When the genres of film and painting collide, another genre of Mexican art splits from the friction. Where there is art, there is poster art, and some of the most startling examples of figure-painting, surrealism and fantasy you can find.

The last 40 years of Mexican cinema - unlike in the United States where they moved to photography fairly quickly - were the breeding grounds for professional and amateur poster artists.

One book, "Mas! Cine Mexicano: Sensational Movie Posters from 1957-1990" highlights this colorful genre. The author, Rogelio Agrasanchez Jr., an avidly obsessed collector of this underrated style of art, has 2,500 posters in his house alone, not to mention 12,000 lobby cards and 80,000 film stills. In his book, he showcases some of his favorites in a search to elucidate the intricacies of the movie genre.

Most of these posters are from sensationalist movies like horror films and action flicks, but we also see posters from westerns, comedies, dramas, chick flicks, family films and more. In the introduction, Agrasanchez explains that this large variety was a product of the industry growing into itself in the 60s. It was becoming more established, and the main form of entertainment for the family had not yet moved solely to the television.

Therefore, directors were given a lot of money and free reign to create their own films. Besides the main film company in Mexico, Churubusco-Azteca Studios, there were also two other organizations that would churn out movies extremely quickly: Estudios America and Estudios San Angel Inn.

The 60s also showcased the rise of the luchador: Santo, the silver-masked Mexican wrestler who epitomized good and evil in and out of the ring. The character, who shows up in many of the movie posters of that time, was first based on a comic book, but was brought to life in the cinema industry by Rodolpho Guzman Huerta.

The Mexican movie genre, much like that of the United States, was also very much about celebrities. Popular stars have always drawn huge audiences and kept them coming back for more: singers like Luis Aguilar and Javier Solis dominated the screen in the 60s.

It wasn't until the 70s that many of the movies began to be filmed in the United States, especially in Texas. A progressive Mexican government also saw the rise of serious cinema, which led to the incorporation of higher illustrations.

However, many posters retained their less serious aspect. There are myriads of scantily clad women running around looking seductive, like in the movie poster for Una Mujer Sin Precio, which shows a blonde woman that closely resembles Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vida. Fancy cars, guns and men looking staunchly serious dominate many of the action posters. There are also goofy caricatures drawn for family comedies.

You can find every spectrum of drawing in the genre of Mexican poster art. The only problem when looking at this book is that when you're finished, you might like the posters better than the movies themselves.

Here is a clip from the film "Lola La Trailera" which originally premiered in 1983.