Who illustrated the original Atari VCS game catalogs?

[lanatrzczka]

Starting in 1977 with the gatefold games, the game catalogs had a distinctive style that I loved as a kid, and still do. To me as a kid, those catalogs were a wishlist of awesomeness. Somewhere around 1981, the game catalogs started getting more generic. Less style. Less fun.

 

Does anyone know the history of illustrators and/or writers of the original catalogs?

 

For example, Burn Rubber

 

 

[Supergun]

I completely agree. I would go through those catalogs daily, staring at the illustrations & screenshots, observing every detail, reading all the text, debating which one to buy next, and dreaming of having every single one some day in the future.

 

They all had an element of comedy to them, sometimes obvious, other times sarcastic, so the artist must have been a very casual and fun person to hang out with.

[lanatrzczka]

To me the catalogs made the games better. I knew, even at eight years old, that some of the games were poor. But those catalogs provided a story, a fantasy.

[high voltage]

To me the catalogs made the games better. I knew, even at eight years old, that some of the games were poor. But those catalogs provided a story, a fantasy.

The games weren't poor for 1977, that's just rubbish talk.

[lanatrzczka]

The games weren't poor for 1977, that's just rubbish talk.

Point taken, High Voltage, but we knew as kids that Street Racer was terrible. MY point is that the colorful, well done catalogs greatly enhanced the experience. Would love to know who was behind that. And my talk isn't "rubbish talk". Thanks anyway. This thread is about the early catalogs.

[+cvga]

Point taken, High Voltage, but we knew as kids that Street Racer was terrible. MY point is that the colorful, well done catalogs greatly enhanced the experience. Would love to know who was behind that. And my talk isn't "rubbish talk". Thanks anyway. This thread is about the early catalogs.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Street Racer was poor until after I purchased it lol

 

I love the illustrations from the early catalogs also. They definitely influenced my wish list for carts.

[EdwardK]

I always thought they looked like the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons.

[high voltage]

Point taken, High Voltage, but we knew as kids that Street Racer was terrible. MY point is that the colorful, well done catalogs greatly enhanced the experience. Would love to know who was behind that. And my talk isn't "rubbish talk". Thanks anyway. This thread is about the early catalogs.

Exactly

[toiletunes]

I loved Street Racer back then. Still do.

[lanatrzczka]

I always noticed the red-haired guy in the 1977-1978 catalogs. That simple consistency really pulled me into the story of Atari games. I could be that character. The 1979 catalog introduces a white-haired guy for many of the newer games, and that was cool... red-haired guy was still in there plenty. In 1980, the red-haired guy started getting phased out with Superman, Adventure, and Circus Atari all using a different theme from red-haired guy. Of course by 1981 the entire style changed.

[The Eyeball Mural]

Maybe some of this information will be found in the upcoming Art of Atari book. I'm very keen (after years of wondering and searching) to know the identities of the artists behind the presentation of the early video games. The art used in packaging, advertising and merchandising was a vital part of the gaming experience for me in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

I'm just throwing out a haphazard guess, but the artist of the catalog page displayed in the original post may have been Susan Jaekel, who created the box art for Adventure and Basic Math, among others. (Maybe.)

Many of the artists who worked for Atari in the early days were either fresh out of art school or were established freelancers, and either way they were in tune with the styles and trends of the day. If you examine advertising and package art from that same time period but from various other areas (beverages, clothing, television, etc.) you'll see similarities to the styles that Atari used, and discover a lot of great illustration from many people, including some Atari artists.

I think the soon-to-be-released book authored by Tim Lapetino, and the posts here on AtariAge, prove that there is considerable interest in the art from the early days of video gaming. Perhaps we can finally get the "who did what" information posted here so anyone interested can use such a resource.

For more Atari-related art discussion, see these posts:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220583-art-of-atari-book-in-progress-and-need-help/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/255169-who-created-the-activision-box-art/

The question of who wrote copy for Atari's catalogs and instruction manuals is a good one as well. The only firm info I have on that matter is that Steve Harding wrote the manual for Adventure. I'd like to know who else worked on those. It seems that for the Activision titles the game designers/programmers themselves usually wrote the manuals.

 

If I recall correctly, some of the Digital Press interviews contain information about copywriting, but I'll have to dive back into those to get my facts straight... at first glance it looks like John-Michael Battaglia is one such writer.

 

http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/

 

 

 

 

[Buyatari]

I'm just throwing out a haphazard guess, but the artist of the catalog page displayed in the original post may have been Susan Jaekel, who created the box art for Adventure and Basic Math, among others. (Maybe.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think it was Susan Jaekel. After I purchased the 3D tic tac toe painting (which is another cover that you can add to her list) I spoke with her on the phone. At the time I was really only interested in video game box illustrations but I don't remember her saying that she had any hand in those catalog illustrations.

 

There is a really good chance that the illustrator you seek will be revealed when Tim's long awaited Atari art book is released.

[Brian Kendig]

Resurrecting this old thread because I still have the same question: who illustrated the original Atari VCS game catalogs? (Such as "https://atariage.com/catalog_page.html?CatalogID=24".)I really love the whimsical nature of the artwork, and I've never seen anything quite like it since.

 

I have Tim Lapetino's "Art of Atari" book, but it only covers the games, and says absolutely nothing about the catalogs!

[CaptainBreakout]

Whoever was the illustrator HAD to be the same illustrator as the original Parker Brothers Payday board game.

 

It's an exact style match if you ask me.

 

Can't seem to find the name of the illustrator tho.

[CaptainBreakout]

My money is on Lionel Kalish.

[Flojomojo]

My money is on Lionel Kalish.

I want to look around for more examples, but I'll bet it's a lesser known imitator of that style, which was everywhere back then. Think "Schoolhouse Rock" and the original "Free to Be You and Me."

 

I'll look for some examples to post in here. In the meantime, thanks for the name and the lead -- this will be a fun strong to pull on.

[CaptainBreakout]

I want to look around for more examples, but I'll bet it's a lesser known imitator of that style, which was everywhere back then. Think "Schoolhouse Rock" and the original "Free to Be You and Me."

 

I'll look for some examples to post in here. In the meantime, thanks for the name and the lead -- this will be a fun strong to pull on.

 

Cool Flojomojo... Excited to see what you unearth.

 

Being very keen on cartoon art, my brain immediately said ''oh... It's the Payday artist" when I first saw that catalog. Even today I'm still about 90% on that.

 

I remember as a kid reading Mad Magazine and would run across a page where I'd think... Oh this is the same artist who did Frosty the Snowman... But... How... Is... That... Possible?

 

...and that confusingly sad but somehow existentially happy Xmas special about the mice in the clocktower.

 

Anyway, it turned out it WAS the same illustrator... Paul Coker. I just couldn't wrap my brain around how one person could make Christmas specials and do mad magazine. Didnt realize at the time that artists got to eat.

 

Sorry, total digression.

 

Um, so good point of Free to Be You And Me. Wonder if the illustrator was amongst the production there. This also brings to mind the artist behind the 70's pop book 'Cats'... Kliban was his name.

 

Also I've been watching a lot of vintage Sesame Street, and ran across Jeff Hale... Who made the Madrigal Alphabet sequence, the Typewriter guy, and a lot of the pinball number segments. For tearfully beautiful nostalgia, I'll include a link...

 

 

He was also Augie Ben Doggie in Hardware Wars, for pure awesomeness.

 

Also check out the yo-yo man segments in Sesame Street. Different artist i think. Probably further away from whoever the artist is for the Atari catalog, but is definitely in the vibe of the art style we are talking about.

 

You know, come to think of it, I bet if we found any of these artists... They could offer a clue to who did the Atari catalog. They tended to keep tabs on each other at the time.

 

RIP Jeff Hale tho. A genius.

Edited August 2, 2018 by CaptainBreakout

[atarifan88]

I'm really shocked the catalog illustrations were never mentioned in the Art of Atari book. You could easily do a few chapters on the evolution of the Atari catalogs! I still have all of mine even though I've lost track as to how many different years of catalogs I have, but I kept them because the art is so good and brings forth the spirit of each game so well! Maybe someone should do an Art of Atari Catalogs book?

[atarilovesyou]

I used to own one of each of those early catalogs, there was a really cool blue themed one if I remember correctly...had the 70s style cartoon dudes in it, with a page about Atari games development in the mountains or something like that. Lol. Then here was a red one, had all the characters on the front...then they changed, and the catalog had the look of the Art of Atari, those classic paintings. I liked them both at the time, maybe the newer one because it had more games for me to drool over. But I like the cartoon one now just because it's more fun to look at.

[PlaysWithWolves]

AA has the catalog scans here: https://atariage.com/system_catalogs.html#Atari

 

[Flojomojo]

This one reminds me of the work of Gahan Wilson (cartoonist in Playboy, New Yorker, National Lampoon, among other publications). It's not him, but looks like it.

 

[atarifan88]

This is one of my favorites. It's not too far from the truth since in Atari bowling you can steer the ball back and forth!

 

 

And who can forget the first time looking at Adventure? I remember wanting to play that game so bad!

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by atarifan88

[Flojomojo]

This is the bit in Free to Be You and Me I was thinking about. Note that someone in the comments says "the tigers look like Blue Meanies."

 

 

The same story has a different illustrator in the book. I like the still version better, but the artist (who is credited there) doesn't have the same style as the Atari catalogs.

 

Here are the credits for the F2BYAM show. I clicked on all the profiles in the art and animation sections, but didn't find any smoking guns.

 

I think this cartoon style was pretty popular in the mid-late 1970s so it's possible the artist is not anyone well known or still working. I love it now, but I could see how 80s kids would think these illustrations were childish, silly, and dated just a little while after this was published.

 

Someone mentioned the pinball countdown from Sesame Street -- it's pure amazing and I'm linking it here because I love it too. I don't think it has any artists in common with the Atari catalogs, but now I want to know more about Jeff Hale.

 

[CaptainBreakout]

 

There's the commercial I was thinking of.

 

Yeah the Sesame Street pinball segments are amazing. They make great videos to show on an emulation machine, if you have a randomized rolling screen saver like I do.

[Flojomojo]

Yeah, that's VERY 1975. Here's a shot of the board for us to ogle.

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/223910/pay-day