^^^ enough said.
I’m glad this thread was boosted, I love obsessing over posters.
Noriyoshi Ohrai or bust
What is it with Japanese poster/cover illustrations for Star Wars being so good? This regards book covers rather than posters, but I don’t know where else to rant about it, so - the artwork of Tsuyoshi Nagano is infinitely better than the digital composite artwork for Star Wars books around the early 2000s. It’s such a shame his covers aren’t mainstream, and are instead confined to Japanese editions of the novels. I’m seriously considering visiting Japan one day even if for nothing else than just hunting for Japanese SW books.
I wanted to include images, but be warned they do take up quite a bit of space.
Not one of my favourites from his work, but for example: ‘Balance Point’ by Kathy Tyers…
Cover art by Cliff Nielsen, no harm to him
vs cover art by Nagano.
‘Labyrinth of Evil’ by Matthew Stover, with cover art by Steven D Anderson - again, not bad artwork -
vs cover art by Nagano.
This isn’t an unpopular opinion, but painted posters will always outshine digital image composites. They have more heart, look more exciting, and are more reminiscent of the great original trilogy posters. I know bugger all about publishing, but I really hope that if there’s a reprinting of the New Jedi Order series, they’ll use the Japanese edition artwork. A fool’s hope!