Can't beat those dramatic full colour pieces, but for my part I tended to like the slightly dirtier, spookier stuff you'd find in 80s/90s Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
These are from Martin McKenna's illustrations in Legend of Zagor, FF54:
They likely dipped into the same sources of inspiration. Miura had a doctorate in art history and took a lot of inspiration from classical artists like Hieronymous Bosch, M.C. Escher, Gustave Dore, Pieter Bruegel, and Frank Frazetta. Wouldn't be surprised if McKenna also borrowed from artist like these.
More about McKenna here [edit: fixed link]. Legend of Zagor was in '93 so the start of Berserk would have beaten it by a few years, although I feel it unlikely that McKenna was drawing influence from manga. I know practically nothing about the lineage of fantasy art but it's probable they shared influences, since apparently McKenna was very young and inspired by other artists for this book. From a blog I found while sourcing:
Few gamebook fans could disagree that Martin McKenna is an exceptional fantasy artist whose work verges on the darker (horror) side of the fantasy spectrum. His work here is as excellent as ever and many of the tougher foes look truly terrifying and awe-inspiring (the Chaos Champion, for example.) It is interesting to note that, in places, McKenna apes others’ work (which he often did in other FFs particularly by drawing influences from Hammer Films) and, whilst there is nothing here lifted from Hammer, the Orc throne room is a literal copy of Iain McCaig’s version from Casket of Souls and the Chaos Champion looks strikingly like the LJN-produced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons action figure called Warduke
There were dozens of books in the FF gamebook series and they used a whole bunch of different artists. The above guy mentions Iain McCaig who also had some slick work (1, 2, also did the famous Deathtrap Dungeon). The one FF book that always stuck in my mind for art was Island of the Undead, apparently illustrated by a guy called Russ Nicholson, but that may be because it crossed a bit too uncomfortably into ugly, spooky territory and was too fucking scary for me as a kid.
That’s gunna be one half of the inevitable music themed tournament I think - so even better you could playThe Who’sTommy Pinball Wizard: The Official Pinball lol
It’s even crazier than that - Bally Williams owned Midway, and spun themselves off into WMS who made pinball and gambling machines and Midway Games who made the Mortal Kombats and a fair few other video games (Ed Boon programmed a few pinball machines even, back in the day before they spun off and he went with Midway).
Midway Games went “bankrupt” and got bought by Warner Bros (which is why they publish MK these days), whereas WMS and Bally got bought by another gambling machine company. Dunno if they still sell anything under those labels but the company that bought them is still around
Love how the lightbulbs make specific parts glow.
The lonely light coming from the diver’s boat… it’s amazing how using just some table art and a back glass the designers could create the feeling of seeing into another world - but yeah the way the lights are used is very unique, kinda reminds me stained glass windows. Lots of people who play virtual pinball on their computers set it up so that a second monitor above the playfield acts like a real backglass, with simulated flashing lightbulbs and everything lol:
Fair enough - and the styles definitely changed over time, if you go back to the 50s, 60s, and early 70s they’d often come up with less hectic, more geometric designs based around bold colors
Anyone into this should image search Frank Frazetta if they aren't familiar with his work.
Interesting thread from the big pinball forum:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/art-inspired-from-other-works
While he never made art for any machines, you can tell that a few artists who did were being directly “inspired” (shall we say, lol) by his stuff.
Great recommendation
Roger Dean too.
https://www.rogerdean.com/
He's still alive! :>
You forgot shaggin' wagons.
But thats basically porn for kids!
Can't beat those dramatic full colour pieces, but for my part I tended to like the slightly dirtier, spookier stuff you'd find in 80s/90s Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
These are from Martin McKenna's illustrations in Legend of Zagor, FF54:
chaos warrior
chaos champion
chaos beastman
orc throne room
hellhorn champion
mungus the jailer
grool
Wow! I wonder if Miura (Berserk) ever came across this guy’s work - at a minimum they’re channeling the same energy lol
They likely dipped into the same sources of inspiration. Miura had a doctorate in art history and took a lot of inspiration from classical artists like Hieronymous Bosch, M.C. Escher, Gustave Dore, Pieter Bruegel, and Frank Frazetta. Wouldn't be surprised if McKenna also borrowed from artist like these.
More about McKenna here [edit: fixed link]. Legend of Zagor was in '93 so the start of Berserk would have beaten it by a few years, although I feel it unlikely that McKenna was drawing influence from manga. I know practically nothing about the lineage of fantasy art but it's probable they shared influences, since apparently McKenna was very young and inspired by other artists for this book. From a blog I found while sourcing:
There were dozens of books in the FF gamebook series and they used a whole bunch of different artists. The above guy mentions Iain McCaig who also had some slick work (1, 2, also did the famous Deathtrap Dungeon). The one FF book that always stuck in my mind for art was Island of the Undead, apparently illustrated by a guy called Russ Nicholson, but that may be because it crossed a bit too uncomfortably into ugly, spooky territory and was too fucking scary for me as a kid.
100%
It's fantastic. We used to live in a society
Btw, for anyone interested, the 4th c/gaming pinball tournament just started a couple days ago (with two weeks to submit a score):
https://communities.win/c/Gaming/p/19Adpuf8dB/pinball-tournament-iv--i-am-the-/c
The tables are Judge Dredd and Cactus Canyon
If your fantasy art wouldn’t look good on the side of a van, find a new line of work.
Last one is Elmore, but Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell are still the best.
For some reason I want to watch "Tommy"
That’s gunna be one half of the inevitable music themed tournament I think - so even better you could play The Who’s Tommy Pinball Wizard : The Official Pinball lol
https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2579&picno=61121
The only question is what’s the other half
Are you flying too close to the sun, my friend
I think Midway is still around, they just make gambling machines entirely now.
Love how the lightbulbs make specific parts glow.
It’s even crazier than that - Bally Williams owned Midway, and spun themselves off into WMS who made pinball and gambling machines and Midway Games who made the Mortal Kombats and a fair few other video games (Ed Boon programmed a few pinball machines even, back in the day before they spun off and he went with Midway).
Midway Games went “bankrupt” and got bought by Warner Bros (which is why they publish MK these days), whereas WMS and Bally got bought by another gambling machine company. Dunno if they still sell anything under those labels but the company that bought them is still around
The lonely light coming from the diver’s boat… it’s amazing how using just some table art and a back glass the designers could create the feeling of seeing into another world - but yeah the way the lights are used is very unique, kinda reminds me stained glass windows. Lots of people who play virtual pinball on their computers set it up so that a second monitor above the playfield acts like a real backglass, with simulated flashing lightbulbs and everything lol:
https://media.scored.co/post/5jSvXlv53aTK.jpeg
I played Paragon a lot, back in the day. Good machine.
I don't really like it because it's so busy.
Fair enough - and the styles definitely changed over time, if you go back to the 50s, 60s, and early 70s they’d often come up with less hectic, more geometric designs based around bold colors
https://media.scored.co/post/hZyvLeeICoHM.jpeg
https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/15926-wonderland-williams-1955-backglass-with-full-dmd/
https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/18901-space-orbit-gottlieb-1972-b2s/