Our friends at Abrams Books have done it again! Star Wars Art: Posters, the fifth book of the official Star Wars Art book series, is a beautiful and in-depth volume of posters from one of the most cherished franchises of all time. If you’re a Star Wars fan, this book is mandatory. Not only will you find the classic Star Wars posters that you know and love, but you will also see some rare, obscure, and unique posters that you never knew existed. There are over 130 posters to browse through, featuring over 50 artists including John Alvin, Drew Struzan, and Ralph McQuarrie The amount of variety and depth in this book is more than enough to satisfy any Star Wars junkie. The book starts off with an *early* concept poster from the draft of The Star Wars where Luke Skywalker was originally a female. About half of the book is dedicated to the Original Trilogy, showing off finished renders, early sketches, rejected designs, and weird international one-sheet posters.

I was very pleased by the attention given to the Original Trilogy. In fact, the rest of the series is totally upstaged by the original films in terms of content, which is awesome. The second half of the book is dedicated to posters from Episodes I – III, as well as other Star Wars IPs/franchises such as Ewoks: Battle for Endor, Lego Star Wars, and most of the television series. Finally, the last several pages of the book are dedicated to artists’ “re-imagined” posters for the Star Wars series. Again, the variety of content is, to quote Vader, “impressive…most impressive”.

One very cool feature is the inclusion of three fold-out sections featuring series of posters by Drew Struzan and others. There are also several poster images printed across two-page spreads. The format of the entire book is masterfully designed. My only complaint is the lack of explanation/annotation for the posters. With The Art of John Alvin, most of the images were accompanied by an in-depth section of text that essentially told the story behind the poster. With so many unique posters in this Star Wars book, I would have liked to read about the creative process behind them. But maybe that’s too much to ask, considering there are so many posters by so many artists in the book. The bottom line is that Star Wars Art: Posters is a beautiful and fun collection of promotional art. I was nigh overwhelmed by the sheer amount of images, meaning I’ll definitely be re-visiting this book again and again.

Purchase: Star Wars: Posters on Amazon

 Star Wars fans! Are you excited about this posters book? Sound off in the comments below!

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