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Description: This is an ink drawing created by Sandra Rush inspired by the Legacy of Kain series. Sandra digitally colored the piece. It was licensed for use on merchandise as part of the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Official Prequel Graphic Novel: The Dead Shall Rise Kickstarter Campaign. The image was featured on T shirts and prints as part of the recent reboot of the series. Year: 2023 Medium: Fineliners (Ink) on Art Paper Image Area: 11.55 x 16.41 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Slight crease through paper, otherwise in great shape.

Description: This illustration was produced for the Renovation box art of Battle Mission for the Sega Genesis. The game was a first person rail shooter, very little was ever released about the game before being cancelled.The painting was published at a trade show advertisement for the game. Year: 1990 Medium: Acrylic on board Image Area: 15.75 x 22.75 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Very Good

Description: Box art for the fishing title Sun Spo Fishing Keiryuu Ou. Year: 1994 Medium: Acrylic on board Image Area: 15.5 x 21.5 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Very Good

Description: Box art for Sim Ant on the Super Famicom in Japan. Was also used on the FM Towns and Sharp X68000. Year: 1992 Medium: Acrylic on board Image Area: 23 x 12 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Very Good

Description: Original Box Art for Populous on the Nintendo Game Boy. Also known as Populous Gaiden in Japan. Art was used in Japan only. Year: 1993 Medium: Acrylic on board Image Area: 28 x 19.75 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Very Good

Carl Critchlow is a British fantasy and science fiction comic illustrator known for his character Thrud the Barbarian and for contributing numerous card illustrations for Magic: The Gathering. Carl has had a long career in comics dating back to the early 1980s, and though his early work consisted of black and white ink drawings, he began using color and producing fully painted pieces in the 1990s, including for a handful of pieces for video game packaging documented below. OVGA has included below Carl Critchlow’s full known video game box art catalog: Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard (Psygnosis | DOS | 1994) Ecstatica (Psygnosis | DOS | 1994) Shadow of the Beast II (Psygnosis | Sega CD | 1994) Sea Legends (Ocean | DOS | 1996) Carl also created the packaging art for the unreleased Psygnosis game Superhero, which was set for release in 1993 and may have been Carl’s first project with Psygnosis. The game was mere weeks from release, but a police raid on the development office restricted access to the computers with the files until 1998, ultimately killing the project.

Description: Koga’s illustration of an ’80s anime-style starfighter battling a giant, mech-like Godzilla clearly draws on Japanese pop culture. He also created the game’s title artwork. Year: 1991 Medium: Oil/Acrylics on board Image Area: Width x Height IN/CM Image Source: Original Condition: A few spots of foxing, otherwise in great condition

Dev Madan is an American illustrator with a career spanning over 35 years in the video game and comic book industries. Early career contributions included illustrating the iconic box art for Super Nintendo RPGs Breath of Fire and Final Fantasy III. He is perhaps best known for his role as the art director and character designer behind the Sly Cooper trilogy for Sony Entertainment, where he was responsible for the series' distinctive cel-shaded aesthetic. This biography is adapted in part from an extensive and engaging interview Dev Madan did with Breath of Fire fansite Dragnier in August 2024. Attending the Art Institute of Seattle positioned Dev geographically for a variety of roles and opportunities in the still nascent video game industry. As Dev recounts in his interview with Dragnier, said in the context of his Breath of Fire artwork, video games didn’t necessarily have their own built-in audience. While he compared comics to games in possibly having overlapping demographics from a marketing perspective, Dev also commented that video games were at that time considered to be a small part of the toy industry. While Dev might not have known quite the extent to which video games would explode into the mainstream, the positions he pursued laid a foundation for a long and successful career in the industry. In January 1990, Dev’s first position out of art school was with Taito Software working on in-game artwork for the NES game Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, while also handling some level design. Dev recalls also starting work on The Flintstones and The Jetsons games, but the studio shut down shortly after Indiana Jones shipped in 1991. While he would then continue to develop his portfolio and pursue freelance work with advertising agencies in addition to submitting comic work to publishers, his video game journey continued with Humongous Entertainment. Helping launch the company with Ron Gilbert, Dev served as an animator and background artist for iconic edutainment titles, including early entries in the Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, and Fatty Bear series. He also illustrated the package art for a handful of those games. Dev Madan’s box art illustrations for Square Soft RPGs in 1994 would bring his art into households across the United States. Even retro gamers and video game art collectors who may not yet know Dev’s name, certainly know his work. Dev created the box art for Breath of Fire, released in August 1994, followed by the package and advertising art for Final Fantasy III (the U.S. release of Final Fantasy VI), released in October 1994. Recognizing the cultural significance and impact of those games and his paintings, Dev has a dedicated page on his website for each game where he showcases the original artwork. Dev credits his work illustrating the Breath of Fire box art as one of his first freelance jobs and the one that pretty much kicked off his freelance career. Although Breath of Fire was developed and published by Capcom in Japan, in the United States, Square Soft handled the game’s English localization and promotion due to Capcom USA's lack of experience with text-heavy role-playing games. Accordingly, Square Soft was responsible for the game’s U.S. package art and contracted a Seattle-area design firm (identity unknown) through which Dev picked up the assignment. Dev recounted that expectations were low for the title, which led to a budget for only a single image that would then be used as both the box art and for the advertising campaign. Aiming to adapt the game for the North American market, the design firm opted for an American comic book aesthetic, which included adding comic book-style text blocks and speech bubbles to the promotional ads. Dev recalled the whole Breath of Fire job took about three to four weeks and was fairly routine: he submitted thumbnail sketches, followed by a tight pencil sketch, before moving to full paints, which were done atop final inked lines. Dev airbrushed with transparent inks to lay in the base colors and additional thin washes of gouache or acrylics for small shadows. Airbrushing with transparent inks allowed him to preserve his original black, inked lines. It wasn’t until the final painting was turned in on the day of the deadline that Dev was asked to adjust the sky from a mid-afternoon blue to the more dramatic sunset colors in the final image. With the painting due to go to the production house that same day for scanning, and with Dev not having time to return to his own studio, he ended up needing to crash an airbrush class at his old school. Borrowing a student’s supplies, Dev made the corrections (using opaque inks to cover up the bright, blue sky) and was able to return it to the agency within an hour. Dev’s website notes that the final painting measures 14 1/2" x 11” on Bristol board and includes a number of preliminary images. As a result of Dev’s work on Breath of Fire, which Square Soft believed had an impact on the game’s positive sales, Dev was brought back for Square’s next game scheduled for release: Final Fantasy III. Square wanted the imagery to look different from Breath of Fire, so to sell them on what he had in mind, Dev shied away from his standard comic linework and instead leaned more on the airbrush and paints. Dev’s “try out” image or study—the head of a blue demon with ear piercings, a mouth of sharp teeth, and a tongue sticking out complete with excess saliva—was a “little too edgy” but showed Dev could deliver the kind of illustrated look they wanted. For Final Fantasy III, Dev leaned into the airbrush and gouache paint but also leveraged more opaque paints with colored pencils to sharpen details. Spraying a fixative between paint layers allowed Dev to even out the coverage and seal the colors, while providing a nice tooth for the colored pencils and white highlights. His actual final box art painting is quite small (13 1/2" x 8 3/4"), and while Dev’s work looks quite simple on the published box, as if it were just the character Mog on a painted background, the original reveals the “background” to actually be the purple shadow of a looming monster. As Final Fantasy III had a larger budget and was a full advertising campaign, Dev painted a spot illustration of Mog used on the back of the box as well promotional art featuring an in-your-face group of monsters in a style closer to comic art but still painted. Although Dev found very early involvement in the video game industry coming out of art school, including through freelancing, he has made some of his most significant impacts on the industry from the development side. Dev’s pivotal work on the Sly Cooper series contributed to Sly Cooper being considered one of the “Big 3” mascots of the PlayStation 2 era, alongside Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. As the series’ Art Director, Dev did not only defined the game’s signature look, he helped create an interactive cartoon where the characters and environments felt hand-illustrated yet lived-in, a world where the characters’ personalities were deeply reflected in their designs. Since completing the Sly trilogy in 2005, Dev has undertaken a number of major leadership roles in gaming, including serving as Creative Director at PopCap Games for the Plants vs. Zombies franchise and as Art Director at Final Strike Games for the 3v3 shooter Rocket Arena. He also founded Loose Cannon Studios, where he led the art direction for the 2009 title Tornado Outbreak. More recently, Dev served as Director of Art at Toys For Bob for the 2023 release Crash Team Rumble. Additionally, Madan contributed his veteran artistic skills to the 2022 revival Return to Monkey Island, further cementing his legacy as a versatile and enduring creative force across both classic and modern gaming. Outside of gaming his illustration and comic client list includes Disney, Funko, Wizards of the Coast, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, The Seattle Supersonics, Image, Marvel and Dark Horse Comics. At DC Comics (1993–1999) he worked on titles such as Plastic Man, Judge Dredd, and Batman Adventures as well as launched the creator-owned title Young Heroes in Love. OVGA has included below Dev Madan’s full known box art catalog: Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (Humongous Entertainment | DOS, Windows, 3DO, Macintosh | 1993) Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (Humongous Entertainment | DOS, Windows, 3DO, Macintosh | 1993) Fatty Bear’s FunPack (Humongous Entertainment | DOS, 3DO | 1993) Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise (DOS, 3DO, Macintosh, Windows | 1993) Breath of Fire (Square Soft | SNES | 1994) Final Fantasy III (Square Soft | SNES | 1994) Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (Humongous Entertainment | Windows, Macintosh | 1995) Dev also worked on the box art for Taito’s Sonic Blast Man II for the Super Nintendo. Dev was responsible for the box art layout and comps but according to Dev, the art was ultimately redone internally by the publisher for the final product. An early set of inked lines that Dev did (before it was redone by the publisher) appears in some thumbnails and ads for the game ahead of its release.

Kirk Henderson is an American illustrator responsible for creating the box art for the Sega Genesis game ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron. Kirk also created a lot of the background and environmental art for the game, which was created traditionally and then digitized for in-game usage.

Description: Year: Medium: Oil on canvas, Acrylic on board, Mixed Media Image Area: Width x Height IN/CM Image Source: Original, Transparency, Online, Etc Condition:

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Description: Brutal: Paws of Fury is one of the largest, most beautiful paintings in my collection. Mark's detail is astounding and his distinctively distorted but realistic style is perfect for the comedy of a cast of anthropomorphic fighting animals. Year: 1994 Medium: Image Area: big! Image Source: Original Condition:

Description: Published by Crystal Dynamics for the Sony PlayStation in November 1996. The first game in the series that spawned the Legacy of Kain Blood Omen and Soul Reaver Series. The game was later ported to PC a year later which used a digital art. A port to the Sega Saturn was also planned and almost complete but was never released. The game has recently been re-released digitally on several platforms including the Playstation network and as a bundle for the evercade console. Year: 1996 Medium: Oil on Stretched Canvas Image Area: 15" x 24" Image Source: Original Condition: Excellent

Description: Concept art by John Gallagher. Concept art for the player companion Canderous Ordo. Canderous is a Mandalorian who would go on to hold the title of Mandalore the Preserver in KotOR II. Year: Around 2001 Medium: Ink and Copic Markers Image Area: 8.25 x 11.25 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Some wear from the artistic process.

Description: Concept art by John Gallagher. Concept art for a non-human alien companion to the player character, Zaalbar the Wookie. Year: Around 2001 Medium: Ink and Copic Markers Image Area: 8.25 x 11.25 IN Image Source: Original Condition: Some wear from the artistic process.

Concept artist for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, the Baldur's Gate series, Shattered Steel, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, MDK 2, Civilization II, and more. Served as Bioware's Director of Concept Art in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After his time in the videogame industry he entered the world of film and television, creating designs for The Expanse, Once Upon A Time, Falling Skies, The Flash, Supergirl, The Boys, Tales from the Loop, Night at the Museum 3, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Dr Strange: Multiverse of Madness, and more.

Description: Unused “Spy vs. Spy: The Island Caper” NES Box Art Year: 1987 Image Area: 16” x 18” Image Source: Original Condition: Very Good Spy vs. Spy II: The Island Caper was planned to release on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980’s, but was cancelled before release. The game was released on Nintendo Famicom, Commodore 64, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari, Apple II, and ZX Spectrum. The game features the Black and White Spies from the hilarious Mad Magazine comic.