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Mondo To Sell New, And Old, Posters At Comic-Con: Plus 'Back To The Future' And 'Lord Of The Rings' Updates [Comic-Con 2012]

By Germain Lussier

Fifteen plus new posters by eleven different artists with up to four different drops a day.  Mondo has truly upped their game for San Diego Comic-Con 2012. Last year was the first time the poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse ever attended the Super Bowl of pop culture and they were forced to throw everything together in two weeks. This year, a full year of prep and effort has been put into the event and while most of what they have planned is secret, we got some teases and logistics from Mondo's creative director Justin Ishmael as well as a hint at what's going on in the coming year with Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future and more. After the jump, read more about what's sure to be one of the busiest booths at Comic-Con.

Here's what we do know will be at the Mondo booth this year.

  • Olly Moss – The popular artist hasn't revealed what kind of work's he'll have but we knew months ago that he'd be there and was planning something big. Online speculation, Moss' tweets and the fact that Mondo has the DC license, suggest it's Batman related.
  • Game of Thrones – Tuesday, it was revealed that three of the mystery Mondo exclusives would be posters based on the popular HBO show. Head here to check them out and find out when each will drop.
  • Adventure Time – The Mondo team is a huge fan of Adventure Time and they're part of an Adventure Time quest that's taking place across the floor with posters by Olly Moss and Mike Mitchell. Which remind me...
  • Mike Mitchell – The artist famous for the "I'm With Coco" image tweeted that he'll appear at the booth, likely to sign the above poster.
    • Ishmael also confirmed that there will be a lot of sold out archival prints from the last year. Mondo regularly has left overs because of damaged prints, canceled orders and more, so expect to see any number of pieces that have been released since last Comic Con. Avengers? E.T.? The Thing? Who knows.
    Here's how it's all going to work. The archival stuff will be on sale Wednesday, Preview Night, but exclusives won't start until Thursday. At that time, you need to follow @MondoNews and they'll tweet an image at a random time meaning the print is now on sale. There will be several a day and most of the prints, save for the Game of Thrones ones, will not be revealed in advance. "If there's a flash mob every three hours at Comic Con, that's not a big deal," Ishmael said. "If someone is standing from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., thats a bigger deal to Comic-Con." Hence the randomness.
    For anyone who is not at Comic Con, pray for leftovers. Nothing is being held back for online release. If a print sells out in San Diego, it's gone. If something doesn't sell out, then it will make its way online. Also, if anyone is worried about how this is all going to run, Ishmael said they're looking into paying for extra security around their booth to organize lines and have even been literally practicing in Austin at different events and their gallery. "It was kind of like the Apollo 13 build," Ishmael said. "We built an 8x10 booth and figured out, 'If you have 500 posters, the stack it this high and you have this much room.' Make it work."

    You can be sure to keep an eye right here for more information on the big reveals and announcements happening at Mondo's booth during the convention. But, once the convention is over, things are only getting bigger. You already read about Drew Struzan coming out of retirement but Ishamel also confirmed the Lord of the Rings license they've recently signed will be the same scope as their 2010 Star Wars one, just more spread out.

    We're going to start releasing those [after Comic-Con]. I don't know if it'll be as intense a release as Star Wars was because we had a year only to do that. With Lord of the Rings, we have more time. It'll be spaced out more, but we're definitely going to try to hit points of it that make people excited because The Hobbit is coming out at Christmas.

    Finally, Mondo got the license to Back to the Future last year but have only had one release: The awesome series by Phantom City Creative. Ishmael says to expect more soon, and much later too:

    I have plans for one that would be very special, it's just taking some time to get done. There are some in the works for this year. If they get done in time and if we can do what we want to do in time, we'll definitely do this year. But I want to say we renewed the license for another three years so I think we might have it till 2015. So there you go. We could be releasing a poster on the day, October 21 2015. Maybe we'll do a crazy poster in 2015 if people are still around.

    Most of my Comic Con will be spent in Hall H but, when I'm not there, I'll be over by the Mondo booth as almost all the artists and a bunch of surprises are going to show up at the booth. Be sure to follow @MondoNews on Twitter for info on releases at the show as well as other news related to the popular poster people.

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