Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some sad, sad news. Recently, Don LaFontaine, the voice of movie marketing, passed away. Now movie marketing is losing its face, thankfully not to death.

According to a story at TheRaider.net, Drew Struzan is retiring from the business in order to spend more time with his family, on his own paintings and just enjoy life. I can't say I blame the guy, but with him retiring, John Alvin passed away... is there anybody left keeping the artform of movie posters alive?

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Struzan at a dinner at Comic-Con '07 and I found him to be a very humble and nice man. I probably embarrassed myself. I collect movie posters and have his art up on my bedroom wall, specifically his John Carpenter's THE THING one-sheet, which is framed at the foot of my bed next to a framed DAWN OF THE DEAD ('78) poster and a framed THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 poster, all three great examples of poster art.

I do view it as an artform, which is why I'm sad to hear this news.

Hopefully he'll still do some commission work for his friends (Spielberg, Darabont, Lucas, del Toro) and we can still get some of his beautiful work in theater lobbies in the future. Or at least at Comic-Cons. heh I'd still kill for nice print of the Dark Tower poster he did for the opening of THE MIST... This one:

If you want to browse Drew Struzan's work, from BLADE RUNNER, BACK TO THE FUTURE, THE GOONIES, HARRY POTTER, HELLBOY, THE MUPPET MOVIES, INDIANA JONES and STAR WARS and beyond, be sure to click over to his website here! I'll include some of my personal favorites below.