Two brothers who have tapped their imaginations and crafted them into a superior art form are twins Tim and Greg Hildebrandt. The Brothers Hildebrandt, as they have been called, are perhaps the world’s finest living fantasy illustrators.

Their works are not limited to fantasy and science fiction, but it is in that genre that they are best known. From Star Wars to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, to famous cartoon characters such as SpiderMan, Superman, the X-Men and Captain America, their art has graced the covers of some of the best-selling art work of all time.

The two recently talked to us at twinstuff.com by phone from their New Jersey studio. A youthful 62, the two expounded on a number of topics, ranging from art to September 11 to the twin bond. Their occupations may differ than that of many twins, but their life story may parallel that of many other closely tuned siblings.

The Hildebrandt brothers grew up in suburban Michigan and were born on January 23, 1939. They are identical, with Greg being five minutes older than Tim. They used to look quite a bit more alike in their younger days, but Tim has diabetes and their physical differences these days are a bit more pronounced.

Growing up during World War II, their passion and obsession for as long as they can remember was art. Greg believes now that “What it takes to be an artist is that you have to live an isolated life. You have to have the isolation to stay in that room and complete your work. We were lucky because we were there together.” Tim adds, “we were able to give each other encouragement.”

The 40’s were the Golden Age of art, with Disney and comic book characters like Superman and Batman dominating the popular culture like movie and television characters do today. So it wasn’t a surprise that Greg and Tim’s art from the start concentrated on fantasy and fiction.

Growing up in a Catholic environment, the brothers were close to each other (“all of our fights were art related”). But perhaps the closeness was because of the twin bond they shared over their love of art.

"We’re real close in our work,” says Greg. “But in our personal lives, we’re not close at all. I’ve always had the need to be my own person.” Tim agrees - “the last thing we wanted to do was to dress alike.”

Today while they work together at the same studio and often times, collaborate on the same piece, they live very separate lives apart from work. They live 25 miles from each other and rarely talk to each other outside of the office. Greg is married with three grown children (two daughters and a son who wrote the text for their 2001 book, Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, The Tolkien Years). Tim has one son.

But while they maintain separation in their personal lives, the twin bond and passion for art they have developed in their work has continued for nearly 60 years. In the early 1960’s, after graduating from Art School in Michigan, they moved together to New York City to begin their illustrator careers.

From 1963 to 1969, they worked for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen making documentary films on hunger and poverty and also creating art for the Bishop’s weekly TV show. In 1969, they switched career paths and began illustrating children’s books for Holt, Reinhart & Winston.

In 1975, they were chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime job that has shaped their career success more than a quarter of a century later. The two were commissioned to illustrate a 1976 Ballantine calendar based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Thanks in large part to their masterful drawings, the calendar was wildly successful and spawned two equally successful sequels in 1977 and 1978. The latter calendar in fact sold over a million copies making it the best-selling calendar of all-time.

The calendars were a life-changing event, but it was something that Tim remembers not wanting to do at the time. “Greg was the one who was really latched onto that (Tolkien and his trilogy). I really wanted to pursue my own gallery but he kept bringing it up and bringing it up so I finally said, ‘Let’s do this thing’!”

The success of the calendars led to much more work on fantasy books and movies. They did the original poster for the 1977 blockbuster film, Star Wars. They also illustrated best-selling books by Terry Brooks (The Sword of Shanarra) and even collaborated with friend Jerry Nichols on a best-selling fantasy book of their own entitled Urshurak.

In 1981, after five years of incredible success in the fantasy art world, the two shocked the industry by deciding to part ways. At the ages of 42, Greg and Tim decided that they needed to prove to themselves that they could be successful on their own - without the help of their brother. “The split was absolutely essential. We were working together since we were born,” said Tim. They weren’t 100% sure that they could create the type of art their public demanded on their own. It wasn’t something they wanted to dwell on, but if one of the two died suddenly or became incapacitated, would the other be able to continue his craft or would he be paralyzed too?

Their split was remarkable in a number of ways, but mostly because it was a complete and total separation. Not only did they work on their own individual projects, but for nearly a decade they didn’t even speak to each other. “We kept up with what the other one was doing, but we didn’t speak to each other for years.”

Greg arranged the reunion nearly a decade later with help from their mother. “After being apart seven or eight years, we decided to meet in Morristown, N.J., halfway between where we each lived. It was sort of like High Noon,” stated Tim.

While both were apprehensive about what would happen when they were reunited, what did happen profoundly moved them both to this day. According to Greg, “We met in a mall and before we could even say anything to each other, we grabbed other for five minutes and just cried. I’m sure everyone was staring at us but we didn’t care.” Later, their mother pointed out a symbolic sight next to the food court. A young mother was feeding her newborn twins in a double stroller.

After a decade of being on their own, the brothers reunited in 1993 and haven’t looked back. While they continue to work on separate pieces on occasion (Greg is more into the New York Gallery style and pin-up art, while Tim is more given to nature and landscape art), they also work on a number of pieces together as the Brothers Hildebrandt.

The style they utilize to do a piece together is a natural extension of their unspoken twin bond. Greg sometimes does a rough layout of the work but generally they both do a little bit of everything needed to create the art. “We discuss everything between us as we’re working on it,” says Greg. “Most of it, however, is totally understood, and instantly we know when something isn’t working.”

While their work is timeless, the popularity of the movie The Lord of the Rings has created even more of a public interest in their work. Their 2001 book includes some art that is more than 25 years old but also some new Tolkien-inspired art created expressly for the book. Plans in the future include more LOTR work so naturally we were interested to see if they had seen and/or enjoyed the movie.

“Not yet (prior to Christmas), but we plan on seeing it very shortly,” said Greg. “My son saw it last weekend and loved it and I’m hearing nothing but rave reviews.”

Interestingly, the two had sought plans to make their own film version of the book back in the 70’s. They pitched it to several studios and film-making friends as a doable sword and sorcery film, but abandoned the plans after not reaching any takers. “Our art is the American version of The Lord of the Rings. This film is the British version,” says Greg. “But it seems to be reaching the proper audience nevertheless.”

The twins will turn 63 next month but they don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. If anything, the film success of LOTR has helped add vigor and enthusiasm to future plans. Another inspiration for recent work has been the tragedy of September 11th.

While the two don’t have any personal friends who perished in the Twin Towers collapses, they have friends of friends who died. The long-time curator of Greg’s art gallery, Spiderwebart Gallery, Jean Scrocco has a brother who lives three blocks away from Ground Zero who saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Both Greg and Tim have visited the scene of the terrorism attack in person and they’ve since drawn some beautiful commemorative art including ‘The Day The Angels Cried.’

In fact, much of their work on sale at their web site (spiderwebart.com) is going to support the 911 Relief Fund (for instance, $50 of each $200 sold of their Special Limited and Signed Edition Tolkien book goes to relief efforts). We encourage people to go to their site for more details.

Brothers and twins have been carving out the imaginations of children and adults alike for centuries. In the 1800’s, fantasies and folk tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and Rumpelstiltskin were brought to life by the Brothers Grimm (not twins but brothers born 13 months apart). In the 1900’s, these tales and countless original characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy grew from the imagination of Walt Disney (with financial and business help from older brother Roy).

While the Brothers Hildebrandt aren’t as well known as the Grimms or the Disneys, their art work too will continue to inspire and amaze for generations to come. We hope parents of young twins or siblings can encourage and foster the artistic abilities of their children just like Greg and Tim Hildebrandts’ parents did sixty years ago.