While a Drew Struzan cover for the(for example) DVD art would be simply the most amazing thing ever, I just don't think this series(or especially just the Telltale Store release of the series) will have the kind of numbers necessary to justify that kind of expense.
the kind of numbers necessary to justify that kind of expense.
Actually it's not even doable, as he only works out of his retirement for close friends like Spielberg, Lucas, Darabont and DelToro. And I really doubt that Spielberg is involved in any way with the BTTF game.
Actually it's not even doable, as he only works out of his retirement for close friends like Spielberg, Lucas, Darabont and DelToro. And I really doubt that Spielberg is involved in any way with the BTTF game.
...and even if Gale throws in his hat, it's obviously too late. I hope that TTG still allocates a great deal of care and attention to an "official" game poster, which at least mimicks Drew Struzan's style somehow, shows respect for his work for the triology and acknowledges his strenghs in likeness and composition. What I really don't want to happen is the cruel fate of Purcell's MI cover artwork with the Special Editions. Blech!
I just found out today - honestly, no one told me - that Drew Struzan actually did a poster for "Cowboys & Aliens", which of course wasn't used for the movie and ended up as an SDCC exclusive print.
I'm not remotely interested in the Cowboys & Aliens movie, but I'm so glad that there's still the itty bitty chance that there will one day be another one of Struzan's posters in the movie theater lobby. He's out there and still doing his thing.
And I'm happy for Drew as well, as this gave him the chance to draw Harrison Ford yet again. I'm pretty sure this is the actor he drew most in his life. Does he really still need photographs of him?
I saw this poster when it popped up on his website "posterography" - which I actually thought was abandoned for more than a year. Mere chance. And I don't go out actively looking for DS news any more because I don't think there is that much to find out.
I saw this poster when it popped up on his website "posterography" - which I actually thought was abandoned for more than a year. Mere chance. And I don't go out actively looking for DS news any more because I don't think there is that much to find out.
You will be happy to know that in October a second edition of Drew's Oeuvre is published. It'll be updated to contain more recent pieces as well (at least "The Walking Dead", as it's on the cover), possibly including "Cowboys & Aliens" as well. Compared to the first edition it'll have 20 more pages, so I guess at least 20 new pieces
Also Drew: The Man Behind the Poster, a 90 minute documentary about Struzan is in post-production right now, planned to be completed this fall.
I didn't know about the Oeuvre re-release. But I was well aware of the documentary. Let's hope this does come out this year. I fear that the whole "completed in 2011" nonsense is just a way of saying "no one wants to publish it".
And one day, I will ask you to lend me that incredibly expensive Hellboy process DVD...
I didn't know about the Oeuvre re-release. But I was well aware of the documentary. Let's hope this does come out this year. I fear that the whole "completed in 2011" nonsense is just a way of saying "no one wants to publish it".
In fact that is true as well... I've asked the producer about it. They are still editing it, but they don't have a publisher yet either.
And one day, you'll just get the Hellboy-poster-DVD yourself... I believe in you... and your wallet...
In fact that is true as well... I've asked the producer about it. They are still editing it, but they don't have a publisher yet either.
And one day, you'll just get the Hellboy-poster-DVD yourself... I believe in you... and your wallet...
You may well believe in me, thank you, but in my wallet, well... I've seen it. It's gruesome and empty, and looking into next year, it can get even worse pretty suddenly.
Just looked up the new oeuvre and hope that money won't be too tight in October (will be OK, I guess). It will of course have new art, but it also looks like this time, his wife has added some personal stories. That might fill some of these pages as well.
The strange thing is, the authors of the "first edition", Jessie Horsting, Amy Horsting and Greg Aronowitz, aren't mentioned this time around. Maybe the whole text portion of the first book has been replaced (and only George Lucs' foreword kept)?
Well, a new version of this collection will be available as of October 4, 2011. This time from Titan Books, the company that brought us 2010's brilliant The Art of Drew Struzan. Titan and Drew have "re-mastered" Oeuvre (if you will) and it features a new cover design, 50 new pages, and text written by Drew himself and his wife, Dylan.
Makes sense. His posters were always his copyright, so if he gets the portions of those other authors out, he is well within his rights to make a new version. After the sales of the "Art of Drew Struzan" in 2009, I bet that Titan books has begged Drew for this revamp. I missed the original oeuvre and have shuddered at the sight of the present prices. Hope I can get this one...
Comic Con fans, stop by Titan's booth #5537 to check out Drew's new book, DREW STRUZAN: OEUVRE. There at two versions of this book available. The one featured at CC this weekend is an over-sized, numbered, slip-cased edition, signed by Drew on a bound-in specially illustrated signature sheet and limited to 1000 copies, also includes an exclusive Drew Struzan Pan's Labyrinth print (signed by the artist) in a protective envelope, and features a cloth case with a variant dust-jacket specific to this edition.
Seems I missed out again.
But I'd better pre-order the smaller book now.
/edit September 8, 2011:
Found even more bad news for the "new" oeuvre. The 2004 edition had a height of a whopping 14 inches (35cm), probably equal to the new one available at SDCC 2011. The regular new edition on Amazon, however, has been named a "companion piece" to last year's "The Art of Drew Struzan", and will be similar in height to that book (only 12 inches or 30 cm). That kills the coffee-table book feel entirely, no doubt, and paying 32+ Euro for it feels a little overpriced. Well... you can't have everything. But damn, that is more than a little bit unfair. I'd be seriously disappointed if the posters in this aren't bleed pages entirely. But they did exactly that in the "Art of Drew Struzan", so Titan books will probably get at least that right.
/edit September 17, 2011:
Reviews are starting to pop up over the net for the new Oeuvre, namely Chris Jenkins' and "Phil's", but it's obvious that they're all more quoting the book cover instead of evaluating the book themselves. Did they even HAVE a review copy? Are they aware that there was an Oeuvre in 2004? Are they aware of the size differences? What nature exactly are Dylan Struzan's comments, could we have some quotes? Some photographs of the layout? Of works which were NOT extensively featured in last year's book? Damn these incompetent reviewers. Find me a good one!!
/edit September 19, 2011:
Ugh. Found some auction on ebay.com for the oversized SDCC edition, signed by Drew. It went for 229$. That's seriously not my price tag.
/edit September 23, 2011:
This counts as a completely egocentrical review. Tells us almost nothing about the book and almost exclusively what Drew Struzan means to the author. Incredible.
/edit September 25, 2011:
Yes, another "real" review! This one mourns that Drew himself didn't write anything for this book, but then again, that's what "The Art of Drew Struzan is for", and as is often quoted, "the art is there to speak for itself". Pictures are obviously made with a hand camera under rubbish lighting without a good macro, and they do not show the layout.
/edit September 29,2011:
Hey, does anyone still read my crap?! Should I knock it off right now?? Seriously though, this is an interesting review. The author didn't have a clue who Drew Struzan is, and gives us an overview of the different sections of the book. Unfortunately, it seems quite normal for struzanewbies to complain that they do not see the "finished poster" with movie titles and credits, but "only" Drew's art.
The author hints at getting the book from Amazon, so it must be the smaller edition; also, are they already sending these books out far earlier than September 4th / 14th?
Are you really complaining about the price?? We should be glad that there was an "Oeuvre" in the first place (which caused Drew to lose a lot of money over it), and YOU should be even happier, that there's a re-issue!
It's a matter of comparison - I am thankful that Titan books publishes this, and even after they shrunk the format, I pre-ordered immediately. Still, more size and with it more detail would have been justified for the price tag. Which would enable me to lose myself even more in those paintings.
Yeah, the BTTF fold-out was in the old Oeuvre as well, and also the Star Wars SE posters (as a fold out, I mean).
Some new stuff I spotted in the YouTube clip (I probably missed some, plus some pages got skipped):
- the George Lucas one in the beginning (there was only a small shot of it in the old Oeuvre)
- Cowboys & Aliens
- Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- The Suit
- The Walking Dead
- The Courtship of Princess Leia (at least now as a full double spread... with the most BEAUTIFUL depiction of Carrie Fisher EVER)
- some Anakin/Vader stuff
- some book covers now as double spreads (Shadows of the Empire, some Indy novels)
- The Indiana Jones Adventure
- some Lord of the Rings stuff
- American International
- a lot new personal artworks
But the review has got some things wrong. First of all this isn't a reprint of the 2004 book. As we know all the texts are most likely brand-new, written be Mr. and Mrs. Struzan themselves. He also states that the old Oeuvre together with "The Art of Drew Struzan" provide everything this one contains, which is again wrong, as for example "Cowboys & Aliens" and "The Walking Dead" (and several of the ones I've listed above) weren't included in either one.
The Fisher piece caught my eye as well. But then again, much of Drew Struzan does.
I'm not really sure if Parka actually has the old Oeuvre (you obviously do ); I might ask him about the size difference, though. I think the comment about completeness might have been a slight exaggeration instead of a full-blown mistake. Or a translation error... as he hails from Singapore...
(edit: I asked him - he doesn't have the 2004 edition. Damn!)
No sign of Drew's Indiana Jones video game work, which you so lovingly restored. They might be on some unseen pages...
Ohhhh I hope I'll be lucky next week.
("Stupid holiday" )
At least "Emperor's Tomb" is in the old one... I doubt it's been left out in the new edition.
Unfortunately, it WAS.
I received that little treasure box today and there's a host of Indy stuff in almost every section including the "private art" one (!), but no sign of the Emperor's tomb much to my chagrin. So this was definitely in the old Oeuvre, huh? That is so odd, it's a great piece...
Garrrrrr... NOPE, the Han Solo on the right is also not in. Which is a bit of an insult, as this picture is not only look-defining, but also featured very prominently in this ominous documentary, if my sample viewing memory does not fail me (Drew and Lucas are at one point standing in front of this painting while discussing it). That is so going to be in my book review.
Then again, I see that the old Oeuvre seems to be rather generous with its space. Bleed pages are optimum, but the layout in those pictures seems to be a lot of black with a tiny picture in the middle...
Some things to confirm before I get to a review. When you look through the new Oeuvre, could you check how often you recognize that posters were cut at their edges and how this compares to the treatment in the old edition? For example, the three BTTF posters were significantly cut and focus exclusively on the characters; one Indiana Jones book cover even has the title cut off at the top. While I crave for more detail, sometimes I think it kills the original composition. Also, please compare the color reproduction in this one. I was VERY satisfied with the color and color contrast level in "The Art of Drew Struzan", while I feel that the new Oeuvre often gives the colors so much intensity that quite a lot of contrast is lost. That is quite something that would catch your eye.
Gone through the book again and made some comparisons myself. I'm not yet sure what to think. Some of the pictures are reproduced BETTER than in "The Art of". For example, I can see much more detail in the houses of the "Coming to America" poster. The color boost effect I described seems most notable in the Oeuvre's Harry Potter pieces. Let's see if it's the same in all currently circulating 2011 Oeuvres.
Ha! You're right, of course. Nonetheless, the new Oeuvre's introduction to the chapter on "commercial works" mentions his computer game box art covers explicitly and then goes on to show NONE. That's a bit contradictory.
It really seems like I missed this year's Drew Struzan news. In June, a poster for the movie "Super 8" appeared, and severalwebsitesreported that it was a Drew Struzan poster.
The fools.
Although the artist has a LOT of talent, it's "back to school" when it comes to composition. The pictorial elements are almost organized in horizontal levels. There's no flow to the composition. There are so many picture elements that the entire poster is just cluttered with stuff. In the rare cases when Drew draws that many characters, they don't necessarily take up so much space. Color and value distribution doesn't draw the viewer's eye towards the character's faces, also a very un-Struzan thing to do. It all looks too digital, even lacks Drew's trademark Prismacolor pencil strokes (the gesso structure is not always that visible in his works). And lastly, Drew's signature is missing.
Yeah, back when I firt saw it, I was really wondering, how it could be confused with Struzan... of course, the composition looks like stuff he'd do, but the techniques and likenesses could be way better.
Remember "the documentary"? Yeah, the documentary about Drew Struzan. I think they've tried to push it out for four years now. The first screening was in 2010 (SDCC), so the interviews are probably half a decade old this year. They're making yet another attempt, even showing it in a cinema or two. But what really irks me is that they're going "brand new documentary" each and every time.
...DVD release? Hah, you must be kidding. Maybe in another five years with a 100$ price tag...
Comments
...and even if Gale throws in his hat, it's obviously too late. I hope that TTG still allocates a great deal of care and attention to an "official" game poster, which at least mimicks Drew Struzan's style somehow, shows respect for his work for the triology and acknowledges his strenghs in likeness and composition. What I really don't want to happen is the cruel fate of Purcell's MI cover artwork with the Special Editions. Blech!
I just found out today - honestly, no one told me - that Drew Struzan actually did a poster for "Cowboys & Aliens", which of course wasn't used for the movie and ended up as an SDCC exclusive print.
I'm not remotely interested in the Cowboys & Aliens movie, but I'm so glad that there's still the itty bitty chance that there will one day be another one of Struzan's posters in the movie theater lobby. He's out there and still doing his thing.
And I'm happy for Drew as well, as this gave him the chance to draw Harrison Ford yet again. I'm pretty sure this is the actor he drew most in his life. Does he really still need photographs of him?
(Click for BIG)
I saw this poster when it popped up on his website "posterography" - which I actually thought was abandoned for more than a year. Mere chance. And I don't go out actively looking for DS news any more because I don't think there is that much to find out.
You will be happy to know that in October a second edition of Drew's Oeuvre is published. It'll be updated to contain more recent pieces as well (at least "The Walking Dead", as it's on the cover), possibly including "Cowboys & Aliens" as well. Compared to the first edition it'll have 20 more pages, so I guess at least 20 new pieces
Also Drew: The Man Behind the Poster, a 90 minute documentary about Struzan is in post-production right now, planned to be completed this fall.
There's still stuff going on about Drew
And one day, I will ask you to lend me that incredibly expensive Hellboy process DVD...
And one day, you'll just get the Hellboy-poster-DVD yourself... I believe in you... and your wallet...
You may well believe in me, thank you, but in my wallet, well... I've seen it. It's gruesome and empty, and looking into next year, it can get even worse pretty suddenly.
Just looked up the new oeuvre and hope that money won't be too tight in October (will be OK, I guess). It will of course have new art, but it also looks like this time, his wife has added some personal stories. That might fill some of these pages as well.
EDIT
A little more info I found:
Seems I missed out again.
But I'd better pre-order the smaller book now.
/edit September 8, 2011:
Found even more bad news for the "new" oeuvre. The 2004 edition had a height of a whopping 14 inches (35cm), probably equal to the new one available at SDCC 2011. The regular new edition on Amazon, however, has been named a "companion piece" to last year's "The Art of Drew Struzan", and will be similar in height to that book (only 12 inches or 30 cm). That kills the coffee-table book feel entirely, no doubt, and paying 32+ Euro for it feels a little overpriced. Well... you can't have everything. But damn, that is more than a little bit unfair. I'd be seriously disappointed if the posters in this aren't bleed pages entirely. But they did exactly that in the "Art of Drew Struzan", so Titan books will probably get at least that right.
/edit September 17, 2011:
Reviews are starting to pop up over the net for the new Oeuvre, namely Chris Jenkins' and "Phil's", but it's obvious that they're all more quoting the book cover instead of evaluating the book themselves. Did they even HAVE a review copy? Are they aware that there was an Oeuvre in 2004? Are they aware of the size differences? What nature exactly are Dylan Struzan's comments, could we have some quotes? Some photographs of the layout? Of works which were NOT extensively featured in last year's book? Damn these incompetent reviewers. Find me a good one!!
/edit September 19, 2011:
Ugh. Found some auction on ebay.com for the oversized SDCC edition, signed by Drew. It went for 229$. That's seriously not my price tag.
/edit September 23, 2011:
This counts as a completely egocentrical review. Tells us almost nothing about the book and almost exclusively what Drew Struzan means to the author. Incredible.
/edit September 25, 2011:
Yes, another "real" review! This one mourns that Drew himself didn't write anything for this book, but then again, that's what "The Art of Drew Struzan is for", and as is often quoted, "the art is there to speak for itself".
/edit September 29,2011:
Hey, does anyone still read my crap?! Should I knock it off right now??
/more edits:
Reviews!! http://www.geeknative.com/23247/a-lifetime-of-movie-posters/
October 01: Exclusive pictures!! Check out the Indiana Jones one for the Disneyland ride - I've never seen that one before.
http://coolandcollected.com/book-report-drew-struzan-oeuvre/
The author hints at getting the book from Amazon, so it must be the smaller edition; also, are they already sending these books out far earlier than September 4th / 14th?
So are the original paintings - still I cannot buy THEM!
No glimpse of Back to the Future stuff here, because these posters are on a fold-out page.
All right, maybe I am a little exited.
Some new stuff I spotted in the YouTube clip (I probably missed some, plus some pages got skipped):
- the George Lucas one in the beginning (there was only a small shot of it in the old Oeuvre)
- Cowboys & Aliens
- Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- The Suit
- The Walking Dead
- The Courtship of Princess Leia (at least now as a full double spread... with the most BEAUTIFUL depiction of Carrie Fisher EVER)
- some Anakin/Vader stuff
- some book covers now as double spreads (Shadows of the Empire, some Indy novels)
- The Indiana Jones Adventure
- some Lord of the Rings stuff
- American International
- a lot new personal artworks
But the review has got some things wrong. First of all this isn't a reprint of the 2004 book. As we know all the texts are most likely brand-new, written be Mr. and Mrs. Struzan themselves. He also states that the old Oeuvre together with "The Art of Drew Struzan" provide everything this one contains, which is again wrong, as for example "Cowboys & Aliens" and "The Walking Dead" (and several of the ones I've listed above) weren't included in either one.
I'm not really sure if Parka actually has the old Oeuvre (you obviously do
(edit: I asked him - he doesn't have the 2004 edition. Damn!)
No sign of Drew's Indiana Jones video game work, which you so lovingly restored. They might be on some unseen pages...
Ohhhh I hope I'll be lucky next week.
("Stupid holiday"
Unfortunately, it WAS.
I received that little treasure box today and there's a host of Indy stuff in almost every section including the "private art" one (!), but no sign of the Emperor's tomb much to my chagrin. So this was definitely in the old Oeuvre, huh? That is so odd, it's a great piece...
Still, I AM happy that it arrived!!!
And yes, "Emperor's Tomb" is in the old one:
Haven't checked the whole new one... is the Han Solo one in there? Anyway, it looks like having both books is probably the best way to go
Then again, I see that the old Oeuvre seems to be rather generous with its space. Bleed pages are optimum, but the layout in those pictures seems to be a lot of black with a tiny picture in the middle...
Some things to confirm before I get to a review. When you look through the new Oeuvre, could you check how often you recognize that posters were cut at their edges and how this compares to the treatment in the old edition? For example, the three BTTF posters were significantly cut and focus exclusively on the characters; one Indiana Jones book cover even has the title cut off at the top. While I crave for more detail, sometimes I think it kills the original composition. Also, please compare the color reproduction in this one. I was VERY satisfied with the color and color contrast level in "The Art of Drew Struzan", while I feel that the new Oeuvre often gives the colors so much intensity that quite a lot of contrast is lost. That is quite something that would catch your eye.
edit: Hey, even more stuff to compare!
The fools.
Although the artist has a LOT of talent, it's "back to school" when it comes to composition. The pictorial elements are almost organized in horizontal levels. There's no flow to the composition. There are so many picture elements that the entire poster is just cluttered with stuff. In the rare cases when Drew draws that many characters, they don't necessarily take up so much space. Color and value distribution doesn't draw the viewer's eye towards the character's faces, also a very un-Struzan thing to do. It all looks too digital, even lacks Drew's trademark Prismacolor pencil strokes (the gesso structure is not always that visible in his works). And lastly, Drew's signature is missing.
Remember "the documentary"? Yeah, the documentary about Drew Struzan. I think they've tried to push it out for four years now. The first screening was in 2010 (SDCC), so the interviews are probably half a decade old this year. They're making yet another attempt, even showing it in a cinema or two. But what really irks me is that they're going "brand new documentary" each and every time.
...DVD release? Hah, you must be kidding. Maybe in another five years with a 100$ price tag...