This lot will be auctioned on Friday, December 8th. The auction will begin at 9:30am PST and lots are sold sequentially via live auctioneer; tune in to the live streaming broadcast on auction day to follow the pace. Note other lots in the auction may close on December 7th.

One-Sheet (27" x 41")
Very Fine- Rolled; Artist Bill Garland
American International, 1980

This is an original first-release one-sheet of the Mad Max poster which does not have the union logo in the center of the bottom border. Such a mark did not start to appear until late 1982, making any Mad Max poster that does have it a re-release. With art by Australian illustrator Bill Garland, spotlighting a great image of Max in full gear (Gibson was an unknown actor at the time, so it was not considered necessary to show his face).

This is a very clean rolled copy for this fan favorite. The poster had tape applied to each corner on the verso, which has left a very faint shadow and is hardly perceptible.

This low-budget, independently-made dystopian action film, cast with unknown stars, helmed by an unknown, first-time director, and written by a finance journalist crafting his first screenplay, would likely not have been singled out at the time as the beginning of a highly successful franchise and the launching pad for a few remarkable careers, but that's precisely what it did. Mad Max (1979) was the brainchild of George Miller, an emergency room doctor in Sydney, who was intimately familiar with the kinds of injury and death seen in this film about Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), a cop-turned-vigilante trying to bring law and order to collapsing society (Miller raised part of the money for this film by doing several months of emergency medical calls). The initial film was followed by three sequels (the first two with Gibson) and continues to be a fan-favorite.

Estimate: $300 - 600
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