John Alvin

Don't do much reportage on this blog, but as I'm not seeing it much elsewhere, a mention of the apparent (I don't see an obit anywhere yet, but it seems to be claimed by reputable sources) death of poster artist extraordinaire John Alvin yesterday.

Alvin's poster art is ubiquitous, and since he broke into the biz in 1974 with the great Blazing Saddles poster (he's the man behind the History of the World Part I, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Young Frankenstein cover work for Mel Brooks as well), he created some iconic and instantly recognizable posters – the Blade Runner cover's a pretty good example.


He worked heavily with Disney for their more major offerings – Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Lion King – and painted double-digit quantities of art for Star Wars and its sequels/prequels. The award-winning art for E.T. was the most satisfying to him, claims a blurb at Chuck Jones' site. Quite a bit more at this fan site, and more officially but less extensively here.

Of sequelly relevance, his work for Star Trek VI, Batman Returns and Batman Forever, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and certainly Arthur 2: On the Rocks.

A tip of the New York Mets cowboy hat to John Alvin.