One of the most iconic fantasy and sci-fi artists of all time, Greg Hildebrandt, has sadly passed away at age 85. We learned the news via the folks at GizmodoOpens in a new tab. Together with his twin brother Tim, the prolific artist drew illustrations for the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Marvel and DC Comics, and a number of iconic movie posters. But he is perhaps most famous for the poster he did way back in 1977, for the original Star Wars. Although A New HopeOpens in a new tab had many posters, Fox licensed this one for merchandise all over the world. It eventually became synonymous with the film.
Back in 1977, Michigan-born artists Greg and Tim Hildebrandt were approached by 20th Century Fox to produce poster art for the UK release of Star Wars. The studio had already produced a poster in the US by artist Tom Jung, but Fox executives considered this poster artwork “too dark.” So with only 36 hours, brothers Greg and Tim had to produce a new image to promote the film. The poster art they came up with took great liberties with the actor’s appearances. Luke Skywalker had an open shirt revealing a buff physique, while Princess Leia posed in a provocative way. Neither version really resembled the actors, yet this image wound up on everything from bedsheets to t-shirts.
The brothers Hildebrandt did many illustrations together for decades. In the fantasy realm, they did a series of Lord of the RingsOpens in a new tab calendars and posters in the ’70s. They followed those up with Illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Harry Potter. They also illustrated a popular series of Marvel Masterworks trading cards in the ’90s. In later years, after his brother passed away in 2006, Greg did a series of Star Trek covers for IDW. And all that is just the tip of the iceberg. This means there are very few major sci-fi and fantasy properties he didn’t contribute to artistically in his lifetime. Greg Hildebrandt left an indelible mark on how we view heroic fantasy characters for all time.
