MondoCon is an annual celebration of the collectible artwork and artists at Mondo, a poster and T-shirt company, held in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, United States. It offers exclusive items, panels, exhibitor booths and screenings with filmmakers and artists.

History

MondoCon was conceived as a spin-off from

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...

, with the first two years taking place on the weekends of the event, before branching out to its own weekend. MondoCon 2014 ran September 20–21 for about 2,000 people and coincided with the first weekend of

. It featured a premiere of scenes from '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' with composer Alex North's original score re-inserted.

William Stout William Stout (born September 18, 1949) is an American fantasy artist and illustrator with a specialization in paleontological art. His paintings have been shown in over seventy exhibitions, including twelve one-man shows. He has worked on over ...

revealed information about an unproduced ''Godzilla'' remake written by

Fred Dekker Fred Dekker (born April 9, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film director best known for his cult classic horror comedy films '' Night of the Creeps'' and ''The Monster Squad'' (written with Shane Black). He contributed the story ideas fo ...

that was to be directed by

Steve Miner Stephen C. Miner (born June 18, 1951) is an American director of film and Television program, television, film producer, and a member of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is notable for his work in the horror genre, including '' ...

. ''Future Shock! The Story of 2000 AD'', a documentary about the titular British comic anthology, had its world premiere. About 50 artists and designers attended, including artists

Bernie Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017) was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein, adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his other ho ...

Basil Gogos Basil Gogos (March 12, 1929 – September 13, 2017) was an Egyptian-American illustrator best known for his portraits of movie monsters which appeared on the covers of ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' magazine in the 1960s and 1970s. Early lif ...

and Todd Slater. It included live screenprinting of prints by Bryan Lee O’Malley and

Mike Mignola Michael Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a Hellboy Universe, shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', ''Abe Sapien'', ''Lobster Johns ...

Dogfish Head Brewery Dogfish Head Brewery is a brewing company based in Milton, Delaware founded by Sam and Mariah Calagione and, as of 2019, owned by the Boston Beer Company. It opened in 1995 and produces 262,000 barrels of beer annually. Select brews (inclu ...

provided an exclusive "Mondo Beer" aged in oak tanks. MondoCon 2015 was held October 3–4 and expanded its space to the Marchesa Theater and the Holiday Inn across the street and included artists such as

Becky Cloonan Becky Cloonan (born 23 June) is an American comic book creator, known for work published by Tokyopop and Vertigo. In 2012 she became the first female artist to draw the main ''Batman'' title for DC Comics.Beck, Laura (February 8, 2013)"Meet the Fi ...

Francesco Francavilla Francesco Francavilla is an Italian comic book artist known for his creator-owned series '' The Black Beetle'' and pulp-inspired comic covers. Other notable works include ''The Black Coat'' (which he co-created), Dynamite's ''Zorro'' series, and h ...

and Ken Taylor. Concept artist Jock revealed he was designing '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi''. For the first time, all three ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...

'' film scores were released together on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

. MondoCon 2016 was held October 22–23 at the AFS Cinema and Holiday Inn Midtown Conference Center. It featured

Florian Bertmer Florian Bertmer is a German illustrator from the hardcore punk, grindcore and metal scene. He has done artwork for bands and companies like Converge, Napalm Death, Danzig, Black Sabbath, Puscifer, The Hope Conspiracy, The Dillinger Escape Plan ...

, Scott C., Aaron Draplin, Aaron Horkey, Jock,

Olly Moss Oliver Jonathan Moss (born 24 January 1987) is an English graphic artist, best known for his reimagining of movie posters. His work has been released by Mondo and is regularly featured in ''Empire'' magazine. Background and early life Moss g ...

Alex Pardee Alex Pardee is an American freelance artist, apparel designer, and comics creator writer, best known for illustrating the Used's album artwork. Career He has also done works for Hurley International, Twenty Twenty Skateboards, Bay Area rapper To ...

Arik Roper Arik Moonhawk Roper (born 1973) is an illustrator and painter based in New York City. Roper grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His parents both being artists, his creativity was encouraged and he spent a great deal of time during childhood drawing. ...

, Jay Ryan, Todd Slater and

. Fans started lining up 48 hours early. It included a 10th anniversary screening of ''

The Fountain ''The Fountain'' is a 2006 American epic science fiction romantic drama film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Blending elements of fantasy, history, spirituality, and science fiction, the f ...

'' with introduction and Q&A by composer

Clint Mansell Clinton Darryl Mansell (; born 7 November 1963) is an English musician, singer, and composer. He served as the lead vocalist of alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself. After the band's dissolution, Mansell moved to the United States and embarked on ...

and a sale of the soundtrack on vinyl for the first time. During a panel with Mondo's creative team it was revealed the company was working on a

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

-themed gallery show that would include ''

Ren and Stimpy ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', commonly referred to as simply ''Ren & Stimpy'', is an American animated comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstab ...

'' and ''

The Legend of Korra ''The Legend of Korra'' (abbreviated as ''TLOK'' and also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' or more rarely simply as ''Korra'') is an American animated Fantasy television, fantasy action drama television series created by Michael Dante ...

''. MondoCon 2017 was announced as taking place November 4–5 in a new location, formerly the print presses of the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

'' building, and was scheduled to feature

, Aaron Draplin,

, Jock, Mike Mitchell,

, Eric Powell, Jay Ryan, Todd Slater and

. In April 2018, Mondo announced the event would be taking a hiatus that year but would return on September 14-15, 2019.

Reception

The event has been called "the world's coolest poster convention" and "one of the leaders in the rise of pop culture art." In 2016

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC (also simply known as Nerdist) is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast ( The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a net ...

called it "the venerable kingpin of the artisanal movie poster game."

References

External links

*{{Official website, mondo-con.com Recurring events established in 2014 Conventions in Texas Culture of Austin, Texas