I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts that I had a few posters on my childhood bedroom wall that I’ve been wanting to source and hang up in my retrocave. The first one was easy. It was Back to the Future. Classic Drew Struzan artwork. Always loved having that poster on my wall. I still remember the day I got it back in the day.

The second one was a lot harder. I distinctly remembered an airbrushed Lamborghini poster from Athena the poster shop that I used to have on my wall. I had been searching for this Lamborghini poster for years online and then four years ago I finally found a little thumbnail image of it. It was so good to see it again, albeit very small. Then the hunt on eBay began. A couple of years later I found one that a guy in California was selling. I snapped it up. Not only that but, long story short, I managed to meet the original artist and was extremely lucky to get him to sign it. I not only now have the only signed version of that famous poster but he also gave me the original reference photograph that he took himself and used whilst painting the artwork. Amazing. You can read the full story of how I met Keith Harmer here. Below you can see the Back to the Future and Lamborghini posters proudly adorning the wall of my retrocave.

But there was a third poster from my childhood bedroom. A poster that I had little confidence in ever finding. You could say it was my white whale. Funny that, because it was a poster of a whale. This whale tail poster was on my childhood bedroom wall for years and I thought it was incredible. It was another Athena poster shop special, I’m pretty sure. Over the years I have searching every combination of ‘Athena airbrush whale’ or ’80s airbrushed whale tail’ or ’80s Athena whale airbrush art’ etc but to no avail. Now I know why. It’s not a bloody airbrush poster! All this time, including the years I had it on my bedroom wall, I thought it was airbrush art. I honestly didn’t think that a picture that striking could be a photograph. But recently I was contacted by Pete Kelly, an 80s airbrush artist who produced many posters for Athena, and happens to live in the same town as me. I asked Pete if he knew about this airbrushed whale poster and he said ‘You don’t mean the Bob Talbot photograph do you?’. I went straight to Google and lo and behold, there it was. I had that warm tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach when I get reunited with some artwork that was burned in my brain from my childhood. And I was even more in awe that I had learned that it was a photograph. Amazing.

The photo is called Megaptera by Bob Talbot and here it is in all its beauty. Incredible. I now want to find an article about it or a ‘making of’ documentary or something!

So the good news is that I’ve found the three main posters I had on my bedroom wall. So satisfying. These three posters filled my brain for a big chunk of my youth. I would stare into them and meditate on my pre-teen and teenage angst.

The only problem is, I recently remembered another poster I had. And this one’s even harder to find! It wasn’t one of the main ones on my bedroom wall but it was on the inside door of the loft cupboard that I could enter from my bedroom. But it was such a cool poster. Assuming I’ve remembered it correctly. It was a Wolverine poster. And I think I had two Wolverine posters. Both had Wolverine in his 80s brown outfit. One was a fairly well known one of Wolverine running straight into the camera by Art Adams. But I swear I had another one. And I swear that it involved Wolverine crouching down, with the camera viewing from slightly higher up, and a spotlight from above shining down on Wolverine with dramatic lighting. I think perhaps his mask was off. And he was kind of crouching and looking slightly angry or anguished or even maniacal. I think I got it from Forbidden Planet. I’ve looked and looked online but can’t find it at all. A very small part of me thinks I may be just mis-remembering the Art Adams poster mentioned above and just mistakenly thinking there were two posters. But a bigger part of me absolutely believes this was a different poster. I’m sure it was. And my search shall continue! Here’s the Art Adams one below.