Ace director Edgar Wright (opens in a new tab)‘s Scott Pilgrim vs The World (opens in a new tab) was my favourite film of 2010 and is one of the most carefully crafted, brilliantly realised and wonderfully energetic films ever released. Based on a series of graphic stories created by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley (opens in a new tab), the film tells the story of the eponymous character, played in the film by Michael Cera (opens in a new tab), who falls for the alluring Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead (opens in a new tab)) and must then battle her seven evil exes in order to win her heart. The actors playing the exes are perfectly cast and include Brandon Routh (opens in a new tab), Chris Evans (opens in a new tab) and Jason Schwartzman (opens in a new tab).

The film is a visual treat and rewards multiple viewings thanks to the brilliant script, kinetic editing and careful inclusion of hidden elements (look out for the many ‘X’s secreted throughout the film, for example). Some of the effects have to be seen to be believed, including an amazing battle of the bands sequence featuring two building-sized dragons and one angry gorilla beast. Much was made of the fact that the film was a critical success but was unable to make much of a box-office impact on release, but there’s no question that the film has found, and will continue to find, an appreciative audience on home video.

The official film posters (opens in a new tab) for the film were slightly disappointing considering the level of craft put into the film itself and I felt at the time that, despite an interesting advance poster (opens in a new tab), so much more could have been done.

This screen print by Kevin Tong (opens in a new tab) was commissioned by the limited edition poster outfit Mondo (opens in a new tab) for a joint show with fellow artist Martin Ansin (opens in a new tab) held at the Mondo Austin gallery during March 2014. Other films covered included Robocop, Flash Gordon and Alien. Collider.com ran an article featuring loads of images (opens in a new tab) from the show.

Tong, who lives and works in Austin has collaborated with Mondo for a number of years, producing some fantastic pieces for a whole variety of films, including Bride of Frankenstein (opens in a new tab) and Gravity (opens in a new tab). As well as film illustration he’s also worked on band posters and his official site has galleries of his work (opens in a new tab). EvilTender has an excellent interview (opens in a new tab) with Tong that’s well worth a read.