VHS Video Cover Art: 1980s to Early 1990s

This book covers 6 genres, Action, Comedy, Horror, Kids, Sci Fi and Thriller. Each page has VHS box cover art, front and back, both USA and UK releases, with the artist, if known, credited, and alternate titles are often noted. The Action chapter has rarities such as Banzai Runner (1986), Heavy Thunder (1986), Breaking Loose (1989), Death Flash (1986), Lust for Freedom (1988), Occupational Killer (1987), Pay-Off Time (1987), Underground Terror (1980) and Warbus (1985). This section also has a number of ninja flicks, movies staring Linda Blair and both movies in the Silk series. The Comedy section starts with The Bikini Carwash Company (1992) and ends with Yellow Pages (1986). Some of the other flicks are Dreams Come True (1986), Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1988), Free Ride (1986), Gremloids (1987), Hollywood Air Force (1986) Hot Times (1980), Oddballs (1984) and Summer Job (1996). As some of the movie titles indicate, some of the covers are on the skinful side. The Horror section starts with Aerobicide (1987) and ends with The Willies (1990). It is probably hard for a horror movie fan to find a flick that one has either never even heard of or seen, but it is rare to see box cover art for Alison's Birthday (1987), Black Roses (1988), The Dead of Night (1988), The Death Dealer (1986), The Demon Murder Case (1980), Demon of Paradise (1987), Demonwarp (1988), Dream Slayer (1988), The Dreaming (1988), The Edge of Terror (1988), Grave Misdemeanors (1989). Night Screams (1987) and The Wailing (1989). The KIds section has Spectreman, Biggles : Adventures in Time (1986), Dr, Otto and the Gloom Beam (1986), Earth Star Voyager (1986), The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987), Ghost Chase (1986), Misfits of Science (1986), Mysterious Planet (1988), Ninja Kids : Phantom Force (1987), Ragnarok (1983), Space Wars (1978) aka War in Space, Tor Mighty Warrior (1986), War of the Wizards (1978) and more. The Sci-Fi section starts with 4-D Man and ends with Wheels of Fire (1985). Some of the flicks in between these two titles are Alien Private Eye (1990), Annihilator (1986), Assassin (1986), The Atlantis Interceptors (1984) aka Raiders of Atlantis, City Limits (1986), Invasion of the Blood Suckers (1988). King of the Streets (1986) aka Alien Warrior, Land of Doom (1985), Retaliator (1987) aka Programmed to Kill, R.O.T.O.R. (1987), Searchers of the Voodoo Mountain (1986), etc. The final section, Thriller, starts with Agent on Ice (1986) and ends with Wild Thing (1987) Examples of what are between theses two movies are Alley Cat (1982), Birds of Prey (1987), Cold Steel (1987), Dangerous Love (1988), Deadly Passion (1987), Hunter's Blood (1986), If Looks Could Kill (1987), The Image Maker (1986), Out of Control (1986), Fair Game (1987), Thrill Kill 1986) and two different movies called Trapped as well as one Linda Blair flick and two 1980s biker flicks. The release dates are sometimes off, I might have repeated a few errors of either the year of copyright or release in the above paragraphs, just something to keep in mind. What is not either a major complaint or a quibble is that there is a certain amount of cross over in the select genres, which makes this a fun book. For the variety of cover art and the repro quality, this deserves 5 stars. it just does not work as a reference work.

If you love VHS artwork, buy this immediately. What makes this book special is that the majority of it is 1) very rare VHS titles with beautiful and often hilarious artwork and 2) if you grew up in the US like me, a lot of covers are burned into your memory, these are all UK VHS covers so you get to see alternate designs for films, the alternate artwork for "Troll" is especially hilarious. The layout and design of the book is beautiful and the VHS covers span all genres, comedy, horror, action, thriller, ect. Tom Hodge the author also does a little homework too and provides the distributors, years, alternate titles, and artists of the VHS covers to go with each title displayed. Tom Hodge is one of the great up and comers in the film poster art business and is always in demand, you may have seen his original work for posters to such films as "Hobo with a Shotgun" and "Almost Human", he has a very distinguished style. Buy this book before it's out of print, much like the only other previous VHS cover-art book "Portable Grindhouse."

I got this book as inspiration for my art -- a handy reference which would keep me from having to dig through my VHS collection to find a muse -- What I got was so much more than that. The thing I wasn't expecting and ended up loving was being able to read the back of each box! It made me remember what it was like being a kid in my local mom and pop video store. The fact that the art depicted in the book are from video releases in the UK made it that much more exciting to me because I've hardly ever seen any of these covers before. Also, I'm pretty sure that Graham Humphreys is my new favorite artist. Thank you Thomas Hodge for curating such a fascinating book!

Amazing. As someone born right at the dawn of the VHS era, many of my happy memories from childhood are going to the local video store to rent a movie or a nintendo game, and since that was before AV Club or Rotten Tomatoes you had no way of knowing if a movie was crap, so the crappiest movies (and during the straight to VHS craze there were MANY crappy movies) competed for attention by having the most exciting, outrageous covers, leading to a fairly unique form of art and presentation. This book does such a good job of collecting amazing cover art from this era. The nostalgia is so hard it hurts. I collect a lot of photo and art books, and this has immediately become one of my favorites in my collection.

I have been collecting VHS tapes for years, and I buy many tapes based on covers alone, and hope the movie is a fun watch. This book does a great job of showing many of the cool covers, but comes with a caveat, it's not US covers. These covers are from the European, and other non US covers. It's not a huge deal, as I am a fan of the art, regardless of where the tape is from, but know that it's not the tapes you would have seen in your American mom and pop video store. If your love of tapes goes beyond the US releases, you will still find it cool to look through all these covers and maybe even find some movies you didn't know about.

Overall it's a beautiful book with alot of movies I've never heard of that seem interesting.. the only gripe I have with it so far with just thumbing through it is most of the movies release dates are wrong, not half but most.. out of about 220 movies or so throughout the book about185 of em are from 1985 -1987, they could of almost renamed it "1986" cover arts

So often with art books the actual art image quality is either garbage or the formatting is so bad walls of text leave no room for the art. Not so with this book! The whole books is beautiful and the art is given center stage. Definitely worth the price!

Perfect

This book is great for examining 80s/90s VHS covers, just don't expect to find your favorite mainstream films. That actually doesn't bother me, as I love schlocky B-movies such as what fills the pages of this book. If I had any complaint, it would be the condition it arrived in, but since Amazon was the seller, I can't leave seller feedback, and I'm not willing to wait to have it delivered again on the off chance the single copy they have left isn't also damaged on one corner like the book I received. As someone who likes to keep their books in pristine shape, that's incredibly annoying. However, overall, it's a very entertaining, nostalgic book for any cinephile. However, be forewarned that there is a LOT of nudity, suggestive poses, various types of assault against women, and such throughout the book (if such a thing concerns you), so it's not exactly a coffee table book for people who are sensitive to such things.

Llegó en perfecto estado. Una edición muy bonita.

Perfect collection of vhs artwork that will leave you gagging for more. Wonderfully presented and excellent quality. Many a great comment from visitors that flick though the book. Really wish there was a second edition

Look up the word ‘rad’ in the dictionary and you’ll probably find a photo of this book... if your dictionary is as rad as this book is. Since purchasing this book I personally feel like life has been more rad, and rad people have been attracted to the radness emanating from the well documented vhs covers on these pages. You should probably buy this if you want to feel and be more rad.

Un vrai régal que de parcourir ce livre sur tous ces films de série B avec leurs visuels de folie!!!