Fantasy and science fiction artist Greg Hildebrandt died on Thursday, October 31, 2024. His wife, Jean Scrocco, announced his passing on social media. She stated that a serious side effect from heart medication left him struggling to breathe on his own for the past five months. He was 85 years old.
Hildebrandt and his twin brother Tim were known for illustrating the first of a series of Lord of the Rings calendars and for creating a movie poster for Star Wars: A New Hope. He worked on Clash of the Titans, Terry and the Pirates, Magic: The Gathering, and Marvel Masterpieces, among others. He has painted covers for Star Wars comics, Deadpool, Secret Wars, Black Panther, and Thor. More recently he painted movie posters for classic films, variant comic covers, children’s book illustrations, and more.
The Hildebrandt brothers were born on January 23, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. After attending the Meinzinger Art School, Greg and Tim worked for the Jam Handy Organization and Industrial Film Production Corporation on animated training films for the auto industry, the military, and major US corporations.
In 1963, Greg and Tim moved to New York City and began working for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on his weekly TV show Life is Worth Living, along with producing films on world hunger. Transferring their focus to commercial illustration, Greg and Tim illustrated the first of a series of The Lord of the Rings calendars for Ballantine Books. This series launched the two men into international fame, with over a million calendars sold.
In 1977, Lucasfilm hired the Brothers Hildebrandt to create the movie poster for the first Star Wars film, and were only given 36 hours to create and paint the art. They finished on time, and their key artwork helped to create the initial fandom for a franchise that remains one of the most powerful pop culture entities today.
In the 1980s, the brothers began working independently of each other; Greg would go on to illustrate artwork for magazines like Heavy Metal and for books such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, Robin Hood, and The Phantom of the Opera. After a dozen years, Tim and Greg reunited to work on collaborations for Marvel Comics and other book projects. They started working with Marvel in 1994, creating art for the Marvel Masterpieces trading card set, featuring Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Panther, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and other popular characters.
The long partnership between Greg and Tim gained them international recognition as well as numerous awards and honors. Tim passed away in 2006 due to complications of diabetes.
In 2015, Hildebrandt had the opportunity to return to Star Wars for Marvel Comics. He painted three new pieces for them, for the Star Wars compendium covers. He has since painted comic covers for Deadpool, Old Man Logan, Secret Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, Black Panther, The Mighty Thor, and Old Man Logan. Also that year, Hildebrandt started a new series titled “The Dark Side.” In this series, he painted his favorite villains in extremely large paintings, focusing mostly on giant head shots. The first three in the series are The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Batman.
A few years later, Hildenbrandt started a “What If” movie poster series in which he created an original, reimagining of movie posters for some of his favorite movies from childhood in acrylics on canvas. The first in the series was a reimagining of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, then he created a King Kong poster in a fashion and design similar to a three-sheet movie poster. After that, he recreated the original Star Wars: A New Hope movie poster painting in exactly 36 hours – the same amount of time he created the original with his twin brother, Tim, in 1977.
