Ralph McQuarrie has passed away.

[backstept]

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/ralph-mcquarrie-19292012

It is impossible to overstate the effect he has had on a generation of movie goers and how we see the future. Our thoughts are with the McQuarrie family and those closest to him.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33315

The world of science fiction and fantasy art and design has lost one of its true legends as Ralph McQuarrie died today at the age of 82.

We've lost a legend today.

 

[SeerSGB]

It's a great loss, he'll be missed by fans and creators alike.

 

[the G-man]

I had the Star Wars novelization with the McQuarrie cover (got it before the movie came out). To this day, that painting is the definitive Vader to me. RIP.

 

[SeerSGB]

His work was full of imagination, regardless of the subject matter. He had a knack for "sellling" the world his was depicting. You could look at his work and just knew there was a story waiting to be told and you had to know what it was.

 

[Caliburn24]

I can't think of any other single artist who has had so much influence on the visualization of American science fiction. RIP Ralph.

 

[FalTorPan]

 

[Roshi]

RIP

 

[sonak]

he did awesome work.

 

[Amaris]

Oh, dear.
Rest in peace, General McQuarrie. Your work lives on in the minds of many. /**

 

[Gepard]

Sad news. My fondest memories of his work from childhood was not his work on Star Wars, but his illustrations for Asimov's Robot stories: there were a ton of them on an "Issac Asimov's Interactive Robot" CD-ROM, and a Time-Life book series on computers reprinted some in their chapter on AI.

RIP. He was a true original.

 

[Cutter John]

I was a huge fan of his film design work back inthe day. Such sad news.

 

[Dream]

Lucas has written an eulogy

http://www.starwars.com/news/ralph_mcquarrie_remembered.html

 

[Klaus]

I still have my Star Wars Portfolio...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

TBH I thought he had already passed but his art has inspired me many times. RIP

 

[Captaindemotion]

Hard to imagine that Star Wars would have had quite as much appeal as it did, had it not been for his brilliant conceptual art. RIP.

 

[The Wormhole]

Damn. I remember several years back, Star Wars action figures were released based on his concept designs. Stormtroopers with shields and lightsabres, Boba Fett with a flamethrower, bug-eyed Chewbacca and so on. Although I was kind of getting out of buying action figures, I made it a point to get those, they were cool. McQuarrie definately contributed and is as responsible for the popularity of Star Wars as much as anyone else. RIP.

 

[23skidoo]

I rank McQuarrie alongside the legendary Chesley Bonestell as one of the greatest science fiction artists of all time. He will be missed.

Alex

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Ralph McQuarrie was a genius.

I still have my Star Wars Portfolio, too. I used to look at it for hours. Nice eulogy by George Lucas.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Never realized how much of an impact that McQuarrie's work had on me growing up. He was definitely my favorite artist as a kid and his work has withstood the test of time and then some.

Thank you, Ralph.

 

[Saul]

One of the greatest sci-fi artists ever.