Willceau Illo News

It’s always the way — I was looking for something else, and I find a lost treasure! I recently uncovered my stash of movie buttons from the 1980s. They used to hand these out at science fiction conventions and sneak previews. Punky and new wave kids would festoon them onto leather jackets at the time. I didn’t have a leather jacket so I squirreled them away.

I got the button promoting John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing in the Spring of 1982 before the movie was released. Back then, the movie studios didn’t take conventions seriously particularly one held in Philadelphia. They would not dispatch stars or members of the production to the convention hall to make an appearance. They might throw in a cardboard box full of buttons or maybe a stack of fliers if they felt like it. They were usually heaped haphazardly at the entrance to the convention. They were free which is how I wound up with them.

I will share them with you here and there one at a time