Greg Hildebrandt and his brother achieved great success in the fantasy and sci-fi art genres, and now we’ve lost them both.
In 1976, the Hildebrandt duo hit the ground running with the J.R.R. Tolkien calendar, which became a bestseller at the time, and their vibrant colors and vision of Middle-earth have inspired many subsequent Tolkien calendars and books, and their style has inspired many other artists. They gave the Hobbits big feet, although this was not mentioned in the books, and yes, they were the reason the Hobbits in Peter Jackson’s films had bigger feet.
The brothers were then asked to do the illustrations for Star Wars. They were asked at the last minute to create a poster for the 1977 release of the movie. They had 36 hours and a few reference images, none of which included Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher. Nevertheless, they came up with a piece that is still used today to promote the very first Star Wars movie.
Since the Urza’s Destiny pack in 1999, the brothers have illustrated over 100 Magic: The Gathering cards, and many of their early Lord of the Rings illustrations eventually found their way into the Tales of Middle-earth card game. For example, one of the brothers, Greg Hildebrandt, designed the Aether Vial and Tooth and Nail cards himself, but his artwork was also featured in the Ravnica: Clue Edition, released in February of this year.
Tim Hildebrandt died in 2006 from complications of diabetes. His brother Greg followed him on October 31 due to a side effect of his heart medication. His wife Jean remembered her husband on Facebook: “The light in my life has gone out. At 12:36 pm this afternoon, the love of my life, my best friend and soul mate passed away. Greg was 85 years young. He was the kindest man I have ever known. We worked together for 45 years. We lived together for 33 of those years. We had a beautiful life, we were blessed. Greg fought for 5 months to regain his ability to breathe after a serious side effect from a heart medication. He fought very hard to win this battle, but in the end he was just too weak. He died peacefully in my arms. He knew he was safe and loved and he will be missed terribly. I cannot imagine my life without him. He was my man, yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. You are my heart and it is broken!”
Greg Hildebrandt was 85 years old. God rest his soul.
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