Author: Marcus Hearn
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: November 23, 2010
Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
“The Art of Hammer” is a fantastic celebration of the Hammer legacy. If you are not aware of Hammer posters, this collection includes various art ranging from 1950’s through the 1970’s. Hammer’s greatest posters from the “Frankenstein” and of course the “Dracula” series. This is such a visual collection of how amazing posters used to be. If you are fan of horror from that era and in general, this is a must purchase book.
The first section of the book focuses on 1950-1959, golden era for starting with posters for “The Curse of Frankenstein” and “Dracula” and “The Mummy”. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were featured quite a bit by Hammer’s posters. The second section takes us into 1960-1969 continues the “Frankenstein” and “Mummy” series as well as classics like “She”, “The Reptile” and one of my personal favorites “One Million Years B.C.”. The next section and last is 1970-1979, starts right off with the great “Taste the Blood of Dracula”, “Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb” and “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde”.
What I liked most about this book is that these are posters like you will never see again. They were risque and started a chain reaction with their unique look. This book also doesn’t include one poster from each film, instead it includes multiple variants from different countries. It is great to get a chance to view all these different designs for our favorite films. Lastly I would like to say that this book comes with quality, it is a solid hardcover with finely printed and restored posters.
