When Bob Wakelin was a lad at school, all he ever wanted to do was artwork for comic books. This didn’t please his art teacher, who felt that such a talented lad shouldn’t channel his artistic energies into something which wasn’t quite ‘art’. During his three-year stint at art college in Wales, his homeland, Bob’s lecturers also tried to put him off the idea of working for comics — to little avail.

Shortly after completing the Graphics course, Bob started work for a Liverpool studio which specialised in artwork for the entertainment industry, and executed a lot of commissions from rock bands, producing artwork for album covers. Working his way up from Whipping Boy, graduating to Lackey and then achieving Studio Manager status, Bob decided it was time to branch out. Starting as a freelance in 1978, he at last became involved in his first love — comic books — working for Marvel Comics. Sadly, the dollar exchange rate in those days meant it didn’t pay too handsomely, though. In 1980 Bob joined a band, playing synths. ‘It was a whim really. I’d got bored with drawing and some friends had a band. I joined them for a while, and we did reasonably well. Then, as is so often the case, we had a row and split up.’  Back in Liverpool, his adopted hometown, and with the band’s spilt behind him, Bob started looking for freelance work again. Through the uncle of a friend of a friend, of a friend etc. he learnt that David Ward was starting up a software house down the road in Manchester and was looking for an illustrator. Just as he did the first job for Dave Ward’s new company, Ocean, all sorts of people started to get in touch, offering work. Mrs Wakelin wasn’t too pleased with some of the commissions her husband accepted. Something to do with girlie calendars... but all that’s behind him now. Mr Wakelin does all the inlay illustrations for Ocean.

Robert "Bob" Wakelin was a freelance professional artist and illustrator who was predominantly recognised for his memorable cover artwork used by Ocean and Imagine games. Bob began his 11-year freelance career with Ocean Software in 1983 (when the company was originally known as Spectrum Games) and created almost a hundred pieces of artwork for both Ocean and Imagine games. Ironically, Bob had no interest in video games whatsoever and considered them antisocial!

Much of Bob's artwork only still survives because he rescued it from being thrown out in the 1990s, "It was in a warehouse and Ocean were moving, I think.
"So they had a warehouse they were going to empty and the Art Director at the time phoned me and said, "Bob, your artworks going in the skip'.
"I had a mate with a small van so we immediately drove over and I rescued most of it, probably about 90% of the work I've done." Bob's last Ocean-commissioned work "Central Intelligence" was in 1994.

"A couple of times the guys at Ocean said to me
'Look Bob, this game really isn't very good so we need an extra special cover.'
I suppose I should feel guilty for it."
-Bob Wakelin

Bob spoke to ExoticA Wiki back in 2006/2007 and provided comments on several of his video game artworks.

OVGA has included below Bob Waklin's full known video game box art catalog:

Chinese Juggler ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1983)
Hunchback ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, Dragon 32/64, Electron, Oric, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum 1983)
Island of Death ( Ocean Software | Oric 1983)
Road Frog ( Ocean Software | Oric, ZX Spectrum 1983)
Royal Birkdale Championship Golf ( Ocean Software | ZX Spectrum 1983)
Cavelon ( Ocean Software | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
Daley Thompson’s Decathlon ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
The Dam Busters ( U.S Gold | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1984)
Eskimo Eddie ( Ocean Software | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
Gift From the Gods ( Ocean Software | ZX Spectrum 1984)
Gilligan’s Gold ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
High Noon ( Ocean Software | Commodore 64 1984)
Hunchback II ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
Match Day ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1984)
Moon Alert ( Ocean Software | ZX Spectrum 1984)
Pud Pud ( Ocean Software | ZX Spectrum 1984)
Cosmic Wartoad ( Ocean Software | ZX Spectrum 1985)
Frankie goes to Hollywood ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64,  ZX Spectrum 1985)
Hyper Sports ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1985)
The Slugger ( Imagine Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, PC Booter, ZX Spectrum 1985)
Wizadore ( Imagine Software | BBC Micro 1985)
Comic Bakery ( Ocean Software | Commodore 64, MSX 1986)
Galivan ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1986)
The Great Escape ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Green Beret (グリーンベレー) ( Imagine Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Highlander ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Mag Max ( Imagine Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Mikie ( Imagine | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Electron, ZX Spectrum 1986)
MOVIE ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Super Bowl ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1986)
Super Soccer ( Ocean Software | ZX spectrum 1986)
Athena ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Gryzor ( Ocean Software | EU/ NA ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, NES, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Head over Heals ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Match Day II ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Mutants ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Renegade ( Imagine Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1987)
When time Stood Still ( Ocean Software | Atari, DOS, ZX Spectrum 1987)
Batman: The Caped Crusader ( Ocean Software | Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Gutz ( Ocean Software | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Operational Wolf ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Psycho Solider ( Imagine Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Rastan ( Imagine Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Target: Renagade ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum 1988)
The Vindicator: Green Beret II ( Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 65, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Wizball ( Ocean Software | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum 1988)
Cabal ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1989)
Chase H.Q ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1989)
The NewZealand Story (ニュージーランドストーリー) ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum 1989)
Renegade III: The Final Chapter ( Imagine Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1989)
Ivanhoe ( Ocean Software | Amiga, Atari ST 1990)
Midnight Resistance ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1990)
NARC ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1990)
Pang ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1990)
Rainbow Islands ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum 1990)
Shadow Warriors ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1990)
Billy the Kid ( Ocean Software | Amiga, DOS 1991)
Elf ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS 1991)
Epic ( Ocean Software | EU/ NA ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS 1992)
Parasol Stars ( Ocean Software | EU ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, Game Boy, NES 1992)
Wizkid ( Ocean Software | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS 1992)
International Open Golf Championship ( Ocean Software | Amiga, CD32, DOS 1993)
Sleepwalker ( Ocean Software | Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS 1993)
Central Intelligence ( Ocean Software | DOS 1994)
Choplifter III: Rescue Survive ( Ocean Software | EU/ NA ver. | Game Boy, SNES 1994)

*
Epic (1992): Exuding Bob’s usual pastiche for bombastic 80’s film posters, Epic’s 1992 space odyssey would start with its cracking box art. Its artistry and detail would elevate it above the myriad other classic Bob cover arts of that year, such as Parasol Stars, Space Gun and Wizkid, offering a grandiose vista of sci-fi hallmarks doused in rich colour.  It would have undoubtedly been primarily painted using airbrush, as was Bob’s favoured medium at the time, and finished with coloured pen. The space pilot was ‘the mongrel son of Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson’ and much like other Wakelin box arts (Gryzor, Operation Wolf, Cabal) it would have been copied from a photo likeness. The artist has gone on record saying that this is one of his better artworks and that a lot of time was spent on it (uncommon for the time), but that it was initially rejected as not what the developer wanted, only to be later overruled.

Green Beret (1986): Green Beret’s character art would be a shameless copy of 1986 comic The Punisher #5: Final Solution Part 2’s cover - by artist Mike Zeck. Bob certainly wasn’t alone when it came to ‘paying homage’, with box artists worldwide in the 1980’s ripping off popular character art from various art forms (see, Metal Gear and Navy Moves).

Moon Alert (1984): Moon Alert would be one of the first computer game releases under the newly named Ocean Software.  It also has the distinction of being the first box art by artist Bob Wakelin who’d be responsible for much of Ocean’s cover art duities. This cover was also designed with illustrator Blair - who would land both of them the job at Ocean. The Blair and Wakelin team up would last for one other cover, Gilligan’s Gold, before Bob went it alone.

The NewZealand Story (1989): Bob Wakelin’s The NewZealand Story would take the colour and chaos of Japanese box art and place it firmly in European hands. Taking inspiration from the original arcade flyer by developer Taito, Bob would make it his own capturing the game’s bedlam and rich characterisation perfectly. The cover art was created using airbrush and India ink and has Bob’s trademark defined outlines and movie poster finish.  He has gone on record to say that these character-heavy box arts (along with titles such as Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars) were rather boring to do due to the length of time it took to plan and create them.  With this in mind it is all the more impressive that he created such a fine box art capturing the game’s essence with a rare sensitivity to Japanese artwork. Bob’s version ended up bettering all other cover art depictions (and there are many), and is one of the most recognisable and memorable of it’s era.

Bob Wakelin's family sells official A3 size posters of his work on Etsy: BobWakelinArtwork.