Just like each generation has its own trilogy of Star Wars films, every generation also has its own trilogy of Star Wars art. If you grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, for example, the work of Greg Hildebrandt and Roger Kastel was your favorite. For those of us who grew up in the 1990s and beyond, Drew Struzan was the man. Not only did he do the main art for the prequel trilogy, but he also did brand-new posters for the Special Editions of the original trilogy. And those images are not only some of the most iconic in the history of Star Wars, but they’re also getting a brand new limited release this week.
Bottleneck Gallery and Acme Archives have teamed up with Struzan to release limited-edition, screen-print versions of his legendary art for the original Star Wars trilogy. Three perfect posters that, when put together, make an epic image of everything good about Star Wars. They’ll be released in three separate limited editions starting at noon ET today, October 8, on BottleneckGallery.com, and here’s the breakdown.
First is the main edition. Three 24×36 inch screen prints in an edition of 750. These cost $85 each or $245 for the set.
Next are the art prints, variant editions without the titles. These are also 24×36 inch screenprints, but in an edition of 350. They cost $100 each or $290 for the set.
Finally, there’s a “brushstroke variant edition” that has a little bit of a rough-around-the-edges, painting look. These are 24×36 inch giclées and cost $260 for the set.
Now, we know what you are thinking because we thought the same thing. Those do not look like the posters we remember. The art is the same, but these have larger, more traditional title treatments instead of the gold ones created for the original Special Edition posters. Which certainly is a bit of a disappointment in terms of 1:1 nostalgia. But there are a few things to consider here.
One is that Lucasfilm is pretty strict with officially licensed items like these. For example, you can’t release an official poster that says “Raiders of the Lost Ark” anymore. It’s always got to be “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Vomit. We know. And so, we assume it’s similar to Star Wars. For the most part, Lucasfilm doesn’t really acknowledge the “Special Editions” as “Special Editions” anymore. They are just, at least for now, the only editions. So that’s probably why we get these classic logos instead of the gold ones from 1997.
Plus, Lucasfilm is famously stingy about credit blocks on products like these, and if you released these posters with the original gold logos and no credits below them, it would look weird. You need something to fill the space Struzan specifically left for the credits. So, it seems, these logos are a slightly unfortunate concession that had to be made to get these images officially released at this level of quality. It could be worse, too. It could say “A New Hope.”
Plus, if it really bothers you, you can get the non-logo versions, which are just *chef’s kiss* perfect.
Still, these are some of the best Star Wars posters of all time, and they’ve never been released in such a way. If you’d like to pick them up, they go on sale at noon ET on October 8 at Bottleneckgallery.com.