Tim Hildebrandt Passes - Legion World

The Hildebrandt Brothers were always a big draw to me growing up. Sometimes I would judge a book by its cover, if that cover was drawn by them.

According to Newsarama :

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From the Hildebrandt Family - June 11th, 2006

Tim Hildebrandt has passed away. And, with him, so has an era.

Tim, 67, died today from complications due to diabetes. He is survived by his mother Germaine, twin brother Greg, sister Janie, wife Rita, son Charles, nieces Mary and Laura, and nephew Gregory.

Tim was an otherworldly artist. For 47 years, his captivating work fostered the dreams and fantasies of millions of fans, young and old.

Best known as part of the Brothers Hildebrandt team, Tim’s career transported him to—and through—many worlds. Technically speaking, Tim and Greg worked side by side. But their work together on such masterpieces as the original Star Wars poster and 70’s J.R.R. Tolkien
calendars proved that their individual talents could coalesce seamlessly into one.

Tim was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor. While he loved and appreciated all forms of art, he had a particular passion for animation and illustration.

While he will be greatly missed by all of us who love him, we take comfort knowing that he will live on in the art that he created.

Anyone wishing to express condolences to Greg Hildebrandt can send them to:

The Spiderwebart Gallery,
5 Waterloo Rd.
Hopatcong, NJ 07843

The Tolkien calendars he and his brother did were a major, major, major inspiration to me as a wee lad deciding I wanted to be an artist. I spent countless hours looking at and trying to recreate what I saw in them.

To this day, every time I look at the stuff they created, I am blown away by how full of life it is and how unbelievably vibrant the colors are.

This is, to me, the embodiment of the Hildebrandt brothers. I cannot recall ever identifying a movie and movie poster together as much as this one.

[Linked Image]

Spiderwebart Gallery , Greg Hildebrandt's official gallery, has a nice memorial to Tim.

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Originally posted by Lightning Lad:
This is, to me, the embodiment of the Hildebrandt brothers. I cannot recall ever identifying a movie and movie poster together as much as this one.

Same here. I had that one on my wall as a kid for years until it finally just disintegrated, I guess from me looking at it so hard. About 5 years back I bought it again, because I loved it so much (although I've been holding off on hanging it until I've picked up a frame for it this time).

There is another version of that basic poster image by another artist, and the figures do more closely resemble Mark Hammil and Carrie Fisher...but I always preferred the Hildebrant version. It's so much more alive.

But why aren't R2-D2 and C-3PO in that picture...? They've vanished!

Ah, that's because I put up the original, non-movie version. This is the one you (and I as well) probably had hanging on your wall.

[Linked Image]

Wow. Just... man.

Thanks for posting these.

Well... not EXACTLY the original. Back in '77, it was just called STAR WARS! (No "New Hope" business... heh heh)

I'll never forget... although I'd been a fan of sci-fi since the early-60's (FIREBALL XL5), and would have a natural inclination to see a movie about space, the MAIN reason I wanted to see SW when it opened was... Peter Cushing!

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Originally posted by profh0011:
Well... not EXACTLY the original. Back in '77, it was just called STAR WARS! (No "New Hope" business... heh heh)

Well, closest I could come searching from work. You'd be surprised at the number of sites blocked for 'adult' content by our servers.

That is some damn fine art work. These guys had their art all over my childhood.

This makes me feel more grown up than voting did...

Of course I can't access any decent copies of the book covers right now but one of the series that the Hildebrandt brothers drew me into was the Shannara series. For my money, the best fantasy series ever written (at least the first trilogy). Much better even than Tolkien. I honestly don't know if I would have ever picked up The Sword of Shannara without their cover art as well as the multiple inner plates they illustrated.

I keep coming up with more and more images from my formative years that have Hildebrandt signed in the corner.

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Originally posted by Lightning Lad:
You'd be surprised at the number of sites blocked for 'adult' content by our servers.

I can see how the Mormons could identify with an evil Empire...

I was also a fan since I was a kid. Beautiful artwork. He will be missed.

I was just speaking with a friend of mine who's little girl (five years old) picked up his copy of Sword of Shannara and wanted to read it because of the illustrations. The torch has been passed.

I suppose I could go looking on my own... but it would nice to see the "horizontal" poster used in the newspapers-- the one that really got my attention. I believe it took up an ENTIRE PAGE of the paper. I'd enever seen anybody do a movie ad THAT big before.

It's good I was inclined to see a film like this, because if I had to go on the basis of the 1st issue of the comic-book (full "art" by Howard Chaykin-- yes, I use the word loosely) I'd never have guessed how entertaining the film would be. That 1st issue (covering approx. the first 20 min. of the film) did not blow ANY of the wonder & amazement I saw 2 weeks later when the film opened.

Hilderbrant was amazing... although, back then, the artist who wound up really grabbing ME was Boris Vallejo. It was the 1978 TARZAN calendar that did it. I haven't missed one of his calendars since!!

Is it this one Prof? I'm not sure if this is a Hildebrandt version or not (especially since I can't access their site from work).

THAT's the one. Amazing how often elements of some paintings can get rearranged & reused (unless someone is actually re-painting every part over from scratch).

See, there's 5 actors listed. I only knew 2 of them-- and frankly, I never cared for THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. (It was quite a few years before I found out Alec Guinness had quite a career in comedies.)

Funny that they hadn't standardized the use of the SW logo here. I think the first piece of merchandising I saw it on was the 2-LP soundtrack album-- which had NOTHING BUT the logo on the front cover!

Sad news.

The Brothers Hildebrandt were the first artists I recognized by name. I'd spend hours reading and rereading a book on their work, trying to understand the techniques. Thank you for posting this, Scott.

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Originally posted by Lightning Lad:
Is it this one Prof?

OMG!

"...a galaxy jar jar away" ??? Ominous foreshadowing...

This pisses me off to no end. Dynamic Forces had a Flash banner ad splattered across Newsarama (who knows where else) all day today advertising a 'lost, rare litho'. Cold hearted cashing in on Tim's passing. And there is no way anyone can convince me it was done otherwise. I'll never give any business to Dynamic Forces after this and I'll be extremely leary of Newsarama for running it. If it wasn't for the fact that they can only operate due to their advertisers I'd quit visiting their site altogether.

Didn't the Hildebrandt's write/illustrate their own fantasy novel? Was it called "Urshurak" or somesuch? I remember LOVING it when it came out -- I was probably 12 or 13. The illustrations were amazing. Looking back, I don't think the plot was any great shakes, but they threw in every fantasy trope you can imagine. I remember something about Amazons ... sure wish I still had my copy of it.

It was called Urshurak. Spiderwebart has some of the pencils and inks from the book.

"Cold hearted cashing in"

I've seen that before. Shortly after 9-11, Diamond's catalog had a CAPTAIN AMERICA poster by Jim Steranko which they said was done specifically to commemorate the incident... or something like that. But I recognized it as the wraparound cover from the George Olshevsky C.A. INDEX from Dec'79. I wouldn't have minded seeing it put out as a poster like that (actually, I think it was an EXPENSIVE lithograph-- Steranko is nothing if not money-hungry) but tying it into the country's tragedy & revived patriotic mood was just somehow... "wrong".