Excalibur, the greatest heroic fantasy movie ever filmed—so far—premiered on July 2, 1981, in Great Britain. Forty-five years ago. We’re just a few days past that.

Excalibur, directed by John Boorman, had a lot going against it in 1981. I’ll cover that in a future post. One thing it did not have going against it was Bob Peak being its cinema poster artist.

The centennial of Bob Peak’s birth will be in 2027. I will cover his amazing career in-depth at that point. Suffice it to say, Bob was a Kansas boy who revolutionized the medium of movie posters. Check out his stats here and here.

Bob created painting after painting for Excalibur. I’m not sure whether this was typical for him, but it left a wondrous legacy for all of us in 2026. Feel free to experience the mystic—yet barbarically visceral—gallery below. Peak got medieval on this project.

I’m sorry (not sorry). Neither Star Wars nor Conan the Barbarian had poster art to truly compare to this. See you next year, Bob.