My most recent posts highlight some of Richard Amsel's unused and rarely seen works. While Amsel's talents were in high demand, he often was in competition with other illustrators for movie poster work -- Drew Struzan, Bob Peak, and John Alvin among them. And, of course, he was in competition with the increasing popularity of photographic art. By the early 1980's, traditional movie poster illustration was on the decline. Even those genres where illustrated movie posters used

Adding to the collection of rarely seen work is Richard Amsel's unpublished TV GUIDE cover for the series, "THE ROOKIES". This was a police drama that started as a TV movie, then became an hourlong series that ran from 1972-1976. The TV show "S.W.A.T." was actually a spin off of this. Amsel did 37 published covers for TV GUIDE, with at least another 3 covers that were either unpublished, or relegated to feature stories. The other two that I know of were Gary Coleman and Linds

My previous post highlighted Amsel's unused poster for TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. which was just one of the many pieces that has fallen into obscurity over the years: The tagline of my documentary is "Illustrator of the Lost Art" for three reasons. First, it's an obvious (if perhaps tacky) play on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. But the "Lost Art" denotes both the lost art of the illustrated movie poster, and how much of Amsel's own work has been seemingly lost throughout the years -- los

The tagline of my documentary is "Illustrator of the Lost Art" for three reasons. First, it's an obvious (if perhaps tacky) play on RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. But the "Lost Art" denotes both the lost art of the illustrated movie poster, and how much of Amsel's own work has been seemingly lost throughout the years -- lost to collectors, lost to obscurity, and, worst of all, lost to greed. I've heard several testimonies, throughout all the interviews I've done, that this is not w

For some time now, I've had friendly communications with writer and author Mark O'Connell, whose lovely book WATCHING SKIES: STAR WARS, SPIELBERG AND US really captures the geeky zeitgeist and homespun nostalgia that grew from fantasy and genre films of the 1970s and 80s. He's a wonderful writer, and while we've yet to meet face to face -- Mark's based in the UK -- hearing his story made me feel as though I found something of a kindred spirit. We share similar passions for mo

With RAIDERS fever in the air this weekend, I thought it was time to have another series of donation incentives for the documentary. Those who donate at least $30 to our project through our Fractured Atlas donation page will be entered to win a 24"x30" (size is approximate) print of Amsel's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK artwork! This time, the winner can choose either from the art for the original 1981 release, or the 1982 release! I also have limited quantities of postcards and 8x

Last February I posted an interview with writer Adam Kennedy, for his blog ART OF THE MOVIES. Today he posted a lovely retrospective of all of Amsel's published movie posters. (It does not include his unused posters.) Check it out at this link: Kennedy's previous writeups from the Amsel interviews -- between myself and artist Paul Shipper -- are available here: The first part, "Richard Amsel - Art That Keeps Giving..." serves as a general introduction to Amsel's body of work.

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments regarding my recent writeup celebrating Richard Amsel’s two posters for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, to coincide with the film’s 40th anniversary. June 2021 is also Pride Month, so I’d like to give a shout out the LGBT community, and my (many, many, many) friends who are a part of it. It’s amazing how far things have come regarding the advancement of LGBT rights in just the last few years. It’s affected me personally, too. For most

June 12th marks the 40th anniversary of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. To celebrate, I wanted to share some details about the two posters Richard Amsel created for the film. As fate would have it, production on the fifth Indiana Jones adventure begins this very week. My only regret is that Richard Amsel isn't around to do the eventual poster.** Back in 1981, RAIDERS was a runaway global box office smash – and also warmly received by critics. But perhaps even more remarkable is how