Star Wars posters by Tom Whalen

This poster and the two others below (after the jump) are things of beauty. Best of all, if you think the trilogy posters are awesome, then you could easily spend a happy hour or so browsing through the rest of Tom's work at his website, as well as his deviantART page.

Tom Whalen's Strongstuff (via drawn)

David Ng likes to find funny things to show in your next science talk.

MORE: Art and Design • pop culture • science fiction

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Anonymous

I think I’m going to print these and use them as covers for my bootlegs
Cinema Suicide

I swear to god I’m not being spammy here but Tom is great! He designed some shirts for my site a couple of years back, of which I have sold, like, 3.

http://www.cinema-suicide.com/store/
Gloria

Ah, looks like he sold these about two years ago. No more. Oh well.
DeWynken

..beside Jabba, who obviously doesn’t give a frell, and the AT-ATs who are all ‘screw this, we’re outta here’
Mark Crummett

Want!
Mister44

I am ahead of the curve, here. I have the ESB, Alien, and Army of Darkness prints.
i_prefer_yeti

Dang pretty shit. Even makes the Ewoks look good.

If you like this sorta stuff, you should be giving Symbiotic Titans a glance on Cartoon Network. They’ve got the creme de la creme of 60′s retro/mod artists doing some straight up awesome painting.

Check out the background paintings that Kevin Dart’s done for the show:

http://www.kevindart.com/index.php
caipirina

So, if they are all played by NPH … then I know what is on the left!

Boobs!
UltraSmashaTron

Where can I buy these?
The Mudshark

IÂ´ve known and appreciated his illustrations for some time on deviantART. ItÂ´s just aggravating how small the images are.
Walks

Good stuff – I’ve been a “Whalenite” for awhile now, and I find Tom’s stuff to be dynamic and inspiring.

I love the re-imagining of those things to which we have an emotional connection, and am currently working on some stuff similar to Tom’s – at least as far as it being Star Wars related.

These are licensed, retro-themed posters based on the illustration styles popular in previous decades, starting with the Nouveau themed stuff of the early 20th century.

http://www.russellwalks.com/retrocollection.html
JhmL

They’re very snappy in their own way but they just don’t say ‘Star Wars’ to me, evoking a different era. :(
jfmarchini

http://boingboing.net/submit/2010/10/vintage-star-wars-travel-posters.html
Dark Eagle

Nice stuff, especially the Vader redering. I must confess that I’m not familiar with the work that Tom’s done in the past. I’ve really been following the work of Mr. Walks and I think that the retro themed work Russ refers to is great stuff. Both of these artists are adding greatly to the vast universe that is Star Wars. Keep it up, guys.
Anonymous

Sometimes I wish I didn’t live/work on a yacht.. seeing stuff like this makes me want to have an apartment again.. actually, it makes me want walls
Anonymous

Absolutely beautiful, but they would never have been used for the original release. One recurring flaw the posters show too many key moments and surprises in the movies. For example, the Death Star reveal in the first, the carbonite in the second, Ewoks in the 3rd. Having seen all the movies many times, we tend to forget those “Wow” moments when we saw each the first time (ok, “WTF” with Ewoks). With that said, I’d still love to have a copy of these posters.
- Grumblefish
  
  Oh yes Anon, Hollywood would *never* want to do any publicity for a film that included most of the key moments and “surprises” in a blockbuster film…
  
  Sarcasm aside, the original Star Wars trailer looks terrible by today’s standards, but even then it included the tentacle grabbing Luke in the trash compactor. Giving away surprises hasn’t bothered film publicity people for a very long time.
DeWynken

For the record I think they’re great. Even greatness can be mocked, though.
Lester

Cool, but I think he’s overdoing it on the whole “everybody look left” thing. I think it makes everyone look like they’re on the same side.

Also, those are the scariest, ooga-booga-lookingest ewoks I’ve ever seen.

Love the colors, though, they totally work and they immediately put me in mind of the movies themselves. Star Wars was very warm and desert-y. Empire was cold. Jedi was green, both Luke’s lightsaber and the general Endorishness.
iratecat

…it kind of bugs me that they’re all looking left.
Donald Petersen

That’s some classy stuff. It’s not a style I’ve borne much love for in the past (ain’t no improving on that old Hildebrandt magic, sez I), but the details are incredible. Even the color scheme is nailed. A genuine labor of love!
DeWynken

Neil Patrick Harris Cast As: Everyone!
- Lester
  
  OMG, you’re right.
  - DeWynken
    
    :D
- penguinchris
  
  Vader’s looking to the right in the Empire one.
  
  I was determined not to make any negative comments about something like this on boingboing for once, but I just have to since someone else did it already :)
  
  I love the aesthetic, the colors and tones, and the depiction of various distinctive things like the ships and creatures. The droids, Chewbacca, Yoda, the taun-taun, etc. look fantastic. Faithfully reproduced but with a great stylization.
  
  But I really rather dislike the design of the heads, faces, and hands of the human characters (with the exception of Luke on the taun-taun who looks fine). Doesn’t ruin the posters exactly, but almost does.
dagfooyo

Very nice style. But… what is everybody looking at? In each poster, both good guys and bad have paused in their battle for dominance of the galaxy in order to stand together and gaze stoically at some fixed point up and to the left.