Dojo Classics - The Art Of Flesh!

This is a rather beautiful movie poster for a movie which is really not all that beautiful, though it can be quite funny in places. This gorgeous poster is by renowned science-fiction artist George Barr.

Pornography has become somewhat mainstream in modern society, but alas I find myself too old fashioned to embrace this recent attitude. For me, "porn" is still the stuff of musty theaters, something that operates in the shadows of regular society. With the internet I know that old ideas about pornography have morphed and become somewhat normalized. I'm not offended by it, but I just don't cotton to it.

I however own one legitimate "porno" in my collection, the satirical spoof of the classic Universal serials -- Flesh Gordon.

I'm no great judge of "pornography" as I said, but I can't imagine this flick is much of a great example. It has hardly any scene in it which are actually arousing, but it does have lots of scenes which are funny and which do a dandy job of punching up the absurdities of the classic heroic formula so ingrained in these vintage serials.

One thing Flesh Gordon seems to have yielded though is a passel of really interesting and really well-crafted movie posters. (I've noticed that "porn" flicks seem to get really good posters by and large.)

Here are some of the posters associated with this "erotic" space-opera farce.


This Japanese poster by an artist named Seito seems to take the classic Barr Flesh poses and integrate them into a Star Wars inspired setting.


This French one has a more modern feel, a real part-of-the-70's feel to it. There's also a hint of pulp cover to it.


This version of the classic poster, seems to take some of the original Barr elements and give them a more basic four-color treatment, a bit more in-your-eye pop. Flesh also has a more Supermanish stance.


And finally we have this gem from William Stout which served as a bit of preliminary advertising for the movie. All in all a really fine collection of visual images.

UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention all those years ago, is that another reason for picking up this prime bit of legacy porn was the stop-motion work in it by Jim Danforth and David Allen. In these modern times with the awesome might of computers transforming how we see films, it's always nifty to recognize and enjoy some of the old techniques, which might be quaint now, but still work after a fashion.

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