lapetino

Hey, ThreepwoodMac. Welcome to the board -- that's a very cool piece. I'm the guy/author mentioned in the linked Art of Atari book thread. From the looks of this, it looks like a George Perez painting, but would have to see more detail to be sure. Are there any signatures on it? I agree with dobidy that he has a pretty big non-Atari audience because of his great work for DC comics and others, but it's hard for me to know if this would be more or less interesting to the traditional comics fans, because it's not a superhero painting. Really hard to say. But based on my talks with Atari artists and others, I wouldn think that anywhere from $500-2500 would be a reasonable offer (wide margin, I know), depending on condition and all. Heritage Auctions is a great suggestion, and they seem to have excellent video game and comics related auctions, so it might be good to check them out if you're looking to sell it. As CPUWIZ mentioned below, I'd love to talk with you about how we could potentially get a scan or high-resolution photo for use in the Atari art book, if you're interested, along with anything else related you might have and be willing to share. Can you PM me to discuss? Thanks!

Wow, that was sad to hear. I loved that magazine back in the day, and his work seemed to really bring some actual passion to the mag, versus just feeling like it was pure PR. My condolences. That's far too young to go.

That's a good idea, strudders. It's something we've thought about, and it will just depend on the licensing issues/costs, and the final publisher. If I had my druthers, we'd do posters, licensed stuff, calendars, etc. But again, a lot of it has to do with what kind of licensing Atari will grant, and weighing the opportunity and real costs. The book is our first priority, but we are considering other options. If people have other ideas of what kind of stuff they'd potentially purchase, it would be helpful to hear it too. Thanks!

Interesting. I know little to nothing about Coleco, so this would be a great read to learn all about it! Best of luck!

Yep, I too finally was able to read through the whole thing. Wow. I mentioned this to Curt, but again and publicly -- thanks, Marty and Curt, for your total passion and commitment to telling the stories no one had done, and doing it accurately. Atari as an idea lives on because of passionate people like you. Nice job!

Thanks, that would be great. Let me know if I can help in any way with that. And everyone, thanks so much for all of the kind words, support, and encouragement. It's very much appreciated.

That's pretty much exactly what we have in mind!

Hey, all. I started a new thread talking more specifically about what we're doing: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220583-art-of-atari-book-in-progress-and-need-help/

Hi, all. Some of you know me on this forum. In general I lurk a lot, but I've been part of this scene for quite a few years, and am very passionate about Atari. I wanted to tell everyone about a project that has been in the works for a couple years already -- to share what we're doing, and to hopefully enlist some help here in the community. I am researching and writing a book about the Art of Atari. We are focusing on the art, illustration, and design of Atari -- specifically and mostly the home console part. I've interviewed more than a dozen artists, graphic designers and others who worked at/for Atari back in the day, as well as Nolan himself. It's my opinion that the artwork of Atari was more than just a way for the games to stand out on the shelves, or to help sell cartridges and consoles. It's art in its own right, and has a unique tie to the company, the games, and the memories of our youth. And unlike today, the amazing art helped inform the gameplay, because it served to augment the imagination when combined with much-simpler graphics of the time. I want to highlight the unsung heroes of Atari -- artists, designers, art directors -- and show their important and unique contributions to the games we love. My team and I have been collecting production slides, negatives, and in some cases shooting original artwork owned by some in our community here. I was able to acquire some negatives and slides that were once used by Atari for creation of their printed materials, and I've also gotten scans of work from the artists themselves. We are trying hard to gather as much production-quality art as possible, to make sure that this final book is big, comprehensive, beautiful, and shows the artwork in the best possible way. (And to answer the question, yes, we need a higher quality for printing than just scanned boxes, though we'd done a lot of that as well for context within the book.) So, we could really use your help. If you have original artwork (or know someone who does), or slides and negatives, or unique production sketches (industrial design will also be a part of the book), I'd love to talk with you. We are also looking for other large, printed pieces, like unique posters, mobiles, flyers, etc that show off the art and graphic design of Atari. Still looking for high-res scans of some of the rarer Atari games (think Crazy Climber) too. Attached are a couple samples of pieces we've gathered already. I'm also considering selling some of our duplicate negatives and slides in order to fund additional research, but I'll post about that soon. I've already done some interviews about the topic, and here are a couple: http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-art-of-atari-the-masters-who-brought-early-games-to-life-by-filling-in-the-blanks/ We are in talks with 2 different publishers, and even though the bankruptcy of current Atari has slowed us down in terms of licensing, we're confident all of the legal and business parts of this will be buttoned up, and that we'll have a solid deal soon. So, thanks for listening, and let me know if you're willing or able to lend a hand. I'd love for this part to be a bit of a community effort, and I'll happily give public credit in the final book to anyone who is able to help us in even the smallest of ways. I'm making this book for all of us who love Atari and want to see these great memories and art preserved. Thanks!

Hey, all. Another interview I did on the topic: http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-art-of-atari-the-masters-who-brought-early-games-to-life-by-filling-in-the-blanks/

Would love to see a hardware project -- portable unit with SD/USB capability -- and that would be perfect for Kickstarter. But cartridge molds would be a close second, though I have to say I think there are enough interested people on AA that the cart shells could be done by Albert here without having to pay Kickstarter and Amazon their fees.

I heard that a FB 5 is in the works. (I believe Bill L said that.)

That would be very cool.

Nice stuff. I'd definitely be interested in replacing some of my plaqued labels with these repros.

Super cool! Will these be used for just this release, or for all future boxed games?

Looks awesome! Can't wait to see/get the boxed version.

Cool stuff. In this 75th anniversary tribute video to Superman, there's a little wink and nod to the Atari 2600 game of the same name. Still a very fun game.

Just PM'ed you.

Contest, or commission?

I think what you have is a large, high-resolution printing of the piece, with a nice matte on it. Similar to what Jim Huether has of Steve Hendricks' Warlords image (see down below in this article: http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_jim_huether.html). Though Jim thought it was an original. It isn't. How large is the piece? And would it be possible to scan? I'm curious to see the detail level on it, as I haven't been able to get slides or negatives of that piece. It's beautiful. Can you say who the Atari employee was? We're continuing to try and track down more people to interview for the book. If you want to keep that person's name out of the thread, feel free to PM me. Thanks for sharing!

On first glance, it looks like the typography of yours is slightly different than that of the originals. Is that the case?

Nice! Is that a print or the original artwork? BTW, I'm Tim Lapetino, quoted in the article. We are working on the book, as well as some other, larger projects related to the art of Classic video games. I will definitely keep you all here at AA posted on developments on all of this.

Very cool, freghead! Glad you dug the article (Andrew and the Verge team did a nice job!) and the book concept. We're working on it, but there is still a lot to do. As for the artists' names, they weren't explicitly mentioned in the games, unless they signed their work. AND that assumed that the way the art was finally cropped kept the signature in the frame. So, there are still many unidentified pieces out there, and much of the answering of "who did what?" has come from the artists themselves, and other people who worked at Atari at the time. But it is a shame the programmers and game designers weren't credited. Things have certainly changed. Your podcast sounds very cool! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Sounds excellent!

No prob!

Welcome! Yes, this is a great cover, and it was illustrated by Hiro Kimura, who also did the cover for the 2600 version of Pac-Man. He also did a lot of other Atari box art as well, like ET, Berzerk, and many others.