As the “Hildebrandt brothers,” Greg Hildebrandt and his twin Tim were legends of fantasy and science fiction art. They became renowned for their work on the official JRR Tolkien Calendar for 1976, then the best-selling calendar ever published, and the hot delicate of their vision of Middle-earth accompanied many of Tolkien’s subsequent calendars and books. This vision influenced other artists, and their depiction of hobbits with unusually vast feet – which was not mentioned in the books – became the default even in Peter Jackson’s films decades later.
The Hildebrandt brothers were chosen to illustrate Star Wars due to the popularity of their calendar, hired at the last minute to replace a preview poster for the film’s 1977 release, with which the studio was unhappy. Considering only 36 hours and reference images that did not include photos of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, they nevertheless managed to create an image that is still used to promote Star Wars to this day.
Beginning with the Urza’s Destiny expansion in 1999, the Hildebrandt brothers have illustrated over 100 Magic: The Gathering cards, together or separately, and many of their early Lord of the Rings illustrations were brought back to the Tales of Middle-earth set. Greg himself was responsible for cards like A vial of ether AND Tooth and nailand its modern art continued to appear as recently as Ravnica: Clue Edition, released in February of this year.
Tim died in 2006 from complications of diabetes, and Greg died on October 31 from side effects of heart medication. This news was delivered by his wife Jean Post on Facebookwriting: “The light has gone out in my life. At 12:36 this afternoon the love of my life, my best friend and soulmate passed away. Greg was 85 years old. He was the sweetest man I’ve ever known. we worked together for 45 years. We lived together for 33 years. We had a beautiful life. Greg fought for 5 months to regain the ability to breathe after suffering severe side effects from his heart medications, it was a hard battle to win, but in the end he was simply too weak. He passed away peacefully in my arms. He knew he was safe and that he was loved. I can’t imagine my life without him boy, yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. You are my heart and it is broken!”
