Drawn by Drew

Just one more Struzan post for now.

To have Drew Struzan create the cover art for a George Lucas retrospective book is not only appropriate, but would have been inexcusable if it had not been drawn by Drew. I'm sure Lucas' later films would have done 'ok' at the box office without Struzan's art promoting it, but those posters and book covers guaranteed an epic and eternally iconic image for Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the history books and viewer's minds.

Below, the beautiful art, sans messy type (although I must admit that the main title gives it the Lucas touch):

And as always, I'm fascinated by comparing the original reference material and what the artist has done with it. This photo of Lucas was pretty strong to begin with:

Variant Covers

I'm not one to normally fall for the 'variant cover' scam perpetrated by devious yankee publishers (really, I'm not . . . stop looking at me like that . . . really . . . I'm . . . not), but when it's an artist I really like . . . and . . . and . . . let me catch my breath here . . . and when you put them all side by side and it's, like, one big image, y'know . . . y'know it's almost like a poster kinda thing . . . well then, I'm hooked. I hadda go two or 3 stores to get all four variants. I mean, me buying TV Guide, I never even watch TV (really . . . I don't). I wasn't big on the Phantom Menace movie (really). I mean it was sorta fun, but really, so many flaws. But this art by Drew Struzan, OMG, flawless:

So when ya put em all together ya get this big image . . . but all that type and that bar code thingy sorta ruins it, ya know?

So it's nice to see it all, sans type . . .

Gosh I like Drew Struzan's art. I'm just an old fanboy after all.

You Cheat Dr Jones, You Cheat!

A funny scene from the Temple of Doom movie is where Short Round (Ke Huy Kwan) accuses Indy of cheating in their card game, "You cheat Dr. Jones, you cheat!"

I realized I've been cheating too. In the last post I made the bold claim that Warwick Goble is in the top five of my favorite classic illustrators. Geez, I have so many favorite artists, how can I figure that?

I cheat, because I have so many categories that I can land just about anybody in a top 5 favorite somewhere. Favorite Renaissance artists. Favorite 19th century allegorical artists. Favorite jazz age photographers. Favorite comic book artists working in 1948. Favorite artists who work in pastel. Favorite sculptors born on a Wednesday.

I'll find some way of making them fit in the top five of something, cuz otherwise why would I collect their work in the first place. So ignore me when I talk about favorites (I'm sure you do anyway). We ALL got favorites.

Here's a really bold claim: My favorite #1 movie poster artist (and probably yours too): Drew Struzan.

I love looking deep into Struzan's rendering details & textures.