Drew Struzan
Vainamoinen
Moderator
Now that we've had a glimpse of all the possible monumentalities TTG might achieve - with Christopher Lloyd actually voice-acting and Bob Gale sharing his advice - we might dream a little about all the things that still could be.
Every single part of the Back to the Future triology featured a brilliant, iconic poster by artist extraordinaire Drew Struzan. He's kind of retired by now, but is not only known to occasionally still paint posters, but he's also pretty active with his upcoming book and documentary, he was at SDCC this year and he'll even be at the anniversary reunion.
As he has already done book and even CD covers, honestly, why not an official TTG BTTF game cover? TTG has secured the likeness of Michael J. and Christopher Lloyd, why not have a realistic poster for the game, if the budget possibly allows it? What do you think?
Every single part of the Back to the Future triology featured a brilliant, iconic poster by artist extraordinaire Drew Struzan. He's kind of retired by now, but is not only known to occasionally still paint posters, but he's also pretty active with his upcoming book and documentary, he was at SDCC this year and he'll even be at the anniversary reunion.
As he has already done book and even CD covers, honestly, why not an official TTG BTTF game cover? TTG has secured the likeness of Michael J. and Christopher Lloyd, why not have a realistic poster for the game, if the budget possibly allows it? What do you think?
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Of course, if he would do it, I'd still be happy as Schnitzel (I think the english translation of this still sounds funny
So:
Ryan Jones for the standard cover, Drew Struzan for the "exclusive limited" cover and it's a win for all of us!
But that's just me. I would love to see such an art, but it would kind of be "lying" about the game. I prefer something original over it that matches the game overall design.
It'd be awesome to see Ryan Jones do a poster with his version of the characters in the classic poses from the Struzan posters.
I'd better go burn my Monkey Island 2 box I guess.
/edit: And how could I forget to add the "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" box art, which was in fact an hommage to Drew Struzan's work for that movie series! It worked very, very well for me.
Still, of course, Bill Eaken copied Struzan's style nicely (if a little sparse, compared to what Drew does).
I have to disagree here. Drew's ability to not only capture the likeness of an actor perfectly, but enhance it by adding "that Drew magic" to it, is one of the key elements of his success. In fact he did his first "Star Wars"-poster because he was so good at doing portraits.
Excuse me, did I mention anywhere that old school graphics were cartoony ?
No I didn't ? Oh well...
MI 1 and 2 covers are perfectly fine with the games... The super over cartoony style with unrealistic graphics only arrived with MI 3
Mi 2's graphics look just like Indiana Jones 4.
I believe you should remember the portrait you see in the game. Were they cartoony ? not really. No matter what they wanted to do, it's not what they did. The games were absolutely not cartoony at this time.
So a "realistic" artwork cover is perfectly fine for me.
But what you're wanting, would like making a "Clone Wars" game with the graphics of the cartoon, and feature a painting cover similar to the movies art.
Maybe that doesn't bother you, but it bothers me.
Maybe MI2's style was a little cartoony... :P
Don't get me wrong on this: I do not see the elements "cartoony" and "realism" as lying along a continuum. Art may and must use elements of both - "always". Yet older games relied to a very large part on elements of the cartoon or "iconic simplification". I presume they had to, because with lower resolutions, only exaggerated elements were really clearly visible and emotionally affected the viewer.
Wether the MI2 box art fit the game style is debatable, there are arguments for both. Naturally, the box art aimed for more detail (because it COULD). Also, I think it actually used a similar color scheme (as, for example, the woodtick setting), thus tying game art with box art. Being works of one artist, some in-game-graphics and the box art naturally shared some similarities. Still, it's the level of detail on the box art that could not ever be considered for the game. Did Steve Purcell use the Guybrush and Lechuck sprites to work from? Did he consider his own original game art to extrapolate from? I really can't say.
What does all my rant contribute to the discussion whether Drew Struzan could do the BTTF game art? Possibly that Drew would also deliver elements of both: An accurate, "realistic" portrayal of Doc and Marty, while still maintaining his abstract, iconic elements in the art. Even TTG's cartoonish approach essentially aims for Doc and Marty's likeness; I would have nothing against the idea that the box art accomplishes this a bit more.
While the game was more cartoonish...
The FX interactive release of the second game, Runaway: The dream of the Turtle, also used a not-in-game-models painting for the box art
I think that, once again, it wasn't so in other countries
The third game wasn't distributed by FX, and the box art is a render with the game models.
So I think that the hand-paintings is a FX thing, IIRC they also did their own paintings, different from the rest of the world, for other games (even not Spanish games) such as Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Jack Keane, Dracula: Origin...
Those covers look great. But though, they make me wonder (regret ?) what the game could look like with this kind of chara design ... While I thought the games looked fantastic ^^ .
As for Monkey Island 2, I'm not denying the cartoony elements. I just meant that, for its time, the whole game had a realistic look. (Humans that were, based on other "realistic" games, having the right proportions, the shading and the backgrounds were amazing too).
And moreover, with the covers, and the artwork from Monkey 1 they added afterwards like this
I really never thought for a second Monkey Island was a simple cartoon. For me it was this genius game which mixed so many elements together, in a great shape. (The end of MI 2 is the perfect exemple of all of this)
I mean, we're far from what we got since Monkey Island 3.
I believe that, for most people who will get it only because it's "back to the future" without knowing too much about it (which means not a single one of us), having a great painting cover, buying it, and then seeing cartoony graphics might be somewhat of a letdown.
While the actual design of the BTTF game looks really great, so they can really make something as cool, while having something true to the game.
But it's just me.
Maybe a painting style cover but with the design of the game ^^. Could look good...
And it definitly wasn't "simple"! Well, the first game maybe, but the second, never!
Drew Struzan is a true legend, but I was never fan of his work.. too kitchy for my taste.
However, I'd still love to see him doing the cover for the game. When I think of Back to the future movies, his posters first come to mind.
I'm pretty sure that if any of the TTG team is wearing a suit approaching him, he won't even bother talking to them.
/edit: OK, one quick and (on purpose!!) badly lit peek into that beautiful book. It does mean that Drew Struzan is not running out of ideas, and it also means that this is a really great book to have. Now go and buy it.
But you're right, it's sad to see how and why he decided to retire. Stupid movie business!! (Although he seemed to enjoy his work on the BTTF-posters a lot, especially since the two Bobs, as well as Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were so open-minded)
(Also: A great foreword by Frank Darabont!)
He's got a new art book out? Must find now.
Here you go: The Art of Drew Struzan
This one is a bit different though. Most of the posters in this book can be found in his Oeuvre already, but here the design process for some of them (40 movies are covered in this book) is described in detail, showing off a lot of pencil sketches, comprehensives and even finished but unused posters. Drew explains how some concepts came to be, and how some did not... he writes about the ups and especially the downs of working in the modern movie business (something that ultimately led to his - for my taste way too early - retirement).
But it would just not feel right. After all, something special, different from the previous movies has to happen in the game, which MUST be reflected on the cover art to make this an individual thing.
Yes, MJF and the Bobs count as great experiences for Drew. Also Dustin Hoffman, I think. I'm really not sure about George Lucas, who seemed to willingly distance himself from Struzan, letting middleman after middleman ruin Drew's work...
Concerning Darabont's introductory words: They are brutal, feverish, deeply sarcastic and very angry. I don't know in how far this could be called "great"; you really get the impression that the art form is literally dying, which makes me sad.
I still think having Ryan Jones do the classic Struzan BttF pose with his versions of the characters would be a great compromise.
... with the guy on the right doing just that. I guess it was more obvious an idea that I thought.
Yeah, I think that would be the best.
Of course "great" didn't mean "nice". It was just good to see him so supportive of Drew, and being so vocal about it.
Noooo! There are no cell phones in 2015!! They're all GOING AWAY!!
...and I came across a little too dismissive of Darabont's effort. The level of affront in his words really made me smile.
If I interpret Drew's words in the book correctly, it isn't exactly "his" BTTF pose. The decisive influence for the final composition in fact came from an unnamed other artist, although of course Drew posed for Marty and painted himself from the neck down.
Although realistic would be the way to go in my opinion, Drew is also quite experienced with placing cartoony characters in realistic environments. Might be an interesting composition with the in-game models. (I dare not ask how far you got with your "Siege of Spinner Cay" poster)
Really wishing I had the extra dough to get the 'Art of' book. My wallet has a sad. =(