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RIP Greg Martin - Seminal box artist of flintstones 2 and dozens more new pics will be added in the coming days

Jan 6, 2014 at 12:17:28 AM
buyatari2 (30)

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Round two.

Here are 5 more vintage Sonic the Hedgehog preproduction pencil illustrations that Greg Martin did for Sega.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Edited: 01/06/2014 at 01:34 AM by buyatari2

Jan 6, 2014 at 9:02:15 AM
Parpunk (172)
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This is some really amazing stuff, thanks so much for sharing Adam!

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Jan 6, 2014 at 12:34:16 PM
buyatari2 (30)

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This might be the last of the Greg Martin pre-production Sonic design pencil sketches.

Dan and I purchased close to 40 of these from Greg and we ended up splitting them between us. So together we each have close to 20 each. However, not all of them were related to Sonic. Unless Dan has some others related to Sonic (do you Dan?) or I've misplaced one somewhere then this one may be the last of them related to Sonic.



Edited: 01/06/2014 at 12:34 PM by buyatari2

Jan 6, 2014 at 12:40:17 PM
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jonebone (554)
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Wow, this topic made the Gamespot front page. And there's a link to the NintendoAge forums in the article.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/...

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Jan 6, 2014 at 1:05:05 PM
Bronty (65)
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Its hit kotaku and a hundred other places too. Its kind of weird watching the story grow but its nice to see Greg get the recognition even if it is posthumous

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Jan 6, 2014 at 1:56:03 PM
CygnusDestroyer20XX (1)
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I just saw this now. A truly great loss. He was responsible for so many iconic images from my childhood.

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Jan 6, 2014 at 2:09:10 PM
Tanooki (185)
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IGN has linked this and credited you as well Bronty. (Linked NA as well)
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/...

Jan 6, 2014 at 2:15:27 PM
Bronty (65)
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Here are a few of his non game pieces.    I always loved the first one called "gorilla my dreams" as it just captures the cartoon so perfectly






pirates of dark water







Rooby Doo












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Jan 6, 2014 at 2:25:13 PM
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jonebone (554)
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Nice stuff but man, that main character in Pirates of the Dark Water is a total He-Man rip-off.

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Jan 6, 2014 at 2:31:44 PM
Bronty (65)
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Hey!   Gertie sighting!    

I just noticed something in this piece of artwork.

Touching back on the conversation about Nemo and WInsor McKay and his familiarity with the subject Matter....

Winsor McKay, in addition to the Nemo strips, did the first few animated films.   The most famous of these is Gertie the Dinosaur, and Greg's got Gertie poking her head out here (see yellow highlight):







Here's the youtube link to the gertie film for those interested:













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Edited: 01/06/2014 at 02:38 PM by Bronty

Jan 6, 2014 at 2:37:49 PM
Bronty (65)
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Originally posted by: jonebone

Nice stuff but man, that main character in Pirates of the Dark Water is a total He-Man rip-off.

I don't really agree.   They are both blonde, OK.

But he-man was muscle-bound, half naked, and rendered to look a little older IMO.    The dark water character looks, younger, slimmer, way less cut.   At least to me.

Or to put it another way, one is rendered as a barbarian/ Conan type, the other has more of the typical 'pirate' body.  Can't bring the gym with you on the pirate ship I guess

Besides, I think that's just how greg drew that kind of stuff.    GIve the scooby doo blonde guy a darker complexion and longer hair and you'd get the same thing.    I think the reason you're seeing a similarity is because he man always had a darker skin tone (odd for a blonde) and so does the dark water character.    But he's a pirate; he's going to be in the sun all day a dark skin tone would only be natural.









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Edited: 01/06/2014 at 02:47 PM by Bronty

Jan 6, 2014 at 2:48:59 PM
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jonebone (554)
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Meh, I thought the face likeness was very similar... and He-Man's infamous pose is with the sword above his head. Looks like you take off about 5-10 years, give him some longer hair and more clothes, and that guy is a splitting image of He-Man before he hit all those weights

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Jan 6, 2014 at 3:08:23 PM
Bronty (65)
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A number of sites have commented that he passed away in May.

That is true. Greg passed away in May and I spoke with him then. I had been wondering why his contact info had started bouncing. He had dropped off the grid. I dug around and eventually found out the unpleasant news that he had died suddenly.

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Jan 6, 2014 at 3:14:03 PM
buyatari2 (30)

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At first I thought this image was the same one used on the Gameboy box. Now it looks like it must have been for something else. Perhaps advertising the game?




Jan 6, 2014 at 4:01:13 PM
Bronty (65)
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some people have noticed that robotnik was illustrated two different ways. That's correct, the head shape and mustache style changed. Greg had told me that was because sega specifically requested that change.

This is the reason that there were two Spinball covers done. The genesis cover has the old style robotnik and the game gear version was a new piece of art redone from scratch so that sega could get the new robotnik look it wanted.

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Edited: 01/06/2014 at 04:03 PM by Bronty

Jan 6, 2014 at 4:03:52 PM
Gidney (0)

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Hi Bronty.
Thank you for the write up on Greg, its great to see box artists getting some decent coverage.  I run a site called BOX=ART (boxequalsart.com) dedicated to video game box artists and wondered whether you'd be keen on answering some questions on Greg so i could put together an article on him.  If you'd be keen on contributing to the site but rather write the article yourself that would also be great.

Let me know what you think.

All the best,

Adam Gidney

Jan 6, 2014 at 4:09:08 PM
Bronty (65)
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(Dan M) < Bonk >
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Hi, thanks a lot. I sent you a pm.

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Jan 6, 2014 at 5:18:28 PM
spoonman (66)
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(Matt - The Obsessed Gamer) < Ridley Wrangler >
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Sad news, but I'm glad he's getting recognition for his work.

Here are some higher res, full insert scans I made a while back.












Jan 6, 2014 at 5:36:38 PM
Bronty (65)
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thank you!

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Jan 6, 2014 at 6:26:44 PM
gfordbob (0)

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Amazingly talented guy and this is sad news, especially as many people didn't realise the extent of his work yet have been influenced by it one way or another.

However, a couple of points from the first post don't add up so maybe some info is mixed up somewhere, specifically surrounding Greg's time at Hanna-Barbera and who he met there.
Jack Kirby was actually only there briefly in the late 70's (78-80). He was elsewhere during the 80's though, admittedly, it was a company set up by ex-HB staff.
Seth MacFarlane only graduated college in 1995 and went to HB after that point. I think it was his first job straight out of college.
Greg was already ramping up his box art from '90+ and working elsewhere so did he go back to HB? Is that how he ended up as a colleague of Seth? He certainly couldn't have met them both at the same time as Kirby died in 1994, before Seth even graduated.

Jan 6, 2014 at 6:37:09 PM
jajaja (8)
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He made some amazing artwork indeed!

RIP Anyone know how old he got?


Edited: 01/06/2014 at 07:10 PM by NintendoAge Moderator

Jan 6, 2014 at 6:42:20 PM
Nesmaster (57)
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Ahh Snow Bros. What a lovely and absurd box art for a great game.

RIP. What a legend for drawing me to these as a kid where rentals were in large part made by what we saw on the box.

Jan 6, 2014 at 7:01:50 PM
Bronty (65)
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Originally posted by: gfordbob

Amazingly talented guy and this is sad news, especially as many people didn't realise the extent of his work yet have been influenced by it one way or another.

However, a couple of points from the first post don't add up so maybe some info is mixed up somewhere, specifically surrounding Greg's time at Hanna-Barbera and who he met there.
Jack Kirby was actually only there briefly in the late 70's (78-80). He was elsewhere during the 80's though, admittedly, it was a company set up by ex-HB staff.
Seth MacFarlane only graduated college in 1995 and went to HB after that point. I think it was his first job straight out of college.
Greg was already ramping up his box art from '90+ and working elsewhere so did he go back to HB? Is that how he ended up as a colleague of Seth? He certainly couldn't have met them both at the same time as Kirby died in 1994, before Seth even graduated.





Greg graduated from art school in 80, but he had already started working at HB in 79. So it may have been late 70s not early 80s where he met jack, not sure.

As for Seth, I don't know. Greg told me he worked with him, that's all I can tell you. Maybe we went back for a brief stint or freelanced for HB? I don't know.

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WTB Cdn sealed black boxes, sealed Cdn first party titles.    I.e. the "mattel" Cdn boxes with both french and english.   Mainly black boxes, zelda, link, and tyson, but let me know what you have.    I am interested in anything I don't already have!



Edited: 01/06/2014 at 07:04 PM by Bronty

Jan 6, 2014 at 7:05:34 PM
Bronty (65)
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(Dan M) < Bonk >
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^ come to think of it though, I know how I can find out. Ill look into it (probably take a few days) and post the answer later.

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WTB Cdn sealed black boxes, sealed Cdn first party titles.    I.e. the "mattel" Cdn boxes with both french and english.   Mainly black boxes, zelda, link, and tyson, but let me know what you have.    I am interested in anything I don't already have!


Jan 6, 2014 at 7:07:18 PM
Bronty (65)
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(Dan M) < Bonk >
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Originally posted by: jajaja

He made some amazing artwork indeed!

RIP Anyone know how old he got?





He was in his mid 50s. Too young to pass away.

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WTB Cdn sealed black boxes, sealed Cdn first party titles.    I.e. the "mattel" Cdn boxes with both french and english.   Mainly black boxes, zelda, link, and tyson, but let me know what you have.    I am interested in anything I don't already have!



Edited: 01/06/2014 at 07:12 PM by Bronty