Are these the Four Best Movie Poster Artists Ever?
Poster art was sometimes better than the film it promoted.
The movie poster artists who created some of the most iconic images in a century of cinema have often been forgotten or ignored because their work was seen as merely promotional.
But the documentary 24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters aims to redress that injustice as it looks not only at the history of the art form but also at the people who made it something special to casual fans and aficionados alike.
Four film poster artists stand out, 24x36 opines: Bob Peak, John Alvin, Richard Amsel and Drew Struzan. We’ll take a look at their careers and work in a bit.
But first, a bit of history.
Once upon a time, RKO hired famed American illustrator Norman Rockwell to paint a poster to promote director Orson Welles’ 1942 movie The Magnificent Ambersons.
But over the years, movie poster art became something vaguely disreputable, particularly when it was used to tout films of questionable merit.
It’s only decades after the fact that critics are coming to appreciate the work of people who devoted their considerable craft and artistry in service of even bad movies.
Take Al Kallis, who made poster art for 1950s monster movies, particularly those of B-movie mogul Roger Corman. It was said about his posters, “If we could put sprocket holes on Al Kallis’ art we’d have better films.”
Kallis created poster art for Universal Pictures and Allied Artists, as well as album covers for Capitol Records. (Oddly, he also co-founded the Southern California chain restaurant International House of Pancakes.)
Then there was Reynold Brown, a commercial artist now best known for his iconic posters for 1950s monster films, particularly Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
By the 1960s, studios began hiring artists to create original artwork for more respectable movies, beginning what is now considered a golden age of movie poster art. Which brings us to the topic at hand:
Bob Peak (1927–1992)
Peak, who started his career in advertising, became one of the most in-demand poster artists of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
His distinctive artwork can be seen in his posters for the musicals West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Camelot and gave rise to iconic images for such films as Apocalypse Now, Rollerball, Superman and the early Star Trek movies.
Peak created art for more than 130 movies, The New York Times reported upon Peak’s death in 1992 at the age of 64: “Mr. Peak won praise for injecting vitality and vibrant colors into movie posters.”
Peak was known for his painstaking work: On Apocalypse Now, Peak worked for more than a year and created four or five finished paintings, according to 24x36.
Peak was also a prolific illustrator of magazine covers for such publications as Ladies Home Journal, McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, Parents, TV Guide and Esquire. He painted more than 40 covers of Time.
Peak — who graduated from L.A.’s Art Center College of Design in 1951 but spent most of his career in and around New York — was honored with several awards, including a lifetime achievement award from The Hollywood Reporter.
John Alvin (1948–2008)
Alvin began his career as a poster artist in 1974 with one of his most enduring one sheets for Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. He based it on a Roy Rogers magazine cover image, which featured the singing cowboy astride a rearing horse, 24x36 said.
Alvin’s wife, Andrea, provided a key joke in the artwork: Inscribed on the headdress worn by Brooks as the Yiddish-speaking Indian chief is the phrase “Kosher for Passover,” the Los Angeles Times reported in its obit of Alvin in 2008.
Alvin — who graduated from Art Center exactly 20 years after Peak — was able to parlay the success of his Blazing Saddles poster into a career in the 1970s and into the 21st century, crafting art for such films E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, the original animated Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Cocoon, Red Dawn, Willow, Young Frankenstein, Gremlins, City Slickers, Batman Returns, The Color Purple and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Times characterized his artwork as “Alvinesque.” “John always brought this magical, almost romantic quality to his work,” longtime friend and colleague Federico Tio told the Times. “His sense of light and capturing a moment was spectacular. . . . Not only was he a great illustrator, he was a great thinker. He was so passionate about his craft.”
For 1982’s E.T., director Steven Spielberg suggested an image of E.T. touching Elliott’s head. Alvin had a better idea: A version of Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, with their two fingers touching, 24x36 said. Alvin used the hand of his daughter in place of Elliott’s in the poster art.
At a time when studios routinely removed an artist’s name from its poster images, Alvin snuck his signature “ALVIN” into the curvature of the Earth on E.T. and on the side of a building in Blade Runner.
Richard Amsel (1947–1985)
Amsel had a relatively brief but notable career in the 1970s and ’80s and may be most known for his poster for the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Amsel broke out early — at the tender age of 22, as a senior at the Philadelphia College of Art — when 20th Century Fox bought his pitch for a poster for Barbra Streisand’s 1969 Hello, Dolly!
He quickly distinguished himself with work in both the recording industry (including album covers for Barry Manilow and Bette Midler) and the movie business.
He did posters for The Sting, The Dark Crystal, Flash Gordon, The Champ, Chinatown, Julia, The Last Picture Show, The Last Tycoon, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Muppet Movie, Murder on the Orient Express, Nashville, Papillon, The Shootist, and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
He died in 1985 of AIDS at the age of 37 shortly after finishing Thunderdome.
Drew Struzan (b. 1947)
Struzan is one of the most well-known poster artists, having created more than 150 film paintings. He is most strongly associated with the Lucasfilm Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises. He also created the logo for that studio’s VFX company, Industrial Light & Magic.
Struzan was also the go-to artist for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment company and created artwork for sci-fi and genre movies, including The Thing, Back to the Future, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Muppet Movie, Coming to America, First Blood, Risky Business, the first two Harry Potter movies and The Goonies.
By the turn of the century, Struzan’s style of poster artwork had fallen out of favor among studios, who preferred to promote movies with photographic images of the stars.
Director Guillermo del Toro commissioned Struzan to do a poster for his 2004 Hellboy movie, which Struzan agreed to. But, he told del Toro: “You’re about to find out how little power you have,” according to 24x36. He was right: The studio opted to use photos instead on the film’s official one sheet.
Struzan retired in 2008 and lives in California, but will occasionally pick up the paintbrush for a special commission, such as a promotional poster for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was given to fans at a convention.
Who’s your favorite movie poster artist? Let us know in the comments.
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