On a New Poster

About ten years ago I saw a poster I wanted. A man was walking out of a frame shop with this poster framed, and it was one of those chance encounters that just make you go, “Wow.” The poster was cool looking, it had a nice composition, and I wanted it. Only I wasn’t sure where to get it, and the man hurried off before I could get the chance to ask.

It was a Lord of the Rings poster.

I’m not sure why, but a few days ago I decided I’d look on eBay. Could I find this poster? It was surprisingly easy. “Gandalf poster,” I typed in, expecting hundreds, if not thousands, of hits. Instead, only about thirty came up. And in very short order, I’d found the poster available from several different vendors in several different sizes.

I went for a 24 inch by 36 inch version.

The indicia at the bottom of the poster indicates the illustration of Gandalf and Frodo was done by Jim Cauty. A Google search turned up this information:

Jim Cauty painted a Lord Of The Rings poster when he was seventeen in the early seventies. It’s rather well-done in a stylistic, gothic-y-looking way. “It’s quite funny actually – the border is made up of Orcs climbing on top of each other up the sides, and crawling along the top and bottom. For the Tolkienesque out there, it features Gandalf with the Red Ring shining and Glamdring to hip, with Samwise and Frodo hobbits, and also three portraits of Legolas the Elf, Gimli the Dwarf and Gollum the gollum.” When Pete Robinson asked Cauty about it, he mentioned that ‘it was mainly student nurses who bought it’.

According to Wikipedia Cauty was a member of the bands KLF and The Orb. I’ve heard of neither, unfortunately.

I’m getting off on a tangent here.

The poster arrived today, and sometime this weekend I’ll go out and get a frame for it. I’m not quite sure where I’m going to hang it yet. It doesn’t really matter where I hang it, though; all that matters is that I will. 🙂

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

6 thoughts on “On a New Poster

  1. If you can’t find it online, IT DOES NOT EXIST IN THIS WORLD.

    Similar thing: In about 1980 we took our camp trailer up to Glacier Park, then into Waterton Lakes in Canada. In that area there are a million art galleries, and I spent several lovely days just window shopping.

    One of those galleries though had the most evocative print I’d ever seen – an otter on a rock in a little river, and it’s reflection was the Haida representation of itself. Gave me chills then, still does….

    I couldn’t afford the framed print at the time; besides the fact that we were a long way from home (Las Vegas) on a very short budget, we were also having problems with our tow-vehicle (the sort of problems that mean you hit EVERY FORD DEALER between southern Montana and western BC – which is where we were headed….) So I didn’t buy it ($75 was a lot of money for us in 1980 under those circumstances….)

    And I’ve regretted not buying it every time I thought of it since. Not long ago, on a whim, I went looking for it online. I found it…. and the artist….

    Unfortunately, it’s no longer available at any price as a framed print. The original is available, but I can’t afford it (WAY out of my retirement income price range). I was able to contact the artist, and she did send me a “book plate” print – she had a few left. It’s a lot smaller than the print I didn’t buy, but then again, half a loaf is better than no bread at all!

  2. Your poster has been published for years. I am glad that you found the time to look for it and will hang it up eventually. I colleague of mine at work came in this summer with this very same poster. It had been framed and given to him by an uncle, and he was quite pleased with it. I collect Tolkien calendars and have this illustration as a 1994 calendar. Even though it was a commercial issue and there must more “out there”, I don’t know of any other collector who has one. In any case, I consider it rather rare and myself fortunate to have discovered (and collected) it. Enjoy!

  3. I remember saving up money to buy this very poster when I was about 10, about 13 years ago. What a lovely trip down memory lane. Thank you.

  4. This poster was hanging in my friends house for years and always admired it. She happened to be going through a bad time and I helped her out. One day out of the blue she gave me this poster which was framed in a lovely dark wooden frame. It measures 25 inches by 37 1/2 inches not including the frame. I think it may be one of the original prints made for athena posters…..? It is admired by all visitors to my house and many have bought a copy on line but none with the same measurements. Love it. Anyway you should listen to the orb and KLM both rather good in their time. what skill for a 17 year old……

  5. The KLF were the UK dance group who released “Justified & Ancient” in collaboration with Tammy Wynette in 1991.

    Look for them on youtube, they were good, especially during their 90’s reign.

    Some of their early songs were, frankly, cheap and nasty trash. (Kylie Said To Jason, Doctorin’ The Tardis, etc)

    One song which demonstartes this stark contrast is “Last Train To Trancentral”. The original mix/version was sombre and very depressing, while the “Live From The Lost Continent” and “The Iron Horse” versions were anything but! Very dancy/clubby, catchy, got your adrenalin rushing! Hard to imagine it’s “base” is so sombre!

Leave a Reply to fielliot Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *