Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie 2020 Poster Calendar
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie 2020 Poster Calendar Details
About the Author Ralph McQuarrie (June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012) was an American conceptual designer and illustrator. His career included work on the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the film Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award. Read more
Reviews
This is basically a set of (some poorly) cropped Ralph McQuarrie prints with a small calendar squeezed into the bottom 2” margin. I love the Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Star Wars and have his artwork on my walls already, so I purchased this without hesitation.The positives: Larger than life Star Wars concept art prints that have been restored from the original artwork, like in the 2 volume Ralph McQuarrie Star Wars collector’s edition. The original Star Wars portfolio prints (1970’s) were poor and so dark and muted that they paled in comparison to The originals. And these prints are large at 20X16.The Negatives: Why they even made this into a calendar is questionable, as the calendar looks like an afterthought, squeezed into the bottom 2” of the sheets. The prints are poorly cropped, not of great quality paper, and stretched to the vertical aspect while severely cropped in length, leaving much of the paintings looking incomplete. (See photos). In one print, they cropped half of the Tie Fighter off in the Death Star trench run. In another they cropped Max Rebo out of the print showing the Max Rebo Band concept art & left in an obscure background denizen from Jabba’s palace that nobody but ardent fans even recognize him (Hermie Odle).Packaging: The calendar is also packed in a huge collectors box to help protect it. However, I’ve ordered 2 and the postal service badly beat up 1 because the 3rd party seller slapped a label on the outer cellophane with no protection (returned) and the cover box was evidently damaged in the warehouse (see picture) on the other I purchased direct from Amazon. Thankfully the calendar inside was protected. However, if you’re a Star Wars collector and buy 2, with the intention to keep 1 sealed in the box, you’ll probably want to see if you can find one in mint condition at your local bookstore. To even open the box, it has a perforated rip seam (like a priority mail envelope) , so you’ll have to ‘damage’ the outer box to even retrieve the calendar.Overall, the idea was a stellar, but the execution was a missed opportunity. I’m being generous at 4 of 5 stars. Being a Star Wars Art collector, I think fans like myself would have much preferred a set of large uncropped Star Wars concept art prints on professional grade paper. If it was a limited edition too, I believe they would sell out quickly. No calendar needed.
