Brothers Hildebrandt

Greg (January 23, 1939 – October 31, 2024) and Tim Hildebrandt (January 23, 1939 – June 11, 2006), known as the Brothers Hildebrandt, were American twin brothers who worked collaboratively as fantasy and science fiction artists for many years, produced illustrations for comic books, movie posters, children's books, posters, novels, calendars, advertisements, and trading cards.

The Brothers Hildebrandt had established a reputation working on the Lord of the Rings calendar and a concept poster for Young Frankenstein, and Fox commissioned them to rework the image.

Their version of the poster, referred to as Style "B", was distributed to be used on British cinema billboards for the UK release, and became possibly their best known work.

[9][10] Both Jung and the Hildebrandts had worked on their posters without reference to photographs of the actual cast, and Fox and Lucasfilm later decided that they wanted to promote the new film with a less stylized and more realistic depiction of the lead characters.

[11] Despite their strong associations with the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the brothers were not given a role in the production of Ralph Bakshi's animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1978), which was a source of disappointment for them.

[12] The lack of success with Urshurak may have contributed to their decision to work independently of each other, and in 1981 the brothers began to pursue separate careers.

[12] Greg painted cover artwork for the magazines Omni and Heavy Metal, and illustrated a number of books including Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, Robin Hood, Dracula, and The Phantom of the Opera.

Tim also created cover art for books such as The Time of the Transference and The Byworlder, as well as for Amazing Stories magazine, along with illustrated calendars based on fantasy themes such as Dungeons & Dragons.

[citation needed] In April 2022, Greg was reported among the more than three dozen comics creators[19] who contributed to Operation USA's benefit anthology book Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by editor Scott Dunbier whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[20][21] Greg, who joined the project in its second week, explained his reasons for contributing thus: "Neither Jean nor I ever expected to live long enough to see Russia attack any country simply out of greed.

[25] Tim Hildebrandt illustrated children's books, two Dungeons & Dragons calendars, and the poster for the 1982 film The Secret of NIMH; his art was also used in advertising by AT&T and Levi's.

The Hildebrandts' Style "B" quad poster for the UK release of Star Wars (1977)