Whenever technology brings format changes in personal media—vinyl to cassettes, VHS to DVD, or CDs to MP3s—not everything gets preserved. Some things just ... disappear. And that loss isn't restricted to the content, to an album or film fading into the ether; often, its artwork is forgotten as well. Case in point: the glorious covers of VHS tapes from the format's golden era.
Often crude, usually garish, the paintings and illustrations---especially for low-budget films---were a ploy to get noticed in video stores packed with titles vying for your attention. Whether Rambo ripoffs, exploitation horror, teen sex farces, or whatever the hell Rolling Vengeance was, the covers drew people in and unwittingly became the one lasting memory of the now-archaic format. When DVDs came to prominence, many of the best (read: most bizarre) covers were in danger of being lost forever. One UK artist is doing his part to bring them back.
Tom Hodge, aka The Dude Designs and the guy who created heavily VHS-influenced posters for Hobo With A Shotgun and The Heat, collected more than 200 titles for VHS Video Cover Art. It's a glorious celebration of the lurid, schlocky art of the box cover. As former Mondo CEO Justin Ishmael writes in the book's foreword, "It’s that weird reaction you get when something isn’t necessarily good in the traditional sense, but it has a soul and something behind it." Ishmael compares the tapes to the first time he saw Ghanaian movie posters: nobody is going to be hanging them in an art gallery, but there's an undeniable allure to them. And to celebrate the book's noble mission, we pulled together some of our favorites.
