I was very sad to wake up this morning and hear that legendary video game artist, Bob Wakelin, had passed away, after a long fight against leukemia.

Bob is often regarded as the greatest video game box artist of the 1980s. His work was unparalleled in my opinion. He is the Drew Struzan of the video game world. He and Oliver Frey (who mostly did magazine covers) are the two names I associate with 80s video game art. So many of the most iconic game covers were created by Bob. And this is back in the day when games were often sold by the cover art alone. When the screenshots on the back were small, 8-bit and often taken from the wrong system, the cover art was crucial. When you commissioned Bob to do the cover, you knew your game was probably going to fly off the shelves.

Tributes on social media have been pouring in this morning.

https://twitter.com/MarkRJones1970/status/954997323138060289

Also, check out this great interview with Bob done by the lads from The Retro Hour – https://theretrohour.com/bob-wakelin-ocean-software-cover-artist-the-retro-hour-ep93/

Here is a selection of my favourite pieces of Bob’s work. There are so many classic images here. And this is just the cream of the crop in my eyes. The Daley Thompson one in particular just totally takes me back to 1984. What an amazing body of work Bob’s left behind. An incredible legacy. Is there a video game hall of fame? If so he should be in it.

Many of these pictures are taken from this great article which has some one liners from Bob talking about each piece. https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Bob_Wakelin