More Silver Snail Posters

I closed out my last posting, with the 1992

Anniversary Poster.

The mid-Ninties were a turbulent time, for me 

and I lost touch with the store, 

missing out on several Anniversaries

and their accompanying posters.

So, please forgive me if I am mistaken but I think,

given that there are no identifying Anniversary logos,

or even a date, that this poster,

may have been the stores 20th.

It was commissioned from an artist named

Peter Moehrle,

who was visiting Toronto and working

in the animation field,

when he met Ron Van Leeuwen, the store's owner.

It is an unusual poster

because the artist was not a

Torontonian, nor was he an established member of the

professional Comic Book artist fraternity.

So, in 1999, I reconnected with the Snail

and picked up a copy of the

Ron Boyd

Anniversary Poster

clearly marked as the 23rd issue.

Ron Boyd was a Toronto based artist,

at the time and he was inking Stuart Immonen's

pencils, on the Legion of Super Heroes,

for DC Comics.

Ron was also a regular customer of the Silver Snail,

which probably led, I am assuming,  to his selection as the artist for this poster.

I missed another couple of Anniversaries, for diverse reasons

and I do not own a copy of the Dave McKean Poster,

that was commissioned for the stores 25th.

This image is borrowed from the Silver Snails photo page.

I am willing to bet, that it is quite a collector's item these days.

I was still missing-in-action at the Snail and time marched on.

The next poster that I own,

was drawn by

Jeff Smith

of Bone fame and it marked the stores 26th.

The next Anniversary Poster that I could find,

was drawn by

Anthony Van Bruggen,

another old customer and a talented artist,

for the stores 29th.

Once again, I don't have a copy of this poster and

this image is borrowed from the

Silver Snail's photo page.

 

This is where my renewed association,

with the Silver Snail,

seems to have taken hold, because I have copies of the next few posters.  Beginning with this beauty,

by the incomparable,

Mike Mignola.

Which marked the stores 30th!

Adam Hughes, the Mega-Star artist,

drew this absolutely stunning image, 

which, so I was told, Ron Van Leeuwen, failed to purchase!

The reason being, that Adam Hughes' artwork, sells very quickly and by the time Ron had seen the art and decided to buy it, it was already sold to someone else.

What a way to celebrate the store's 31st!

The next artist, was not only a hot commodity, but was also Canadian!

Steve McNiven

the artist on Marvel Comics',

"Old Man Logan",

among a host of other great comic books,

turned in this spectacular poster.

Which marked the stores 32nd Anniversary.

That was in 2008, so we are rapidly approaching the store's change of ownership and it's moving into a new location.

We'll cover that next time.