The Incredible Melting Man Super 8 film reel cover
Source: derannvaults.uk Super8DataBase. License: All Rights Reserved.
The teardrop-shaped letterforms of Smoke, appropriately suggesting an oozing substance, act as a subtle counterpoint to a graphic tightly-cropped close-up of Rick Baker’s gruesome make-up effects on this Super 8 film box art for The Incredible Melting Man.
Though dating back to the 1890s, the moment of glory for Smoke was the psychedelic era. The Doors’ Waiting for the Sun features one example. With its trippy associations, Smoke is perhaps not the obvious choice for a horror movie, introducing a slightly incongruous note into this striking design.
A cut-down ‘digest’ version of the AIP film, this Super 8 reel was released by Mountain/Ken Films in the late 1970s. Operating from an office on Wardour Street, they were one of the major operators in the home cinema market, prior to the advent of home video. Remarkably, via a deal with 20th Century Fox, they were able to release a version of Star Wars in the UK prior to the cinema premiere.
Read more in a 2024 article by Ged Jones on Derann Vaults.
This post was originally published at Fonts In Use