RIP John Alvin

Posted by Gregg on February 15, 2008 in Life Experiences |

I am a product of 80s and 90s film. I gravitated toward geekyness (computers, AI, and eventually the web) in large part due to Star Wars, ET, Blade Runner, etc. Stories that were other worldly and at the same time amazingly human. Not to mention all the non Sci-Fi films(Gremlins, Legend, Lostboys) that fed the imagination and the dreams of my youth.

Before knowing the hum of a light saber and knowing bad things happen when one feeds mogwai after midnight I would often run across the poster promoting the film. The poster was often mysterious, awe inspiring and leaving you craving to put the pieces together when the lights finally fell in the theater. After the film the poster provided the uncanny ability to tell the story of the entire film, the same story the director just took up 2 hours of your life to tell, the poster artist captured in one frame, beautifully.

John Alvin was the creator of many of the most memorable frames. ET reaching out to Elliot, the spider of Arachnophobia silhouetted by the moon, Ariel reaching for a whole new world from beneath the waves, Aladdin’s lamp coming to life, etc, etc.

So if the movies had a big part in shaping me, looking at the posters is like going through an old photo album, with each picture stirring a memory, lighting up a neuron or two that has seen little use since a time when I had the mind to build robots of cardboard tubes.

So thank you John.

John Alvin