[Jen]

I'm really sad to hear about this I always liked his Sonic artwork, but I didn't realise that he'd done art for so many other covers as well (some of which are for games I have fond memories of playing when I was a kid).

Quote

Very rarely were these people actually credited for their works, and yet it's so much more interesting to me than the pre-rendered CGI tat of most video game box arts post-1995

Yeah, it's a shame that they weren't credited; there certainly was a charm to the classic box-arts and it'd be nice to put names to some of them.

[Buyatari]

Here are some Sonic sketches that Greg did for Sega. Just scanned these in and left the nasty watermarks out.

[Buyatari]

Ashura96, on 04 January 2014 - 11:43 AM, said:

That is sad news. I mean that guy did create some visual pieces of my childhood gaming. While I do prefer the original Japanese style more, there is no doubt that people still loved Sonic's westernized look back in the day too.

Also, I've never seen that drawing of Knuckles punching through a brick wall. Anyone know if that was used for something?

Sega Visions 22

[Epsilonsama]

Man never knew one man did the artwork of so many games.

Man, Greg did the artwork of so many childhood memories of mine, its sad knowing I never knew who made that art when he was alive.

RIP

[Buyatari]

ashthedragon, on 04 January 2014 - 11:52 AM, said:

I would like to know if Greg Martin did the Sonic 2 ( Master System & Game Gear) cover art. He did the Mega Drive/Genesis ones, and the regular art of the first Sonic 8 bit game ( not the cover art it seems, but the poster art who was used to promote it). Did he do the Sonic 2 art too? he one with Sonic in a hanglider... It's possibly my favourite classic american Sonic art

He did. Here is an early sketch.

[ashthedragon]

Oh god oh god, that made me shred a tear both in happiness of seeing it in a sketch state, and of knowing we will never have something like this again Thanks you for posting this, I'm immensely grateful for it.

[LordOfSquad]

Damn that sketch of Sonic and Knuckles about to throw down in Mushroom Hill is great. Unused cover art for S&K maybe? Thanks for posting those sketches.

Pretty sad we never knew about this guy until it was too late. He probably would have liked to hear our appreciation for his stuff.

[ICEknight]

Thanks for the scans, buyatari. Those sketches are really cool!

By the way, there's what seems to be either a promotional pic I haven't seen before or a scrapped cover for Sonic & Knuckles, where he included Sonic in one of his classic stock poses... using the Japanese design (an European variation, like Spinball's?).



EDIT: And I should have read LordOfSquad's comment before posting, because he said the same darn thing. =P

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 05 January 2014 - 12:38 AM

[Buyatari]

ICEknight, on 05 January 2014 - 12:36 AM, said:

Thanks for the scans, buyatari. Those sketches are really cool!

By the way, there's what seems to be either a promotional pic I haven't seen before or a scrapped cover for Sonic & Knuckles, where he included Sonic in one of his classic stock poses... using the Japanese design (an European variation, like Spinball's?).



EDIT: And I should have read LordOfSquad's comment before posting, because he said the same darn thing. =P

I'll have to dig a bit and see if I can figure out what it was used for.
You are both right about it being a stock pose. Here it is.

Sonic the Hedgehog and his pals Official Stylebook & Character Manual Page 11F

[Clutch]

I've been wanting to know who did the cover art for the old games for years, shame I had to learn his name this way.

[Jayextee]

Buyatari, on 04 January 2014 - 08:36 PM, said:

Pencils to my favourite poster as a teen?

Dude, I love you. Greg Martin was a great illustrator; he may not have got Sonic truly on-model as per the JP design, but it wasn't his primary concern -- he did a lot of good work.

[Dark Sonic]

Buyatari, on 04 January 2014 - 08:36 PM, said:

I always like seeing some new US Knuckles art. He only had a few drawings before the prerenders became all the rage.

[Ravenfreak]

It's a shame that he passed away, I enjoyed his artwork including assface Sonic. (Yes seriously, I grew up with that design after all. xD) RIP Greg, your art was wonderful. Though he seemed to have misspelled "Chaos" in that sketch of Sonic Chaos' box art.

[ICEknight]

You know, after seeing all his accurately on-model works, I'm wondering if he didn't actually create that (often loathed) depiction of Sonic, but somebody else did before he was hired to draw him in that style.

I mean, he wasn't known for making original character designs, but was really good at mimicking the already existant style of whatever franchises he was hired for.

[Buyatari]

Black Squirrel, on 04 January 2014 - 08:16 AM, said:

I'd love to get a fully comprehensive list of his works (and other artists which worked on Sega-related covers)

http://segaretro.org/Greg_Martin

I just get the impression there's more.


p.s. same applies to his Japanese counterpart. Very rarely were these people actually credited for their works, and yet it's so much more interesting to me than the pre-rendered CGI tat of most video game box arts post-1995

also reasonable quality scans (or high quality photos) of the artwork sans all the Mega Drive branding or whatever

Dan has been working on this over at Nintendoage. He is up to 58 unique images used for videogame boxes and other advertising projects. This doesn't include sketches but only finals that were published or suspected off being published. I too expect that this number will climb in the months ahead as we sort things out.