choco Bros. This will surely refresh some of your memories if you need it. Great stuff.