E.T. The Extra Terrestrial By John Alvin

We are thrilled to announce the partnership of ISH x Bottleneck Gallery x Vice Press with Andrea Alvin and the John Alvin Estate.  John Alvin's legendary career is unmatched in cinema illustration / design as he created art and theatrical posters for legendary films like GREMLINS, BLADE RUNNER and E.T. and several more that we are excited about sharing in this new series. Each poster released in the John Alvin series will be sourced from original art and files from John's archive and will be approved, not only by the studio, but by Andrea Alvin with a signed and embossed certificate. We are so excited to not only release classic posters from John's career but also unreleased FINISHED works for some of your favorite films that have rarely or NEVER seen before! 

Up first is E.T.... one of the most successful films of all time and beloved by the world over. The classic original theatrical poster was created by John Alvin and nobody had any idea of the impact it would cause! Seemingly everywhere today, this image was painted by John using very little reference from the actual film as the studio wanted to keep E.T. hidden prior to the film's release. Andrea Alvin tells the story of how John was  taken to the studio and shown a floppy hand that looked like a rubber chicken and then expected to create something to sell this new Steven Spielberg film! He went to work and used his daughter for the human hand reference on the poster and actually created the E.T. logo we all know by hand cutting the "E.T." out of cardboard and painting it onto the actual art with an airbrush to achieve the glow.  (Read more about it in The Art of John Alvin by Andrea Alvin / Titan Books)