Legendary Star Wars Artist Greg Hildebrandt Has Passed Away

Iconic fantasy and science-fiction illustrator Greg Hildebrandt passed away yesterday at the age of 85.

Hildebrandt’s pop-culture works included the “style B” poster for the UK release of Star Wars, as well as posters for Clash of the Titans, Barbarella, and Young Frankenstein—the latter two alongside his late twin brother and frequent collaborator, Tim Hildebrandt. He also illustrated numerous trading cards for Magic: The Gathering and Marvel Masterworks, painted artwork for Dungeons & Dragons and the official Lord of the Rings calendars, contributed covers for IDW’s Star Wars comics and issues of OMNI, Amazing Stories, and Heavy Metal magazine and designed the album artwork for Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules—as well as and several releases by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

On the literary side of things, Hildebrandt additionally illustrated his own book, Greg Hildebrandt’s Favorite Fairy Tales, as well as works related to Dracula, Robin Hood, Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Peter Cottontail’s Surprise, The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Hildebrandt’s passing prompting an outpouring of response on social media from luminaries including Gail Simone, Paul Levitz, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jo Duffy, Pat Brosseau, CrissCross, Rob Liefeld, and Tony DiTerlizzi with surely more to follow. We’ll leave you with a small handful of some our personal favorites of the man’s works. May he rest in peace.

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