John Costacos Interview
What was it about these posters that resonated with fans so much ?
I think about it a lot . When you ’ re a kid , your room becomes covered in things you love or aspire to become . That ’ s what kids put on their walls . At that time , to get a really cool , large image of the player wasn ’ t easy . You had a little bit of Sports Illustrated , and the newspapers were black and white . It was also clear that the players were having a lot of fun in our posters . I think kids really liked the creativity . Sports evolve and change , but the heroes are always bigger than life . When you ’ re a kid , it ’ s super-human . It ’ s superhero stuff . With the posters , we were trying to make them superheroes in a way . That feeling you had when you watched your sports hero play , that never goes away . That ’ s always there .
We also had this fear of failure when we were creating this thing . There was a fear of it not being cool enough or too cheesy , so the one thing we always thought was “ Is this poster badass enough ?” You want to make the player look big and cool in the shot and work with his personality . The formula was simple . Make it creative and cool . If it was cool and badass , it would sell .
That Jim Everett poster doesn ’ t seem so badass ...
The Jim Everett poster gets brought up a lot . By today ’ s standards it looks like a fireman ’ s calendar , but he wanted his offensive lineman in the poster . That was why we put them in there . It was a challenge to get those really large guys into the frame . What everyone is drawn to is Tom Newberry , with that really big bomb and his sleeves cut off . He ’ s all oiled up . That one is easy to make fun of by today ’ s standards . The fascinating thing to me is how culturally different we are now and then . At the time , they looked
like tough guys and nobody ever said anything . As a guy , you have to make fun of it now .
Looks like Mark Gastineau was a beast ...
That guy was cut . He was a 300-pound defensive lineman and cut like a bodybuilder . He was a really nice guy . It kind of looks like old special effects compared to what can be done today . A kid must look at these like I looked at a shot of Joe DiMaggio from the 1940s . I don ’ t know how a kid would take it now . It would look old to them , but it looks like a snapshot from a time in my life . It was good to have that gallery exhibit a few years ago with people from all walks of life enjoying the differences .
© Costacos Brothers
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