Sci-Friday: Movie posters of yesterday

A look at genre posters from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Feb 09, 2024

Movie posters have been a major part of the film industry ever since the beginning. Though their first purpose is as a promotional tool, they also often have high artistic value.

Sadly, a significant shift occurred at some point in the 1990s, when more and more posters began to use photo stills instead of fine art.

So today, I offer you a trip down memory lane, looking at some of the best illustrated Science-Fiction posters of the past (regardless of film quality, just to clarify).

To simplify, I chose to sort these first in chronological order then by artist.

Albert Kallis

Born in 1924, Kallis was hired by Roger Corman to handle all the posters for American International Pictures. He stayed with the company nineteen years, illustrating loads of B-movie posters. While most of them were for fantasy or horror flicks, he did a few Science-Fiction jobs as well. One that particularly stands out is this 1958 poster for “Terror from the year 5,000” directed by Robert J. Gurney Jr.

Amusingly, Kallis was also one of the founders of IHOP (the International House of Pancakes).

For more information on this artist, check out his Meansheets entry, and this cool forum thread on Monsterbrains.

Reynold Brown

When Kallis became overloaded with work, he hired two other artists to help out. One was Joe Smith, the other Reynold Brown (1917-1991).

Brown began as a comic strip artist before turning to magazine illustrations and eventually landed at Universal Pictures, where he did his first movie posters for art director Mischa Kallis—Albert’s father! He ended up working for both.

Highlights of his prolific career (in the Sci-Fi genre) include “The incredible shrinking man” (1957, Albert Zugsmith) and “Attack of the 50 ft. woman” (1958, Nathan Juran as Nathan Hertz).

Brown also taught at the Art Center College of Design. Two of his students became hugely successful poster artists themselves: Bob Peak (who famously did all the “Star Trek” posters up to “Star Trek V”) and Drew Struzan (whom we’ll discuss below).

Further information is available on Wikipedia and more of his work can be seen on IMP Awards.

John Solie

Born in 1937, Solie was another prolific artist who made over 200 movie posters in under two decades. He started working on low budget films for New World Pictures (Roger Corman’s company) before upgrading to mainstream movies.

One of his best known work was for the cult classic “Soylent Green” (1973, Richard Fleischer). Another piece I really like from him was done for the low-budget Italian flick “Starcrash” (1979, Lewis Coates).

To see more of his stuff, check out his gallery at IMP Awards (and make sure you look at his poster for “Strange brew,” it’s amazing).

Tom Jung

Though more often credited as a designer (working with other illustrators) he has also handled some poster artwork from start to finish. Among these, his most iconic work was for the first two films in the original “Star Wars” trilogy.

You can read about Tom Jung on Wikipedia and see more of his art here.

Richard Amsel

Born in 1947, Amsel got his break when he won a poster contest sponsored by 20th Century Fox. This led him to illustrate movie posters, album covers, and magazine covers (including 40 issues of “TV Guide”).

While his best known posters are likely the two he made for “Raiders of the lost ark,” Richard Amsel also drew superb posters for three genre classics of the 80s: “Flash Gordon” (1980, Mike Hodges), “The dark crystal” (1982, Jim Henson & Frank Oz), and “Mad Max beyond Thunderdome” (1985, George Miller & George Ogilvie).

Sadly, Amsel died from AIDS at the peak of his career, in 1985, when he was only 38 years old.

Want to know more? You know the drill! Check out Wikipedia and IMP Awards for more of his artwork.

Barry E. Jackson

Jackson started his career in animation, most notably on Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings.” His posters have mostly been for horror films (“Terror train,” “Friday the 13th part 3,” “Sleepwalkers”…) but he also did this fantastic piece for John Carpenter’s classic “Escape from New York” in 1981.

Jackson later became a chilren’s book author and illustrator as well as a production designer, on films such as “The Prince of Egypt,” “The nightmare before Christmas,” and Ron Howard’s “The Grinch” He also worked on “Shrek” and the “Sponge Bob” franchise.

For more information, head over to Wikipedia.

Steven Chorney

Born in 1951, Chorney has worked on over 150 motion picture campaigns, including poster art for films such as “Black Moon rising,” “Super Mario Bros.” and “Zathura.” He also did a beautiful advance poster for Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” starring David Bowie.

In the Science-Fiction genre, he notably did this poster for “The ice pirates” (1984, Stewart Raffill). The movie is bad, but the art is really cool.

Read up on Chorney here, and check out more of his artwork on IMP Awards.

Drew Struzan

After graduating from the Art Center College of Design (where he had Reynold Brown for teacher, as stated above), Struzan—who was born in 1947—started making album covers. His most famous one was for Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to my nightmare.” It was a billboard featuring his art for that album that caught a film executive’s eye and led to his first poster jobs.

His early credits were for B-movies that became cult classics (“Empire of the ants,” “Food of the gods,” etc.) but he quickly graduated to mainstream big budgets and became one of the most sought-after artists of the 80s.

His most iconic posters include “First blood” and “The Goonies.” He also worked on every film in the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises to date, and on most of the “Muppet show” and “Police Academy” series.

My personal favorite in the Science-Fiction genre is the one he made for “Dreamscape,” a really cool film directed by Joseph Ruben in 1984, starring Dennis Quaid. He also made posters for “Back to the future” (1985, Robert Zemeckis) and “Star Wars: The phantom menace” (1999, George Lucas).

Want to know more? Check out Wikipedia. Want to see what other posters he’s done? Run over to IMP Awards to bask in his genius!

So cool it’s hot

Movie posters are a fascinating topic to study, though one filled with mysteries and frustation. Not every poster is signed, and it can sometimes be difficult to determine who did what.

There are, of course, many other artists I could have mentioned—John Alvin (“E.T.,” “Blade runner”…), Robert McGinnis (“Barbarella,” “Diamonds are forever”…), or Daniel Goozee (“Moonraker,” “Superman II”…) and that’s merely skimming the surface. All of the folks mentioned in this article are American, but every country had its roster of talented artists.

But one has to stop somewhere. And so, for those of you curious to learn more, I suggest exploring IMP Awards to discover all the great art that film has produced over the years.

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So what about you? What are your favorite movie posters?

And are there any artists you particularly like?

Let us know in the comments!

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