Articles

Drew Struzan retires 04 Sep, 2008, 15:24 / 6 comments

By Jason


The legendary Drew Struzan, inarguably the most famous movie poster artist of all time, has decided to end his seasoned and extensive career. Our friends at TheRaider.net have the full story as well as this quote from the man:
Having been working at not working has produced a guy who could never return to illustration again. It took a lot to attempt the idea of retiring from my 40 years of effort and sacrifice but now that I have, I am delighting in life as never before. I had forgotten how to rest, to smell the proverbial roses and to see the future as opportunity. I am grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to do all the work I did. I am well pleased to have been able to give a gift of beauty and peace through my artwork to so many throughout the world. Now I have laid down the burden and have peace and happiness as the reward for my day's labor.
As you hopefully know, Struzan has his fingerprints on a multitude of posters for high profile films, including all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. (His style of course also served as inspiration for LEC artist Bill Eaken in creating the cover art for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.) Struzan has recently updated his web site with galleries of his artwork, which includes the unmolested, un-studio-Photshopped versions of his Crystal Skull art, which this thread on TheRaider.net's forums has done a good job of collecting.

Damn.
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6 Comments

  • tabacco on 05 Sep, 2008, 16:18…
    Okay, people, I need to raise $100k to buy the Great Muppet Caper cover art. Who'll contribute? All I ask is $10k per person.
  • Ascovel on 05 Sep, 2008, 11:27…
    These artworks are great! The original teaser poster for Crystal Skull is so much better. I even found some interesting movies to watch I never heard about before.
  • Ascovel on 04 Sep, 2008, 23:17…
    It's funny to read for the umptienth that Bill Eaken tried to emulate Drew's style for Fate of Atlantis box art, when about two years ago (I think) I added this piece of trivia to FOA's wikipedia page being 100% that Drew created all the famous Indiana Jones posters including the most iconic - the original Raiders of The Lost Ark one. When I found out that it was not the case, and even Drew's Temple of Doom poster was actually prepered for a re-realese and wasn't the original one I really started to have doubts if I wasn't spreading misinformation and I already seen my piece of trivia directly quoted in a few places. It was nice to read in the Bill Eakens interview that I was accidently right, although he names Raiders as the only Indy flick he really cares about(?).
  • fajerkaos on 04 Sep, 2008, 17:51…
    I feel happy for the fellah'. He really deserves this.
  • The Tingler on 04 Sep, 2008, 17:05…
    And of course, he also did covers for the Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb Indy games.

    This is really sad news. First Don Fontaine passes away, now Drew Struzan retires. The movie world has become much less cool this week.
  • Udvarnoky on 04 Sep, 2008, 15:29…
    I'd like to see someone make a smart alec "Nuke the Fridge" comment when looking at this triumphant fucker.