Thunderball 1965

This "Thunderball" poster by Robert McGinnis, well, it's probably made with paint, ink, and a whole lot of mid-century attitude. Look at how the images are stacked, with Bond in the sky, under the sea, and then surrounded by, you know, intrigue. It’s a real process of layering fantasy. The paint quality is like a memory: smooth, idealized, but with these little moments of texture, especially in the explosions and underwater scenes. Those bodies are really something, fleshy and hyper-real all at once. Take the way McGinnis paints the women's hair, for example. It's all soft edges and implied detail. That touch says so much about desire, and how we’re asked to see. It reminds me of the work of Patrick Nagel, with his distinctive style of the female form. Both share this way of making images that are very much of their time, yet still kind of timeless in their cool, graphic power. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if that’s a good or a bad thing.