What box art did Boris Vallejo do? [Archive]

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Jorpho

05-27-2006, 11:21 AM

Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell (http://www.imaginistix.com/) do a lot of fantasy art. How can I put this? The look certainly is distinctive, but I find it rather hard to stomach in even moderately large doses.

I have seen a few references that suggest Mr. Vallejo did quite a bit of video game box art back in the day. Has anyone ever compiled a complete list of his work in this area?

Dire 51

05-27-2006, 12:06 PM

Been searching, but have yet to turn anything up as far as a complete list. From memory, I can tell you that Vallejo did the covers of Golden Axe II and Ecco the Dolphin (the U.S. releases, not too sure about the Japanese MD releases). Julie Bell did the covers of Demon's Crest (U.S. release) and Splatterhouse 3 - oddly, her artwork showed up on the Mega Drive SH3 too. I guess Namco liked her SH3 artwork enough that they used it for that version.

anagrama

05-27-2006, 12:17 PM

Most of the early Ballistic/Accolade Genesis games have Vallejo art.

jboypacman

05-27-2006, 12:25 PM

all the early accolade stuff for genesis if am right..
hardball,turrican,and ballstic
and i think they did some other sega box art as well..
golden ax 2
and i want say the old swords and serpents game too but am not for sure about that one so am most like wrong about that one.

Jorpho

05-27-2006, 01:08 PM

A search on Mobygames turns up

Demise - Rise of the Ku'tan (2000), Artifact Entertainment
Shannara (1995), Legend Entertainment Company
Eric the Unready (1993), Legend Entertainment Company
Dragon Wars (1989), Interplay Entertainment Corp.

All of these are PC games, of course.

Kitsune Sniper

05-27-2006, 01:52 PM

He (Vallejo) also made the cover for a NES game... I know about it, but I can't recall the name of it.

I do know he didn't get paid for it, and that it was an Acclaim title. Probably one of the Wizards and Warriors games.

Ed Oscuro

05-27-2006, 02:10 PM

He (Vallejo) also made the cover for a NES game... I know about it, but I can't recall the name of it.
Ironsword, which was a port of a Conan game on microcomputer.

He did the covers for Golden Axe (Japanese Mega Drive) and Phantasy Star IV (US/Euro) as well (judging by the style of the cover).

Melf has an interview with him up at sega-16.com (http://www.sega-16.com/Interview-%20Boris%20Vallejo.htm) for the interested. Haha, I see that the two pieces I mentioned were covered specifically (there's a partial scan of the Golden Axe cover).

Jorpho

05-27-2006, 02:18 PM

Wow, that was just last week. What a coincidence! Not much verbosity in his responses, though.

It looks like he might have also done Gauntlet IV and Alisia Dragoon.

Melf

05-27-2006, 03:34 PM

Yeah, Boris doesn't seem to be a really talkative fellow. Talented as hell though.

I know that on the Genesis, he did the foilowing:

- Ecco the Dolphin
- Ecco the Tides of Time
- Golden Axe 2
- Phantasy Star IV
- Turrican
- Hardball
- Star Control
- Onslaught

He also did the Dreamcast Ecco cover, and Julie Bell did the cover for Eternal Champions on the Genesis.

Ed Oscuro

05-27-2006, 04:23 PM

Hmm, I don't have a Genesis copy of Golden Axe (I). Just a loose PAL cart and the Japanese game. Does the artwork wrap around to the back on the Genesis like it does on the Japanese version?

Jorpho

05-27-2006, 05:20 PM

Pictures of that one here:
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/533/533968p9.html
I think that was the first reference I saw to Vallejo, actually. No firm answers though.

Sothy

05-27-2006, 05:56 PM

legendary wings also i believe.

Oh wait Im thinking of a Genesis game with a guy with wings on the cover.... wings of wor?

B - Mark

05-28-2006, 12:41 PM

I saw this covers art by Boris Vallejo

- Golden Axe II ( American Genesis cover )
- Ecco the Dolphin ( American Genesis cover )
- Hardball ( Accolade / Ballistic games )

Bronty-2

05-28-2006, 02:05 PM

the dude is just a wannabe frazetta anyway :embarrassed:

o2william

05-28-2006, 02:22 PM

Ironsword, which was a port of a Conan game on microcomputer.
Really? I hadn't heard that. What game/computer, do you know?

Isn't Kuros on the IronSword cover actually romance novel mainstay and "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" man-whore Fabio? That's what I'd always heard, and it sure looks like him...

Fuyukaze

05-28-2006, 02:42 PM

Maybe swords and serpents is one of his works as well.

XYXZYZ

05-28-2006, 09:49 PM

I met Boris Vallejo in 1994, but there wasn't any time to say much. Got some autographs, though.

Oh, and Julie Bell did the US box art to Valis IV. You can buy a fabulously overpriced (for the size) print of that painting at their website.

An interesting note about Boris and Julie- Boris' wife was Doris Vallejo, (She was a model in a lot of his paintings in the 70s) and some time in the 80s or 90s he met Julie Bell, who was also a bodybuilder and fantasy artist. Julie modeled for Boris many times, he liked her alot and naturaly started banging her behind his wife's back. When she found out, she divorced him and took a hell of alot of his money with her. So after that Boris and Julie got married, and their painting styles grew identical. But they're both far inferior to the master, Frank Frazetta! :D

Damaramu

05-29-2006, 12:01 AM

But they're both far inferior to the master, Frank Frazetta! :D

Word. I don't really care for the way they paint machinery and such. Naked women, yeah. Robots and cyborgs. Gimme a break. LOL

XYXZYZ

05-29-2006, 12:43 PM

I think their machiney painting is pretty good, as far as painted machinery goes. (I prefer the Japanese comic style) And I do like many of Boris' older works, but what I don't like about him in general is that everything is too static; a painting of a guy swinging a sword, with some dame behind him looking afraid, looks just like a painting of a model standing there, holding a sword, posing like he's about to swing it, and the girl looks like a model sitting there going "Look afraid? Like this?" They just look too much like posing models.

Frazetta on the other hand, doesn't use models and paints everything entirely out of his head. When Frank draws a guy swinging a sword, he rears back and the guy he's attacking is about to get owned for free + shipping. Raw dynamics, you know.

Jorpho

05-29-2006, 01:49 PM

But did this Frazetta ever do video game box art?

djbeatmongrel

05-29-2006, 02:23 PM

i know julie bell did the Eternal Champions (Genesis) box art

Bronty-2

05-29-2006, 04:16 PM

Bronty-2

05-29-2006, 04:23 PM

for the uninitiated:
boris vallejo
http://www3.telus.net/online/dans_auctions/borisserpentgoddess.jpg

frank frazetta
http://www3.telus.net/online/dans_auctions/FrazettaCrabbe4Cv.jpg

MegaDrive20XX

05-29-2006, 04:50 PM

So that's Boris....I had the Coca-Cola Star Wars Empire Strikes Back poster he did..

Bronty-2

05-29-2006, 05:00 PM

Yeah. The knock against him has always been that he's a frazetta copycat (without the panache and mastery) and I don't think he'll ever escape that label. There's truth to it. The stuff he did in the 70s was particularily derivative of frank.

Bronty-2

05-29-2006, 05:17 PM

while we are on the subject of box art... does anyone know who painted all those great koei nes/snes boxes? How about the guy who did the early konami stuff (contra, etc) - who was he? :)

Also, for the frazetta fans out there - I give the highest possible recommendation to the 'Fire N Ice' DVD - it has a bonus disc called 'Frazetta - painting with fire' that scores an 11/10 if you like the man's work.

Berserker

05-29-2006, 05:24 PM

for the uninitiated:
boris vallejo
[Realistic Pencil Drawing from 3 years ago]

frank frazetta
[Inked Comic Drawing from like 50 years ago]

That's kind of an oddly imbalanced comparison, considering you prefer Frazetta. That's his comic work from the 50's and early 60's. If we're initiating people to Frank Frazetta, it'd probably be more gainful to showcase his later work, which is what he ultimately came to be so revered for.

Like the infamous Death Dealer, for instance:
http://web.tiscali.it/ffantasy/Frazetta/Death_Dealer01.jpg

Or his work with Conan:
http://fantasy.mrugala.net/Frank%20Frazetta/Frank%20Frazetta%20-%20Conan%20le%20destructeur.jpg

And so on..
http://www.ice-haven.com/fraz/fraz07.jpg

I think the biggest difference between Frazetta and Vallejo is that Frazetta attempts to convey a feeling of action, and tries to capture things at the very height of that action in a fantasy setting, whereas Vallejo simply attempts to portray fantasy characters and creatures in the most super-ultra-realistic way possible.

Still, looking over his fantasy work, you can tell Vallejo takes a lot of cues from Frazetta. I even came across one that by him that was more Frazetta's style than his own, almost like an imitation. Can't really blame him though, as just about every fantasy artist takes cues from Frazetta... he was basically the master of his time.

Is anyone else finding themselves wishing that Frazetta would've done some game covers?

Bronty-2

05-29-2006, 05:40 PM

yeah, you're right. The works you pulled are better examples. But even the drawings above convey the point. Boris' figure is just standing there. Frank's horse is racing for his life, Buster Crabbe (the guy) is leaping to take charge, the babe is just... well... demure as can be.

You can just imagine boris' drawing being that of a model standing in front of him. Frank's drawing would be literally impossible to pose. One drawing is like a still frame from an action movie, one is just.... still.

Jorpho

12-01-2010, 12:55 AM

He (Vallejo) also made the cover for a NES game... I know about it, but I can't recall the name of it.I thought of this thread recently when I happened to see the art in question: Swords & Serpents.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/swords-and-serpents/cover-art/gameCoverId,51874/

It's hard to believe he did PSIV, given how much clothing everyone is wearing.

AB Positive

12-01-2010, 07:47 AM

It's hard to believe he did PSIV, given how much clothing everyone is wearing.

I literally had the above though when I read this thread, but it does make sense I guess. It does look like Vallejo just... um. Clothed Vallejo. lol

I'm still curious about this "Ironsword is a microcomputer port" thought too - I didn't play Ironsword as much as W&W1 but since I became classic computer-obsessed in the last couple of years I'd like to try the original if it exists.

(I recently tried the original Bomberman... on ZX Spectrum. Wow... how far that game has come. The later ZX title Bomberman Deluxe is basically what the NES game came to be)

Jorpho

12-01-2010, 09:03 AM

I was about to say, "Wouldn't it be funny to see Vallejo's interpretation of Bomberman?" Then I remembered Bomberman Act Zero (http://xbox360.gamespy.com/dor/objects/771985/bomberman-360/images/bomberman-act-zero-20060505050422661.html).

Collector_Gaming

12-01-2010, 03:36 PM

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 01:44 PM

i love boris vallejo's work. Yes it takes styling cues from the other guy

but man he painted some stuff that made you go "what the hell was he smoking to come up with this stuff" lol
but at the same time memorized you by making you imagine yourself in this world with these hot chicks and super weird creatures and such

.... kinda like..... heavy metal :D

I agree, and I've come to appreciate it in the ...11 years (!) since that first post.

Let me come up with a list. It took 11 years but we can answer the OP now LOL. Some definite classics in the list!

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 01:56 PM

so here's a list, as complete as I could get it in the 10 minutes I wanted to spend, of boris and julie covers. They worked on each other's stuff during this time so I am lumping them together.

dragon wars
shannara
onslaught
demise
ax battler
golden axe 2
turrican
eric the unready
swords and serpents
phantasy star iv
double dragon v
strider 2 genesis
ecco
ecco 2
ecco 2000
hardball
star control
eternal champions
run saber
demons crest
castle wolfenstein 3d
splatterhouse 3
king of dragons
natsume championship wrestling
defender of oasis
wings of wor
conan pc
mike ditka football pc
ryl pc
super valis iv
warrior of rome 2
a fork in the tale

Emperor Megas

01-03-2017, 03:33 PM

Aussie2B

01-03-2017, 03:43 PM

I'll ditto the (decade old) comments that Boris and Julie are at their best with high fantasy pieces. Anything with any degree of sci-fi, futuristic elements is.....echh. The Phantasy Star IV cover is particularly awful (though not really SF-ish, even if the game itself is), in the same kind of way that the Suikoden cover is awful, or any of the Valis covers. I don't know what geniuses thought it was a good idea to match games that had a distinct anime-style aesthetic in-game with very Western-style art for the covers. If only all publishers could've been as smart as Squaresoft was when they released Chrono Trigger in the US.

I also feel bad for Demon's Crest. The game is infamous for getting negative sales one week (because more copies were returned than bought), and I'm sure the cover did not help with that, considering how terrifying and Satanic Firebrand looks. I mean, yeah, he's a demon, but he's not THAT ugly and scary looking in-game.

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 04:57 PM

I assumed Mystic Defender was a lazy effort Julie Bell cover. It's got those damn 'plastic' dragons that she and Boris love to paint, as well as the excessive chrome effects. The character looks pretty shit though. If it isn't Julie (or Boris) it's someone trying to paint like them.

That's not her at all. One quick way to note that is it seems to be partially airbrush and boris and julie were both 100% traditional brush. They also signed all their pieces and this is unsigned.

I quite like that cover anyways. I think the three dragons are nicely rendered. The figure could be better but serviceable and the background is nice and nice overall sense of drama with the orb and lighting effects and whatnot. If I'm 10 I probably look at that and think "fucking awesome" which is all they were going for :)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/MysticDefender-Cover.png/250px-MysticDefender-Cover.png

Emperor Megas

01-03-2017, 05:12 PM

I liked the covered when the game came out; I was 15 then though. :-/

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 05:23 PM

I don't know what geniuses thought it was a good idea to match games that had a distinct anime-style aesthetic in-game with very Western-style art for the covers. If only all publishers could've been as smart as Squaresoft was when they released Chrono Trigger in the US.

.

IMO that's looking too deep into it and drawing connections that weren't really there when it comes to matching in-game styles and box styles. Its as simple as western audiences weren't receptive to eastern art at the time, and so the standard practice was to re-do the art for almost any game. Sometimes that worked out well and sometimes it didn't.

I spoke with the artist of dragon warrior 3&4 (US covers) and he said he the language issues were huge. Given very little to go on, apart from a bit of time with technical people to whom he spoke through an interpreter (who in turn should have had an interpreter...engrish ;) ) and a bit of in-game on a vhs tape.

These american artists had a hard job and precious little time to do it. Easy for us to pick it apart 25 years later but that's how these things were back then. The industry was still growing and globalization hadn't arrived yet. I for one think the stuff they came up with, generally speaking, was great. Yeah some are better than others but the same can be said of the japanese and european pieces too.

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 05:25 PM

I liked the covered when the game came out; I was 15 then though. :-/

Right, so I guess you look at that now with adult eyes and want it to look appealing to adult eyes... I guess I just try to appreciate it for what it is /was, in the same way I can look at super mario bros and think the in-game graphics are fucking great without trying to apply ps4 graphical standards, you know? :)

Emperor Megas

01-03-2017, 05:33 PM

Right, so I guess you look at that now with adult eyes and want it to look appealing to adult eyes...Not exactly. I'm just indifferent to it now. Hell, I was by the time I was 16. LOL

I don't think the cover is bad or anything, it's just that it was one of my first Genesis games, and I was a Master System kid before the Genesis so I don't have to tell you what the box art for those games were like. ^^;

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 05:45 PM

fair enough ;) if box art isn't something you're really into. I got into it in the 11 years since and went from not liking boris and julie to quite liking them for what they are. Their non-game stuff doesn't interest me but as game illustrators I dig them the same way a comic book fan would care about, I dunno, alex toth but not care about the artist who did the newspaper editorials in Tulsa, you know? ;)

Even fine art is really more much about 'context' than the image itself.

Aussie2B

01-03-2017, 06:31 PM

IMO that's looking too deep into it and drawing connections that weren't really there when it comes to matching in-game styles and box styles. Its as simple as western audiences weren't receptive to eastern art at the time, and so the standard practice was to re-do the art for almost any game. Sometimes that worked out well and sometimes it didn't.

I spoke with the artist of dragon warrior 3&4 (US covers) and he said he the language issues were huge. Given very little to go on, apart from a bit of time with technical people to whom he spoke through an interpreter (who in turn should have had an interpreter...engrish ;) ) and a bit of in-game on a vhs tape.

These american artists had a hard job and precious little time to do it. Easy for us to pick it apart 25 years later but that's how these things were back then. The industry was still growing and globalization hadn't arrived yet. I for one think the stuff they came up with, generally speaking, was great. Yeah some are better than others but the same can be said of the japanese and european pieces too.

My post wasn't in criticism of the quality of the art, though I would say that US covers for Japanese games are generally worse, especially back in those days. I'm not surprised that the localizers/publishers back then would go cheap and make it extra difficult for the artists, though their cheapness is probably why they would also often hire artists who clearly were lacking in technical ability, producing very amateurish drawings with all sorts of proportion issues and what have you. We were lucky if they'd spring the money for someone like Boris or Julie.

Anyway, to get to what I was commenting on, I get that stuff like manga and anime was still very niche in the US at that point in time, so I understand the mentality of replacing a cover with something in a familiar Western style. But when the actual graphics of the game also have an anime aesthetic, it seems really half-assed and lazy to replace JUST the cover. It's like they were trying to dupe consumers like "Oh yeah, this is totally not a Japanese game with Japanese-style art." Not only did the covers usually look bad, but they were misleading on top of that. To the "credit" of some localizers, they did try to Westernize the full game. Like with Warsong (aka Langrisser), they replaced Satoshi Urushihara's art with some generic Western-style piece, and they even redrew parts of the in-game character portraits, which were also based on Urushihara's art, to look less anime-ish (more like they beat them with the ugly stick). So at least you have a semi-unified look between the cover and in-game. With Chrono Trigger, since they didn't edit the graphics and used a piece of Akira Toriyama art for the US cover (not the same art as the Japanese cover, but just a different piece of his), what you see on the cover matches what you see in-game when looking at the sprites and menu portraits. I'm not at all in favor of needlessly Westernizing foreign media, but if you're gonna do it, it only makes sense to go all the way with it so that you don't have clashing elements.

And for what it's worth, I think the Dragon Warrior III and IV artist had the right idea. He didn't try to give us Westernized renditions of Toriyama's characters and monsters, rather he just gave us depictions of weapons and items, which fit in fine with the look of the games. Compare with, say, the US cover of the Dragon Warrior spin-off Torneko: The Last Hope on PS1, which is a disgusting-looking Westernized 3D rendering of Torneko and various Dragon Warrior monsters. Same kind of deal with Dragon Warrior Monsters on GBC. Thank goodness Enix themselves localized Dragon Warrior Monsters 2.

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 07:04 PM

My post wasn't in criticism of the quality of the art, though I would say that US covers for Japanese games are generally worse, especially back in those days. I'm not surprised that the localizers/publishers back then would go cheap and make it extra difficult for the artists, though their cheapness is probably why they would also often hire artists who clearly were lacking in technical ability, producing very amateurish drawings with all sorts of proportion issues and what have you. We were lucky if they'd spring the money for someone like Boris or Julie.

a couple assumptions in there I want to address

a) go cheap and make it extra difficult - I didn't say it was a budget issue, they spent a lot on this stuff - but there were deadlines deadlines deadlines same as ever and given language issues and tight deadlines.. it was a difficult job. Not necessarily cheapness - just... circumstances. Though on a few you could argue cheapness heheh ;) but not on the capcoms and konamis of the world.

b) lacking in technical ability - plenty of very talented people worked on this stuff.. the less talented... I would say were more on the earlier NES side, or unlicensed pieces, where you get some stuff that's hard to look at.. by the time even SNES rolled around, they are all pretty sound pieces

Bronty-2

01-03-2017, 07:05 PM

And for what it's worth, I think the Dragon Warrior III and IV artist had the right idea. He didn't try to give us Westernized renditions of Toriyama's characters and monsters, rather he just gave us depictions of weapons and items, which fit in fine with the look of the games. Compare with, say, the US cover of the Dragon Warrior spin-off Torneko: The Last Hope on PS1, which is a disgusting-looking Westernized 3D rendering of Torneko and various Dragon Warrior monsters. Same kind of deal with Dragon Warrior Monsters on GBC. Thank goodness Enix themselves localized Dragon Warrior Monsters 2.

Oh the DW3/4 artist is super talented. Its a shame he didn't do more. He did do an ad or two and age of empires as well, and that's about it.

I don't really have a problem with Torneko personally. Its serviceable. I kinda like it (shrug).

ccovell

01-03-2017, 07:18 PM

Ironsword, which was a port of a Conan game on microcomputer.

And to fix up a little misinformation: Ironsword is a unique game. What is true is that MYTH on the C-64 (etc) became Conan on the NES, with the blocky C64 backgrounds intact...

Aussie2B

01-04-2017, 08:49 AM

a couple assumptions in there I want to address

a) go cheap and make it extra difficult - I didn't say it was a budget issue, they spent a lot on this stuff - but there were deadlines deadlines deadlines same as ever and given language issues and tight deadlines.. it was a difficult job. Not necessarily cheapness - just... circumstances. Though on a few you could argue cheapness heheh ;) but not on the capcoms and konamis of the world.

b) lacking in technical ability - plenty of very talented people worked on this stuff.. the less talented... I would say were more on the earlier NES side, or unlicensed pieces, where you get some stuff that's hard to look at.. by the time even SNES rolled around, they are all pretty sound pieces

Deadlines are one thing, but when you're not providing artists with proper resources, like communication with people who are fluent in the artist's language and an adequate amount of materials that depict what the artist is supposed to capture, then it's either a matter of not caring and/or being cheap. If other staff are busy, then you pay somebody who DOES have the time to make sure the artist gets what they need.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the technical ability and talent of the artists. I think there are still countless horrendous covers for 16-bit games and later, even from big publishers like Capcom and Konami. Some are just ugly but sound on a technical level, like the aforementioned Demon's Crest, others are ugly AND have a slew of technical problems.

Bronty-2

01-04-2017, 01:03 PM

Deadlines are one thing, but when you're not providing artists with proper resources, like communication with people who are fluent in the artist's language and an adequate amount of materials that depict what the artist is supposed to capture, then it's either a matter of not caring and/or being cheap. If other staff are busy, then you pay somebody who DOES have the time to make sure the artist gets what they need.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the technical ability and talent of the artists. I think there are still countless horrendous covers for 16-bit games and later, even from big publishers like Capcom and Konami. Some are just ugly but sound on a technical level, like the aforementioned Demon's Crest, others are ugly AND have a slew of technical problems.

Yeah we'll agree to disagree. I just thought it would be fun to post the list.. I did not start any discussion of technical merits in the first place, I'm not super interested in that discussion to be honest. I like appreciating what was done.