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.

The Silver Snail Anniversary Posters & Others

I am always surprised, by the vast amounts of information

that are available to me, on the Web/Net and yet,

there are things that I expect to find and inexplicably,they are missing from the fossil record.

The Silver Snail comic book shop, of Toronto, has published 

a number of posters, over it's 40 Years in operation and 

it seems like an ideal time to commemorate that fact.

Let me start with the earliest one,

at least, as far as I am aware.

It was used to advertise the store's moving,

from it's second location 

at 223 Queen Street West,

to

it's third and so far longest lived location,

at 367 Queen Street West.

I apologize, in advance, for my poor photography and I hope that, anyone who is interested in this topic, will just be glad that these examples are here to be seen.

The same image was used on postcards, available for free, at the cash register, in the store, preceding the great move.

This would have been 1983 and if this had been an 

Anniversary Poster,

it would have been the 7th.

Paul Rivoche, the artist, had already worked with 

Ron Van Leeuwen, the owner of the store, on the original 

'Andromeda' comic book.

1985

This poster does not state that it is an Anniversary Poster 

but it is quite possible that it was and that I have simply forgotten that fact, in the 31 years since!

The indomitable, Ken Steacy, who left us, moving to the West Coast, in the late Eighties, did the artwork.

The pencilled layout image, for this painting, is framed and hanging on the wall, in the Silver Snail's present location.

If it was an Anniversary Poster,

then it would have been the store's 9th.

1986

At the 10 year mark, Ron felt sufficiently moved, to make a very big deal out of the Anniversary and even went so far as to throw a big party at, 'His Majesty's Feast' aka Medieval Times, down on the Lakeshore, here in Toronto.

I seem to remember meeting the writer,

Chris Claremont there and the artist,

Marc Silvestri, who were both in attendance and well into their cups!

Ty Templeton, the then young artist, was chosen to illustrate the poster and did a fabulous job of it.

As far as I know, this was the first poster to announce it's Anniversary status and it proudly displays the fact

that this is the stores 10th.

The next poster marks a turning point,

at least, I think so, as Ron selected an American professional,

from the ranks of the mainstream comic book world, to illustrate it.

Charles Vess, had fairly close ties with the store, at that time and with his passion for fantasy themed paintings and stories, he was an excellent choice.

The artwork is signed and dated 1986

but I think, this poster was published in 1987,

which means, that this could be taken as being the 11th

Anniversary Poster.

It is a very poor photograph but the eagle eyed among you, may notice the added silver disc, in the upper right hand corner.  It is my only example of a self-adhesive promotional item, from the store, with the Silver Snail logo on it.

Now we move into an area of uncertainty, because the next poster that I own, was printed in 1989 to advertise the visit to the stores (At that time there were only three, Silver Snails. The fourth one, in Ottawa, would not open until the following year.)

 by the French superstar artist,

Jean Giraud, otherwise known as Moebius.

Can this be construed as an Anniversary Poster?

Were there any other posters, Anniversary or not, printed for the Silver Snail, during these years?

I, for one, would love to know and sinceI do not have any examples, nor have I seen any, that would fill in the dating gap, between the Charles Vess poster, of 1987(?)

and this one:

The self proclaimed, 15th Anniversary Poster!

Painted by one of the 'star' artists of the time,

from England, this time, 

Simon Bisley.

This would have been the year 1991 and his

Batman/Judge Dredd:

Judgement on Gotham,

from DC comics, was making news at the time.

I will end this first part, of 'my trip down memory lane',

with what was probably the longest of the Anniversary Posters,

Michael William Kaluta's

glorious 16th Anniversary poster,

of 1992.

In 1993, I left Toronto, moving up north, to the small city of Elliot Lake and I lost track, as one does, of the busy comic book scene of Toronto.

Even when I returned, down here to the south, it was to the suburb of Pickering, in 1997 and I tended, being short of cash, to do my comic book collecting closer to home.

That meant, that I was more intimately associated with the stores in Oshawa, than I was with the Silver Snail, in Toronto and that was how it remained, until I moved back into the city, in 2004.

It explains why there is a huge gap, in the record that I have, of the posters and why the next example is the one from 

1999.