For the past few days, Osamu Muto has been posting on Twitter some of the cover illustrations he has created in the past, starting with Ragnacenty, the Japanese version of Soleil / Crusader of Centy:
Osamu Muto won a prize for the cover of the Japanese version of Ecco II (released in 94). Sega gave him the OK to make a digital cover so he drew the dolphin on paper then scanned it and painted the cover on Photoshop, using the Kai's Power Tools plugins.
Another Mega Drive game whose cover illustration was created by Osamu Muto: Tanto R.
After determining the composition he wanted for this illustration and finishing the sketch, the colorization was done in about one day with an airbrush.
Osamu Muto is credited for the cover art of the Mega Drive version of Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair in the book Sega TV Game Genga Gallery. He is also credited on the back of the Japanese cover of Dynamite Headdy.
Osamu Muto did the cover art for Pepenga Pengo. He suggested to Yoshihiro Sakuta (then in charge of packaging design at Sega) to add/hide Sonic, a character he had already drawn and which is the same color as Pengo.
Osamu Muto was also in charge of the cover art of the Japanese version of Space Harrier for 32X, painted with an airbrush and liquitex on a Crescent drawing board. You can see his signature on the bottom right.
Osamu Muto's signature can be seen on the manual cover of the Japanese version of DJ Boy for Mega Drive as well as on an alternate cover of the European version of Laser Ghost.
Osamu Muto designed several Sonic illustrations for a 1994 calendar. According to this page, it was made in collaboration with Naoto Ohshima. sonic.fandom.com/wiki/SegaSonic…
Sonic 2 illustration painted by Osamu Muto, used for the cover of the Sonic the Hedgehog Book as well as in ads published in Japanese and South Korean magazines. info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedg…
Osamu Muto / 武藤修 confirmed to me that he did the cover art for the Master System game Basketball Nightmare. He painted it with an airbrush in less than 2 days once the rough sketch was ready.
I also asked Osamu Muto about 3 other Master System games not released in Japan: Psycho Fox, Summer Games and World Games. He answered: "Yes, some of these works are slightly blurred in my memory, but I think I drew them."
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Most if not all the illustrations used for the cover, manual and ads for the SNES/SFC adaptation of Batman Returns come from the 1992 style guide art for the movie, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez:
More Batman Returns artworks by José Luis García-Lopez:
The cover of the NES version of Superman featured a drawing made by José Luis García-Lopez for the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide:
It's time for a big thread about Yasushi Yamaguchi / 山口恭史, AKA Judy Totoya (Sonic, Phantasy Star, Sakura Taisen, etc.)
Yasushi Yamaguchi is one of those multi-tasking artists who briefly worked in the animation industry before joining the video game industry in the late 1980s. After studying at the Osaka University of Art and working as an intervalist on the film Honnéamise no Tsubasa,
he applied to Konami and Sega and joined the latter in 1988, along with Toru Yoshida, a few months before the launch of the Mega Drive.
He was then given the choice to work either on Space Harrier 2 or on Super Thunder Blade.
A few more works Greg Martin did for Sunsoft: the cover art for Aero the Acro-Bat 2 and a promotional illustration for the Mega Drive game Bubble & Squeak.
For Taito, Greg Martin drew the covers of the various adaptations of the Jetsons and the Flintstones on the consoles of the time as well as some episodes of Yogi Bear for other publishers.
A rare fact: his illustration of the Mega Drive episode of The Flintstones was also used for the Japanese version.
Tom & Jerry: The Movie and Cheese Cat-Astrophe starring Speedy Gonzales, some of the many Looney Tunes games produced by Sega and illustrated by Greg Martin.
Greg Martin also did the cover art for 2 more Sega games: Toxic Crusaders and Woody Pop.
Another famous character of the video game industry has been illustrated by Greg Martin: Pac-Man. Previously illustrated by a wide variety of artists, with as many different styles, Martin temporarily took over the character for several games.
Pac-Man for NES, Namco version:
In a few months, it will be 10 years since the passing of one of the most prolific illustrators of the first half of the 90s: Greg Martin.
I've talked about him many times before but never made a thread worthy of the name. It's time to fix that mistake.
After a stint at the Hanna-Barbera studio, Greg Martin did his first work for the video game industry in the early 80's with a handful of Commodore VIC-20 games, the computer that preceded the Commodore 64.
A few more VIC-20 games illustrated by Greg Martin:
4th episode of the History of the Mega Drive told by Yosuke Okunari, focusing this time on the year 1992. mirai-idea.jp/post/megadrive…
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In 1991 alone, Sonic 1 sold 1.6 million units in the US, 400,000 in Japan and 300,000 in Europe, for a total of 2.3 million units. The Master System version of Sonic was a hit in Europe with 500,000 units.
Note: Okunari does not specify whether the units sold in bundles (with the Mega Drive or Master System) and sales in the US of the Master System version of Sonic, imported from Europe (Master System game production had already ceased in the US), are counted.