Last year you held the first-ever MondoCon. What were some of the things you wanted to address or improve for MondoCon 2?

Justin Brookhart (Mondo VP of Operations): The main feedback we had was just "more stuff", so there's more artists, more panels, more food trucks, more activities. Just more of everything, really. The main problems we had (last year) were, we had a main tent where the Mondo booth was, and even the inside space was a little bit crowded. We knew we wanted to expand a bit, but the problem was, we really loved the Marchesa Hall, where we were already at. It's got a great exhibition hall, a lobby bar, it's got this great theater we can utilize...we didn't want to lose the Hall's intimate vibe by going with a giant convention center, because that would lose the feel that we're going for. So, that's how we came to the idea of expanding to this nearby Holiday Inn convention center. I mean, last year, everybody was already staying over there, anyway - it was sort of an unofficial site - so we looked at this as though we were just merging the spaces.

What's the hardest thing about putting together an event like this?

JB: Well, it's...huh. I don't know...

Lemme rephrase: what's your least favorite thing about putting together an event like this?

JB: Logistics management, mostly. The movement of people, things like that. When we have the gallery space, that's our own space that we control. It's easier to maintain, everyone knows the rules. When you're introducing a large group of fans to an unknown space, it's kind of difficult to make sure that they know what to expect. "Here's where you go for this, here's where you go for that". That's not a very sexy answer, I guess, but...

And your favorite thing?

JB: My favorite thing is the artists we get to invite out here, seeing them interact with fans. Some of them are people we've worked with before, some of them we're just longtime fans of, and we get to go to them and say, "Hey, we'd really love for you to come out and be a part of this thing." That, and to just experience all the people that come out for this thing. My favorite day is the load-in day, on Friday, because that's when everyone's in town for the first time. You get to see each other, meet people for the first time.

There's been an effort to branch the company out in different directions over the past year or two. I think people were initially concerned, because you guys are known primarily for posters, and I think some people would've preferred that you stay focused on that. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Jay Shaw (Mondo Creative Director): The thinking behind branching out into other things is, when you look at the sort of collectors who buy our posters, you look at the other things they're passionate about. You go into their offices or their living rooms and you say, "Well, what else would you like?" Turns out everyone likes soundtracks because they love movies, so vinyl records are making this neat collectible comeback. So, we wanna get into that. And toys makes sense, because, y'know, we're all adult children. So we get to collect expensive toys now, which is pretty cool. But here's the thing: we're not branching out in an unlimited way. We're going as far as we think the fans and the collectors really wanna go. Beyond that, we don't have any interest.

Have you reached that point? Or is there more stuff you'd like to be doing that you haven't gotten to yet?

JB: I would say, as Jay said, that we like to follow our passions, which tend to follow our fans' passions a lot. For the most part, I think you'll see Mondo focusing on the core things that we're known for: posters, records, collectibles, and doing special events. That's not to say we won't dip our toes into something we take a special interest in, but for the most part, yeah, I think--

JS: Well, we haven't perfected the rest of it yet.

JB: That's a great point.

JS: I mean, we have so much more we can do in the spaces that we're getting good at. For example, events. People ask, "What happened to the Mondo Mystery Movie?", and--

That was going to be one of my next questions.

JS: Yeah! And that's one of the things that we were passionate about, too, and I think we kind of lost sight of that a little bit with everything else we've got going on. So that's the type of thing we're really refocusing on: "What can we go back to that we really love?" We had a really good start on those! It's also looking at posters and saying, what can we do that will make those more exciting? What are some things that haven't been done yet? Who are the new artists out there, some unknown exciting artists, people from other worlds of art that we could bring in and get them to (do a poster)? Really, there's a lot that we could do in terms of expanding what we're currently good at without getting into brand-new markets.

If we can loop back to the Mondo Mystery Movie thing for a second--

JB: Sure.

I think those are my favorite thing that you guys do. With the average poster drop, there's such an air of secrecy that you almost don't know it's happening until it's actually happened. With the Mondo Mystery Movie, the difference is that we're given a firm date to look forward to, to speculate towards, and the build-up to those events is a lot of fun. I think a lot of people would agree with that. What's stopping you from doing more of these?

JS: The thing is, with the Mondo Mystery Movies, there's more to those - logistically - than there is to the average poster drop. And the truth is, we started to build those up into really large events. The Dawn Of The Dead screening was nuts--

Die Hard.

JS: Yeah, Die Hard was huge. So we really started building them up into these gigantic events, which made them harder to do (as often). But now I think what we're looking to do, to make them more practical, is to go back a little bit to the roots, where...I mean, look, what's really important to the collectors who come to these events is, a great poster. Something you're really just going to freak out about - you can't believe how good this is! - and it's for a movie where you've been waiting for one, it's a poster you've been dreaming about. So I think we're going to refocus on that. We've actually got all (these new prints) in mind, artists that are excited to be working on them, and now we're thinking, "Well, wait, what if we turned that into a Mystery Movie?", and we're working really close with the Alamo right now to say, I dunno, "Maybe there's a great screening we could have in San Francisco. Maybe there's something in New York we could do. Maybe there's some other stuff in Austin we could do." We definitely want to make it a more regular thing.

JB: I'll say we hope to do another Mystery Movie very soon.

There's been a bit of a regime change lately, with Jay ascending into the Creative Director role for the company. What do you hope to do differently now that you're in that position?

JS: Here's the thing: we are a collective. Mondo is truly a collective. We are not one head, or one person coming up with all the ideas. If you like the soundtracks, that was Mo Shafeek, that was Spencer Hickman. They did that. When you love something about a poster, that was Rob Jones and Eric Garza who had their hands in that. Everyone here is just another wonderful piece of this creative puzzle, and what we're trying to do now is really try and let people know that this is a collective effort. So in my role as a Creative Director, my job is to shine a light on the people that are doing all these amazing things and making Mondo awesome. I mean, I've got responsibilities - I'm working a lot on the studio side of things, stuff that's a bit more behind the scenes - but I wanna help shine a light on the rest of the people working here. I think before a lot of us just kind hung around in the background, and I think now we need to get all these pieces out in front of everybody.

One of the best things I think you guys have done at the Mondo Gallery was Sonny Day's Mind Intern showcase. That thing was fucking bananas.

JB: Yeah, it was.

That was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced at the Mondo Gallery. Obviously, not much of a poster-seller, but still a great event. What are your plans for doing more stuff like that with the Gallery space in the future, versus shows that're more geared towards showcasing posters?

JB: Mitch Putnam is the guy who sort of currates our Gallery space, steers the direction of it and whatnot. And his initiative this year was to create some more unique experiences and take some chances. And we've done a few! Jason Edmiston's Eyes Without A Face showcase was our first entirely-original art show. That was a big deal for us. It was sort of a risky show, as well. It was a big risk for Jason, it was a huge time commitment, and he went out there with it and...man, that show was a huge success. And he's continued to have success with it. That's not a show we probably would've done two years ago. I mean, we like doing the big posters shows - highlighting different artists and whatnot - but creating unique experiences is something we'd like to focus on in the Gallery space going forward. Unlike some galleries you see, we don't need to worry about turning out a new show every week to pay the bills. We have a stable business that supports the Gallery, and we're really lucky in that regards.

JS: There's some really crazy ideas (for upcoming shows). When we're all just sitting around and brainstorming and Mitch is like, "Hey, what if we did this?", it's awesome. And everyone's willing to take a chance with that kind of stuff. Mind Intern's a perfect example of that kind of thing. We couldn't care less if we made any money from it. We wanted to create this weird experience around Sonny - who's one of our favorite artists, by the way. He's just incredible, the way he thinks--

Dude's a singular talent, for sure.

JS: For sure. And going into the Gallery and watching him work that show was probably my favorite experience at Mondo this year.

JB: There's no other artist who could have done that show. To sit there and want to talk to people and have those intense conversations about their life and feelings? It was great that people responded to it so well, and a total credit to him.

Let's talk about the likeness rights debate. I think there's a perception out there that producing posters without likenesses is a conscious effort on your part, that it's something your're not pursuing as often. That theory is stupid, but I figured you might have something to say about it.

JS: I have plenty to say.

Haha, OK, great.

JS: To truly set the record straight here: unless there is a solid artistic decision not use a likeness - and, y'know, sometimes there is - we are always, always, always asking if they're available. We want likenesses. Of course we want likenesses. We want the artist to be able to draw the people in the film. Obviously that's something we want to do, and any time it's available, we make it available to the creative process. The thing about likenesses, though, is that you don't just get them. The studio has very little control over that most of the time; most of the time, it's the talent. And when you're doing something licensed and not bootlegged, you're sort of at their mercy. You can't just put Bruce Willis in a poster. You can't do that without his permission, and we don't want to. It's not just "the mean ol' studios" or that we don't want to, it's that we have enough respect not to do it.

And my understanding is, there's no tiered system here when it comes to licenses.

JB: (laughs)

It's not as though you can say, "Well, we'll spend X amount of dollars for the license to Y movie, or we could pay a little more and get likeness rights."

JS: Right. Not even close. When we go to a studio and license a property, it's "You can potentially use these people, you can't use these people" or "the whole cast has signed off on this".

JB: Sometimes it's a situation where you have to go after the stars yourself.

JS: Sometimes it's crazy. When Martin Ansin did Taxi Driver, the way we were able to get Robert DeNiro to sign off on that was, we had to send him a finished copy of the poster. So we had to take this psychotic leap of faith, finish and print the damn poster, pay the artist, and if DeNiro had said "No thank you", that would've been it. No poster.

JB: That would've been over a year-long process that was just out the window.

How often does something like that happen?

JB: It's pretty rare.

JS: That was an extreme situation. That was a thing where, Martin had a great idea, it was a perfect poster, Rob Jones was very excited about it - the whole staff was excited about it - and it was one of those situations that was just worth the gamble. Usually (re: likenesses) you know at the outset who you can and can't use. Sometimes you can't, but then a lot of the time you come up with a really creative solution to that problem. Die Hard was a great example of that. We couldn't (put Bruce Willis on the poster), so he came up with a great solution to that. We'd love to see Bruce Willis on a Die Hard poster, but look at what he came up with! I love that poster, it's crazy.

JB: What's funny is that on that print, we still had to get likeness approved on the building, for Nakatomi Towers. The FOX building, or whatever it is.

Haha, what?

JB: Yeah! We sent it in (an original version) for approval and they said, "No, you can't use the building". And we were like, what?! And they said, "Yeah, you can't use the building, it's copyrighted". We were like, so we can't use Bruce Willis and we can't use the building - what sort of Die Hard poster do you think we're going to make? Luckily we were able to get with the building owners and get the thing approved. We totally cleared it. But that's a good example of how crazy this stuff can be.

Anything you want to tease, anything on the horizon you're excited about?

JS: Yes. We’ve got a poster for one of our favorite films by one of our favorite artists that is arguably the greatest Mondo poster ever made. When the art came in there was a collective gasp at the office. We’re going to try and make that our next Mondo Mystery Movie and if all goes to plan that event will happen before the end of the year.

Well, that's exciting.

Special thanks to Fons PR, Jay Shaw, and Justin Brookhart for taking the time to speak with us at a very busy MondoCon.