Who did this Shmup Coverart?

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:41 pm

I'm just wondering if anyone knows who did the artwork for this:

Or at least point me in the direction of someone who does similar artwork. Seeing as I'm a fellow artist, I just want to see more of this, it's pretty cool actually.

I've seen the game art and it's nowhere near as good as this IMO.

Sly Cherry Chunks · Post by **Sly Cherry Chunks** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:48 pm

Couldn't say who the artist behind that cover is but:

Turrican SETA credits artist Julie Bell for this cover. (although the signature clearly says Boris ???) It's sort of similar with the reflective metal and stuff.

This is bloody hilarious:

Could this be Mobile Light Force III?

Also worth checking out is Celal Kandemiroglu - more Turrican covers, X-Out, Z-Out etc.

99pence · Post by **99pence** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:14 pm

You have to be a bit gutted with western videogame art. It usually looks like it belongs in a Playgirl magazine. Alright if you like that sort of thing.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:33 pm

Blade wrote:I'm just wondering if anyone knows who did the artwork for this:

http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/7753 ... end7mk.gif

Or at least point me in the direction of someone who does similar artwork. Seeing as I'm a fellow artist, I just want to see more of this, it's pretty cool actually.

I've seen the game art and it's nowhere near as good as this IMO.

I doubt we'll ever know his/her name, given that the cover is exclusive to the european release and much of these works are doomed to remain uncredited sadly.

But the in-game art is absolutely fantastic. Oh, and if you want to drool, you should see the japanese cover for the very same game: totally stunning. I should have a scan somewhere...

Magnificent.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:40 pm

the NES actually saw a whole bunch of awesome looking PAL releases (and yes youre right, guardian legend looks great).. too bad that trend died with the console

actually ill take photos of some of mine..

ed:
http://onfinite.com/libraries/783382/2d0.jpg

PAL silius is THE best looking cover i have ever seen...

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:02 pm

sven666 wrote:PAL silius is THE best looking cover i have ever seen...

I'd say now it's the second best

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:17 pm

Turrican wrote:
sven666 wrote:PAL silius is THE best looking cover i have ever seen...
I'd say now it's the second best

naah, FC guardian legend looks great, but the cover as a whole does not look quite as stylish as silius does, the whole box has the same style on sides and back aswell.. amazing stuff but i guess a phot doesnt quite do it justice.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:22 pm

Sly Cherry Chunks wrote:Julie Bell for this cover. (although the signature clearly says Boris ???) It's sort of similar with the reflective metal and stuff.

Julie Bell came to my mind as well, though I'm not too sure if she did the American Guardian Legend (it is possible).
I had noticed that Julie did the art for some Atlus SNES games about a year ago, most notably Super Valis IV and Run Sabre, so I researched her involvement with Atlus and turns out she did quite a few game covers during the 16-bit era, even though I honestly don't like them (the paintings themselves look wonderful, it's just that they don't fit the games at all).

I believe Boris is Julie's husband.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:28 pm

LoneSage wrote:Julie Bell came to my mind as well, though I'm not too sure if she did the American Guardian Legend (it is possible).
I had noticed that Julie did the art for some Atlus SNES games about a year ago, most notably Super Valis IV and Run Sabre, so I researched her involvement with Atlus and turns out she did quite a few game covers during the 16-bit era, even though I honestly don't like them (the paintings themselves look wonderful, it's just that they don't fit the games at all).

I believe Boris is Julie's husband.

Well, it's possible, but very unlikely. Bell, Vallejo are among the most respected fantasy artists around. They keep track on their site of their works, and besides, they are also expensive to get. To the point that when Turrican was released on Genesis, the whole fact that the cover was from Boris/Julie was advertised on the box.

And however, that kind of chrome humanoid artwork is pretty common, I believe it's a trend started by the Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama (Google his name and you'll see).

P.S. yes, Boris and Julie are married. Also, Julie uses herself as a model sometimes, and she looks noticeably similar to the blond on the left in that artwork. (Boris is a lucky man

)

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:30 pm

sven666 wrote:naah, FC guardian legend looks great, but the cover as a whole does not look quite as stylish as silius does, the whole box has the same style on sides and back aswell.. amazing stuff but i guess a phot doesnt quite do it justice.

Don't worry I know what you mean... I've hold one of those in my hands once

Post by **undamned** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:49 pm

Turrican wrote:Oh, and if you want to drool, you should see the japanese cover for the very same game: totally stunning. I should have a scan somewhere...

That's monster art, dude. Never seen it before.
-ud

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:37 pm

Slightly OT, but a very interesting thread on shitty boxart.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:41 am

Boris did the boxart for Wings of Wor. This one is pretty good IMHO with Wor confronting some giant dragon.

OTOH, The boxart for the Genesis version of Dynamite Duke is hilarious. You see some guy who looks like a Heidern cosplayer (minus the eye patch) chewing on a wasp.

The exaggerated frown expression is a hoot.

Street Fighter II on SNES has to get the award for Absolute Goofiest Boxart Of All Time- mainly because of Blanka.

Taito America did have some nice boxart for their releases. The Sagaia one is from the front cover of the Japanese Darius II arcade flyer. Ultimate Qix's boxart is the same as the one for the MD Volfied. Hot stuff.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:12 am

gameoverDude wrote:Boris did the boxart for Wings of Wor. This one is pretty good IMHO with Wor confronting some giant dragon.

Hah! It's well-rendered and realistic looking, but the image of the of overbuff angel with a 50's sci-fi pistol is kind of embarassing. The style reminds me of those paintings of barbarian women petting giant tigers that appear at second-hand stores all the time.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:27 am

I really hate many of the American cover arts for the Genesis games.

Gaiares

US art

Japanese art

Strider:

US art

Japanese art

El Viento

US art

Japanese art

Arrow Flash

US art

Japanese art

Lightening Force (Thunder Force IV)

US art

Japanese art

I could go on and go with this, but you get the idea. If the game has an horrible US coverart, I would perfer getting the Japanese version of the game. That's what I'm doing with Arrow Flash, Strider, El Viento, and Gaiares. I'm going to get the Japanese versions of the game (I have TF IV already). So what if Japanese imports cost more money than the US versions, at least I can hang it up the wall and show it to my friends on how cool Japanese cover arts can be.

Note: If you having problems seeing the photos of the cover arts, let me know (it could be VGMuseum).

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:32 am

Whenever I see these images I think of Flash Gordon for some reason. Or something along the lines of old 1970s Sci-Fi stuff.

Raizing, most of those are dead links, sorry to say.

And this thread seems to be going offtopic real quick here...

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:05 am

Blade wrote:Whenever I see these images I think of Flash Gordon for some reason. Or something along the lines of old 1970s Sci-Fi stuff.

Raizing, most of those are dead links, sorry to say.

And this thread seems to be going offtopic real quick here...

Good, let me fix them, I know the topic is going off.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:19 am

Links are fixed, I upload them thru imageshack. You should see them now.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:39 pm

sven666 wrote:PAL silius is THE best looking cover i have ever seen...

The US release has the same cover - I have that game & can vouch for that.

Post by **system11** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:18 pm

Blade wrote:Whenever I see these images I think of Flash Gordon for some reason.

You might have something there.

I've always wanted a poster sized one of this, for the office wall:

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:41 pm

does the art for the fami guardian legend exist on its own? that would make a great desktop.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:48 pm

Slightly OT... Boris did the cover to the US release of Golden Axe 2.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:07 pm

The US box art for Arrow Flash on the Genesis looks pretty cool actually - lots of action. It's a bit more exciting than some anime girl floating above a space station.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:14 pm

Just wanted to add that cover art Turrican posted for the JP Guardian Legend fami box is amazing.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:52 pm

Andi wrote:The US box art for Arrow Flash on the Genesis looks pretty cool actually - lots of action. It's a bit more exciting than some anime girl floating above a space station.

ditto, it's what made me buy Arrow Flash.
I don't see what the big deal is with some JP box art, like when people compare the Striders, Streets of Rage, El Viento etc...most of the time I find both of them to be shitty, with the American releases being just one point up on the shit scale.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:55 pm

I believe Boris Vallejo also did the AWFUL american cover for Phantasy Star 4.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:22 am

LoneSage wrote:I don't see what the big deal is with some JP box art, like when people compare the Striders, Streets of Rage, El Viento etc...most of the time I find both of them to be shitty, with the American releases being just one point up on the shit scale.

That's a very true statement. I couldn't agree more. It's like - would you rather look at shitty American fantasy paintings or shitty Japanese manga art?

Not all box art is bad though. The box art for Curse blows my mind.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:12 am

bloodflowers wrote:
Blade wrote:Whenever I see these images I think of Flash Gordon for some reason.

Strider, starring John McClane. *Yippie Kai Yea, Mr. Falcon* (I just had a flashback of that hilariously cheesy TV-14 version of the classic "Mother Fucker" line, with the dubbed in voice sounding like a Jagermeister soused Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to imitate Bruce Willis) Bleh.

Sega could've found something better to use. BTW the Gaiares USA cover blows big chunks. So do 99% of the USA Turbo Grafx boxarts. NEC really blew it with the TG-16 R-Type cover- it looks like a cartoonish rendition of the ingame graphics.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:02 am

captain ahar wrote:does the art for the fami guardian legend exist on its own? that would make a great desktop.

It most surely does - I mean, it's likely that the illustrator is talented and famous enough to have published a book with his/her works. The only problem is to find who he/she is.

And no, not enough clues on the box/manual before you ask.

One friend of mine speculated he may have been Katsuya Terada of Blood fame, but I'm not that sure...

roker · Post by **roker** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:34 am

Turrican wrote:

Magnificent.

unreal

did the artist do anything else?

shmups.system11.org

Who did this Shmup Coverart?

Who did this Shmup Coverart?

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