All great heroic fantasy films begin with talented artists conceiving the wonders that will eventually appear on the screen. Many of the comic book and book jacket creators find themselves in Hollywood doing pre-production or storyboard artwork for producers. Here are some of my favorites.
The man who began it all was Walt Disney. When designing one of his fantastic cartoons, Walt would have the very best artists draw out what the animators would sketch and paint. Alfred Hitchcock got the idea from Walt and it became standard practice to draw out a movie before making it.
Kay Nielsen
Kay Nielsen made his reputation illustrating fairy tales in books like East of the Sun, West of the Moon (1910). Walt brought him from Denmark in 1939 to work on Fantasia (1940). He also worked on Sleeping Beauty (1959). He designed the movie The Little Mermaid though it didn’t get made until 1989.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is the father of Sword & Sorcery film with his wonderful animated monsters. An accomplished artist in his own right, Ray drew out the adventures of Sinbad, Perseus and Jason before animating them.
Mike Ploog
Mike Ploog made his name in Marvel Comics like Werewolf By Night and Man-Thing. He also drew some of the best heroic fantasy in Kull the Destroyer and the original Tharn stories. Unhappy with Marvel, he went into movie design, working on Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards (1977) and The Lord of the Rings (1978), Walt Disney’s The Black Cauldron (1985) and the Shrek movies.
Ian Miller
Ian Miller, known for his line-art covers, also worked on Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards, doing backgrounds.
Ron Cobb
The first Conan the Barbarian movie was a big deal in 1982. Ron Cobb designed Conan’s world, from locations to costumes.
Chris Achilleos
Before an actual live-action version of The Lord of the Rings there was Ron Howard’s Willow (1988). British artist, Chris Achilleos, designed costumes for the film.
Frank Frazetta
Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice (1983) is a moving Frank Frazetta painting. Frank was the artist who defined 1960-1980s Fantasy art. He designed the characters for the film, storyboards, did backgrounds, movie posters, anything to make his artwork come to life on the screen.
Brian Froud
Brian Froud got his start in book illustration. He, along with Alan Lee, had a bestseller with Fairies (1978). Brian got to bring his faery worlds to film working with puppeteer, Jim Henson. Froud designed two worlds, first, The Dark Crystal (1982) and then Labyrinth (1986).
Alex Nino
Alex Nino is another comic book grandmaster. He did design work on Disney’s original Mulan (1998).
Alan Lee
When Peter Jackson began The Lord of the Rings films, who better than Alan Lee to imagine Tolkien’s fantasy realm? Along with John Howe, Lee created everything from costumes, settings and storyboards. Like Frazetta and Froud, it is often like looking at a living Lee painting. (Alan got to do a cameo in The Two Towers.)
John Howe
Like Alan Lee, John Howe came from a background in book cover illustrating. The pair returned to do design work on The Hobbit films.
Justin Sweet
It didn’t take long for movie studios to pick up on Justin Sweet’s work. Before he could find a career doing book covers, he was off to the movies. He worked on the Narnia movies for Disney as well as John Carter of Mars (2012).
William Stout
William Stout has had a varied career in comics, movie design and as a painter of dinosaurs. (I was lucky to see his dinosaur show at the Royal Tyrell Museum back in the 1990s.) He did the classic Wizards poster back in 1977 but also designed monsters for Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Conclusion
I know it can be a little bothersome when your favorite comic book or book cover artists leaves the field to go work in Hollywood. It is very cool to see their work coming alive on the screen, but so much of the art in heroic fantasy films is never revealed. Occasionally we get a great book of the behind-the-scenes with plenty of artwork like Hellboy: The Art of the Movie (2003) but usually we get only the motion picture. It’s a bittersweet compromise.
