{"id":10923,"date":"2018-01-21T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/legendary_cover_artist_bob_wakelin_passes_away"},"modified":"2018-01-21T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T14:30:00","slug":"legendary-cover-artist-bob-wakelin-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/01\/21\/legendary-cover-artist-bob-wakelin-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Cover Artist Bob Wakelin Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture embed centered picture-900x img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"One of Wakelin's most famous NES efforts\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/legendary_cover_artist_bob_wakelin_passes_away\/attachment\/0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/legendary_cover_artist_bob_wakelin_passes_away\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"One of Wakelin's most famous NES efforts\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It is with great sadness that we have to report the passing of Bob Wakelin, one of the most prolific video game cover artists of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>The name might not be familiar &#8211; especially if you&#8217;re reading this in North America &#8211; but Wakelin&#8217;s creations will be instantly recognisable. A one-time Marvel UK contributor, he is perhaps best known for his work with the now-defunct UK publisher Ocean, and throughout his career produced covers for Nintendo titles such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/contra\"><strong>Contra<\/strong><\/a> (NES), <strong>Rainbow Islands<\/strong> (NES), <strong>The New Zealand Story<\/strong> (NES), <strong>Mr. Nutz<\/strong> (SNES) and many more besides.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, it would be his work on computer formats such as the Spectrum, C64, Atari ST and Amiga which would give him enduring fame, at least in Europe; he illustrated the covers for titles such as <strong>Midnight Resistance, Batman, Wizball, Head Over Heels<\/strong> and <strong>Hunchback<\/strong>, to name but a few.<\/p>\n<p>Wakelin&#8217;s art was one of the key reasons Ocean became as big as it did during the &#8217;80s and &#8217;90s; he once admitted that the publisher looked to him as a means of making average games sell:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A couple of times the guys at Ocean said to me &#8216;<em>Look Bob, this game really isn&#8217;t very good so we need an extra special cover.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I suppose I should feel guilty for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The gaming community has taken to Twitter to pay tribute to the great man:<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here&#8217;s a reminder of Bob Wakelin&#8217;s superb artwork. You&#8217;ll know more of them than you think. Bob you&#8217;ll be missed. Your artwork was Epic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jUqZfjckSY\">https:\/\/t.co\/jUqZfjckSY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CZi3UJk7lL\">pic.twitter.com\/CZi3UJk7lL<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Retrobate (8Bit)_ \ud83d\udd79 (@Retrob8) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Retrob8\/status\/955006428472922113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">RIP Bob Wakelin &#8211; Any 80&#8217;s gamers will be familiar with his iconic covers. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uOtlRWcv9l\">pic.twitter.com\/uOtlRWcv9l<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Stu Wood (@DigitalWood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DigitalWood\/status\/955028826471501825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are heartbroken. Farewell, dearest friend. We love you and we will miss you \ud83d\udc94\ud83d\udc94\ud83d\udc94 \/David and Anna. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FAxV9Y7wRn\">pic.twitter.com\/FAxV9Y7wRn<\/a><\/span>\u2014 bobwakelin.com (@bobwakelin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bobwakelin\/status\/955031329418108928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We have lost a great man and a phenomenal artist in Bob Wakelin. So many great memories from my childhood thanks to this great man. RIP. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bobwakelin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bobwakelin<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/c64?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#c64<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/commodore64?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#commodore64<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/wizball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#wizball<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/renegade?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#renegade<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/lastgamer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#lastgamer<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/retrogaming?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#retrogaming<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/80sgaming?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#80sgaming<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/spectrum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#spectrum<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/amstrad?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#amstrad<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/amiga?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#amiga<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/art?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#art<\/a>\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/y7Aq12b0Er\">https:\/\/t.co\/y7Aq12b0Er<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/emvvqW0WWa\">pic.twitter.com\/emvvqW0WWa<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Last Gamer \ud83c\udf0f\ud83c\udfae (@LastgamerJop) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LastgamerJop\/status\/955019045069295616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m extremely sad to say Artist Bob Wakelin has passed. I\u2019ve met Bob over the years &amp; he was a truly lovely bloke. And a creative genius RIP <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5c7m6u0YJ4\">pic.twitter.com\/5c7m6u0YJ4<\/a><\/span>\u2014 GamesYouLoved \ud83c\udfae (@gamesyouloved) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gamesyouloved\/status\/955010403884589056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So sad to hear that Bob Wakelin has died. An amazing artist and his beautiful covers were a huge part of my childhood, many of them adorning my bedroom walls as posters in the 80s. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RIPBobWakelin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RIPBobWakelin<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2hvCcgkv9v\">pic.twitter.com\/2hvCcgkv9v<\/a><\/span>\u2014 Blerkotron (@Blerkotron) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Blerkotron\/status\/955043985512333314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"object object-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p><span lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The great master Bob Wakelin, illustrator of so many works that I have presented to you in these pages, has died tonight, after a long and hard fight against leukemia. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ox1CvypAJs\">pic.twitter.com\/ox1CvypAJs<\/a><\/span>\u2014 DaViD White (@postersdecine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/postersdecine\/status\/954939463595151361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Our thoughts are with Wakelin&#8217;s family at this very sad time. Bob, you made countless childhoods that little bit more exciting with your work; you will be sadly, sadly missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is with great sadness that we have to report the passing of Bob Wakelin, one of the most prolific video game cover artists of his generation. The name might not be familiar &#8211; especially if you&#8217;re reading this in North America &#8211; but Wakelin&#8217;s creations will be instantly recognisable. A one-time Marvel UK contributor, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}