Bob Wakelin

"A couple of times the guys at Ocean said to me 'Look Bob, this game really isn't very good so we need an extra special cover.'

I suppose I should feel guilty for it."

Fun to do. Caused a little controversy in those Politically Correct times. One sad fellow complained to Ocean that the Minotaur's midriff armour looked like a large phallus. Maybe he had a point.

Athena was based on Lisa Lyon, an eighties pioneering bodybuilder. The Minotaur and tree were sketched out for me to finish by my mate Floyd Hughes.

All I really remember about this one was Joe Orlando - DC's Editor in Chief at the time - loving it, (after I shortened Bat's ears.) I think it was the first illo I sold on to a collector.

I think this was one of my best, spoiled by the incongruous 'BILLY' lettering and dripping blood - designed by Ocean's art director (he insisted I use his design) and illustrated by me. The 'KID' lettering works well, though.

Another good 'un. The main character was modelled by Carl Pugh, Ocean's assistant AD. The guy in the background is Mr. Operation Wolf - I used a photo from the same bunch I took for that game cover (Ocean's version.) Everyone thought it was a great in-joke, but I used it purely for convenience.

My last Ocean job. It was a large piece. The hand-drawn logo took me forever.

I was told to try and make this one of the best illo's they'd ever had 'cos this was going to be hugely important for the new direction Ocean was taking. Spent a loooong time painting it, gave 'em the bill, and got knocked back. I negotiated a lower fee, but I can tell you I was severely miffed getting slapped in the face after all the years I'd spent meeting stupid deadlines for 'em.

The game went down the toilet.

Mr. 'Operation Wolf' makes another appearance here. Isn't he cute? Hope you're well, Baz.

I think it was '95. I remember seeing it printed on a box maybe a year later, but really small with a load of extraneous crap all around the design. Then it disappeared, (just like Ocean.)

The world map was a digitised photo that I cut around the lettering and then pasted in. What a nightmare idea that was, just flopping around, stretching out of shape and getting spraymount all over the art. I should have just shot myself in the head. Thank god for Photoshop!

An early one. I seemed to be doing around three covers a week for Ocean in '84, and it shows. I think the logo is quite nice but the rest sucks.

This was the second attempt - my first was a Chinese prop-art style pastiche. It was more interesting but not what Ocean needed in their early days.

I gave the first one away without scanning it. Bummer.

Spent a lot of time on this one. Really enjoyed getting into the detail on the choppers. In fact, I seem to remember having a generally great time on this.... must have been good ganja.

I used to love doing explosions, mist and dust with the old airbrush and bog paper, ya can't quite get the same effect with Photoshop.

My mate Floyd drew the raccoons, I coloured 'em in. I think they were his DM's I drew on the baker's feet.

I would never have drawn raccoons like that - they're pretty f***in' weird.

That's all I remember about this pretty unmemorable illustration.

Famous game. Not a great illo, although a lot of people seem to like it. Ah, nostalgia eh? Makes rubbish appear to be gold.

I probably spent around two days on it. Daley looks okay, the lettering and background are crap.

I enjoyed doing this one, just to see if I could do all that fairy hippy shit in the background and make it work.

Steve Blower stuck some kind of plastic butterfly on it for the final box art.

Feckin' bizarre! He didn't even do drugs.

For some reason I cropped the logo off this one and accidentally saved it. Bugger.

I can't remember the name of the guy I met up with from the team that developed this, but we had a long meeting discussing exactly what kind of illo he envisaged in his stoned brain for the box. So, I spent a long time getting this one together, and thought I did a pretty decent job getting what he wanted.

I delivered the art to Ocean, it was shown to the chappie, and he didn't like it. Nothing like what he wanted. A perfect example of why one should not engage in creative discussions when one's mind is addled.

Dave Ward liked it, so his 'opinion' was rendered irrelevant.

The pilot was the mongrel offspring of Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson.

I've no idea what this game was going to be called, although it was going to be officially sponsored by the FA.

To do the art, I was given a load of photos to choose from. Much to my chagrin, as Ocean was based in Manchester, it was thought that one of the shots involving a Scum player would be appropriate. As a Liverpool Red, this was akin to asking me to perform oral sex on Margaret Thatcher!

However, I like money. I did what I was asked.

Ocean went ahead and printed up a bunch of stuff. Then, apparently, someone at the FA went apeshit that Ocean had gone ahead without their completing the deal. Game Off.

I still got paid though. Prostitute that I am.

Got a few screenshots. Geometric shapes. What the F**K was I supposed to do with that?

Did some quite nice lettering to compensate for my extreme lack of imagination re the rest of the illo.

Another warplane game. Great. What shall I do?

Hmmm...... A-ha!

Another picture of a warplane.

That's it.

This was a struggle.

All I got for reference was a couple of screen shots. Never saw a demo. I remember avoiding the problem by going to the pub and playing pool every afternoon for a couple of weeks, and every time I got back to my studio the damn thing was there, taunting me.

Not a great illo.

An early one.

In those less sophisticated times, the box art usually got done in a day. They were fun to do, because one didn't have to sweat over them - it was get an idea and bang it out. I think this one is fun, and has a spontaneous energy about it.

The wheelbarrow was drawn by Blair, who introduced me to Dave Ward and shared my studio for a time... until his insanity became too much for me to bear and I had to kill him!

(Or was that just a dream?)

A Predator/Alien rip-off is what the game appeared to be, so I supplied a Predator/Alien style pic - with ripped Arnie Predator poses. The white areas were left for screen shots to be dropped in.

A thoroughly boring job to do, although a couple of my survivalist, body-building, 'Nam-obsessed mates thought it was cool.

This was done cheaply - as was 'Striker' - for Paul 'Mr. Nice Guy' Finnegan, (Special FX), on the understanding I would be 'sorted out' with lots of work and extra cash when success rained down on him from above.

Ha.

I did a crap illo for him (Rage) years later in two days flat on a piece of old mounting board I had lying around. I convinced him it was the emperor's new clothes and got paid ten times what it was worth.
A small victory, but it cheered me up for a few days..... sad, I know, but I'm easily pleased.

This gave me an opportunity to do an homage to the old western comics of the 50's. It was fun to do and turned around in a day.

I think they deleted the splash of blood from the packaging - in true 1950's style!

I thoroughly enjoyed doing this one. I tried out some new techniques, using Caran D'ache pencils along with the airbrush, and was really pleased with the results.

Apparently the game was cack, but lots of people bought it 'cos they liked the box.

That's my job, suckah!

Can't stand it. I had to imitate a style I friggin' hated.

Dave Ward loved the cartoon breasts.

Seriously.

I found most sports illustration jobs tedious in the extreme. This one was even more boring than usual because I had to use an existing logo and also adapt the archer from a previous illustration.

Staying awake was the most difficult aspect of the job.

'We've got a new GOLF game coming out, Bob. We'd like you to do the Illustration.'

Aargh!

The guy in the sweater was my photographer and skateboarder mate, Meanie. His mum made him the sweater.

All the other characters were lifted from golf magazines. Surprise!

I hate golf.

Looking back, I can't believe what you could get away with - and get paid for - in the early years of this industry.

Lots of fun to do. It was nice when I was given a decent deadline, allowing time to get some detail into the job.

Swords/guns/violence of any kind was always more interesting to my childlike mind than any other subject (with the possible exception of bounteous curves.)

This was the original illo for what became KID CHAOS.

Apparently, both the name of the game and the image I painted were too violent for someone's delicate nature. Probably the Germans.

IT'S A FRIGGIN' CARTOON FOR GOD'S SAKE! LOOK, THE BUNNY IS LAUGHING AT THE FLAT-TOPPED MORON! THEY'RE HAVING FUN!

I really liked this piece of work - shame it was never published.

I know I did this, but I can't remember anything about it.

I was either bored sh*tless or under the influence of something much more fun than illustrating a box for another stupid game.

God knows what this game was going to be called, or even if it ever got published in some form or other.

This was one of a couple of pieces I did for Ocean Software close to the end. I can remember having a general bad feeling about what was happening at Ocean around this time, even though I was kept in the dark about the situation. There were fewer games, I was being squeezed on budgets and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get to see bossman Dave Ward. The red glow of the apocalypse had appeared on the horizon.

Ahem.

So I found other clients and got on with my life.

Footnote:
A few months later, I got a call from a good guy at Ocean - 'THEY'RE CLEARING OUT THE WAREHOUSE AND ALL YOUR ARTWORK IS GOING IN THE SKIP!'

I got a van, got over there, and got my artwork. Some was missing but I probably got around 80% of it.

I was seriously pissed off that my artwork had been treated that way, and if I'd have got my hands on ANY of the motherf*ckers still in charge on that day, I'd have probably only recently been paroled for my crime.

A pretty crap scribbling, I would say.

These early-ish Ocean jobs are not the finest examples of my art.

Copied a load of photos out of a football book and changed the kit (badly) and faces (badly) and hair (badly) then went to the pub.

Another example of putting the cart before the horse.

A lot of time, effort and money went into printing this as posters, ads and inlays before Don Johnson's agent (apparently) informed Ocean that Mr. Johnson did not take kindly to artistic interpretations of his beautiful mug, and Ocean must immediately dump this appalling scribbling and replace it with a photograph that fairly represented his luminous handsomeness!

You'd have thought that Ocean would have always checked the acceptability of the images they were about to use on licensed properties.

Not that I cared - 'cos I still got paid - and was by this time getting accustomed to the frequent cock-ups.

A generic cartoon banged out as quickly as possible.

My mate Floyd was visiting again, so I got him to draw the background characters for me to paint, thus enabling us to spend more time in the pub.