Marc William Ericksen is a California-based American illustrator responsible for creating the art for over 90 video game boxes. Following high school, Marc was drafted into the Army and served six years active duty, including two 12-month combat tours in Vietnam; he left the service with the rank of Captain. While in the Army, Marc worked on a sketch portfolio, which gained him an advanced placement and scholarship into the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration, with honors; Marc began freelancing in 1976.
Over his accomplished career Marc would illustrate for some of the biggest names in the gaming industry, including Atari, Broderbund, Capcom, Data East, Hudson Soft, Koei, Sega, and Tengen. Notable titles in Marc’s extensive box art catalog include: Choplifter! (1982), Galaga (1986), Mega Man 2 (1988), Thunder Force II (1989), Herzog Zwei (1989), Tetris (Tengen, 1989), Mechanized Attack (1990), and Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure (1993).
In addition to his box art, Marc illustrated the cover art for the first four issues of GamePro magazine (as well as issues 11 and 14). Marc served as the President of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators from 1982–1985. Marc’s least known NES box art? Monster Truck Rally from INTV Corp.
In 2019, ChexMix commissioned Marc Ericksen to reimagine the cover art for Chex Quest. A video interview accompanying the project discusses Marc’s art process and showcases many of the game boxes Marc illustrated as well as some of his original illustrations and preliminary designs.
Marc Ericksen on the illustration medium for his box art:
Via RetroVideoGamer.co.uk: I worked in airbrush, using gouache, which is an opaque watercolor. Most of my contemporaries worked in acrylic, which required patience, and many layers of paint to create a piece. Once finished an acrylic painting is pretty bullet proof. You could eat off of an illustration and it wouldn’t be affected. Gouache, however, would cover opaquely in a single sweep of the brush, so it gave me the luxury of saving a great deal of time. The downside was that the art surface was very delicate. … Direct light will degrade the colors of both types of paintings, so I keep the … [paintings] safe and away from light, with protective tissue under foam core covers in protective flat files. They look as rich today as the day they were painted.
Marc worked on medium-weight, cold press illustration board, mounted on a foam core base with double stick tape.
Marc Ericksen explaining the process for creating airbrushed illustration:
Via RetroVideoGamer.co.uk: Following the review and approval of the color rough, I was released to create the airbrushed art, which in my own process, was generally on a 20”x30” piece of cold press (meaning it had ‘tooth’ i.e.: paper ‘texture’). I mounted this illustration board on a piece of ¼ inch thick white foam core board for rigidity. I would carefully draw down the agreed upon image lightly in pencil (4–5 H hardness). Following that I would place frisket, a very thin, lightly tacky-on-one-side, plastic sheet. Then I would painstakingly cut along the drawn lines, so there was a series of given shapes that I could lift away from the surface, allowing me to airbrush the area only, with all the surrounding areas protected from the overspray. I continued in this vein until the entire piece was airbrushed, then I went in to clean up edges with various small pointed brushes.
OVGA has included below Marc Ericksen's full known video game box art catalog:
- David’s Midnight Magic (Broderbund, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 | Dec. 1981)
- Bermuda Triangle (Data Age | Atari 2600 | 1982)
- Choplifter! (Broderbund | Apple II, Commodore 64 | 1982)
- Galactic Blitz a.k.a. Space Phreaks (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Gridrunner (HesWare | Commodore 64, Vic-20 | 1982)
- Kid Grid (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Labyrinth (Broderbund | Apple II, Atari 8-bit | 1982)
- Protector (HesWare | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Retro Ball (HesWare | Commodore 64 | 1982)
- Scorpion (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Shark Trap (Broderbund | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Sidewinder (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Star Blazer (Broderbund | Apple II, Atari 8-bit | 1982)
- Stellar Shuttle (Broderbund | Atari 8-bit | 1982
- Swarm! (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1982)
- Track Attack! (Broderbund | Apple II, Atari 8-bit | 1982)
- Crash Dive (20th Century Fox Games | Atari 2600 | 1983)
- Deadly Skies (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1983)
- Drol (Broderbund | Apple II, Commodore 64, PC-88 (Japan) | 1983)
- Gold Fever! (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1983)
- Juice! (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1983)
- Matchboxes (Broderbund | Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Minnesota Fats' Pool Challenge (HesWare | Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Operation Whirlwind (Broderbund | Atari 8-Bit, Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Seafox (Broderbund | Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Spare Change (Broderbund | Apple II, Atari 8-bit | 1983)
- Spellicopter (DesignWare | Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Suicide Strike (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1983)
- Tri-Math (HesWare | Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Turtle Toyland Jr. (HesWare | Commodore 64 | 1983)
- Waterline (Tronix | Vic-20 | 1983)
- Galaga (Atari Corporation | Atari 7800 | 1986)
- Midnight Magic (Broderbund | Atari 2600 | Nov. 1986) Same art as David's Midnight Magic
- Delta Patrol (Electronic Arts | Commodore 64 | 1987)
- Chop N' Drop (Activision | Commodore 64 | 1988)
- First Over Germany (Strategic Simulations | Commodore 64, DOS | 1988)
- Guerrilla War (SNK | NES | 1988)
- Mega Man 2 (Capcom | NES | 1988)
- Ocean Ranger (Activision | Commodore 64, DOS | 1988)
- Typhoon of Steel (Strategic Simulations, Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, DOS | 1988)
- Vigilante (Data East | Commodore 64 | 1988)
- After Burner (Tengen | NES | 1989)
- Blasteroids (Tengen | Commodore 64 | 1989)
- Harrier 7 (Advantage | Commodore 64 | 1989)
- Heavy Barrel (Data East | NES | 1989)
- Herzog Zwei (Sega | Genesis | 1989)
- Laser Force (Britannica | Apple II | 1989)
- Red Lightning (Strategic Simulations | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1989)
- Storm Across Europe (Strategic Simulations | Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS | 1989)
- Tetris (Tengen | NES | 1989)
- Thunder Force II (Sega | Genesis | 1989)
- Vindicators (Tengen | NES | 1989)
- Das Boot: German U-Boat Simulation (360 Pacific | Amiga, DOS | 1990)
- Ikari III The Rescue (SNK | Commodore 64, DOS | 1990) Not the NES art
- Lock n' Chase (Data East | Game Boy | 1990)
- Mechanized Attack (SNK | NES | 1990)
- Overrun! (Strategic Simulations | Amiga, Commodore 64 | 1990)
- P.O.W.: Prisoners of War (SNK | NES | 1990)
- G-Loc: Air Battle (Sega | Genesis | 1991)
- James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod (Electronic Arts | Genesis (US/EU), Game Gear (US) | 1991)
- Monster Truck Rally (INTV Corp | NES | 1991)
- Operation Neptune (The Learning Company | DOS, Macintosh | 1991)
- Space Harrier (Sega | 32X, Game Gear | 1991)
- V for Victory: Battleset 1 - D-Day Utah Beach - 1944 (360 Pacific | DOS, Macintosh | 1991)
- Xybots (Atari Corporation | Atari Lynx | 1991)
- Chelnov: Atomic Runner (Data East | Genesis | 1992)
- Hockey (Atari Corporation | Atari Lynx | 1992)
- Hydra (Atari Corporation | Atari Lynx | 1992)
- Megafortress (360 Pacific | Amiga, DOS | 1992)
- Steel Empire (Flying Edge | Genesis | 1992)
- Steel Talons (Atari Corporation | Atari Lynx | 1992)
- Strike Gunner S.T.G. (NTV International Corporation | SNES | 1992)
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (LJN | Game Boy | 1992)
- V for Victory: Velikiye Luki (360 Pacific | DOS, Macintosh | 1992)
- Aerobiz Supersonic II (KOEI | Genesis, SNES | 1993)
- B.O.B. (Electronic Arts | Genesis, SNES | 1993)
- Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (Turbo Technologies, Inc. | TurboGrafx-16 | 1993)
- Harley's Humongous Adventure (Hi-Tech Expressions | SNES | 1993)
- Racing Aces (Sega | Sega CD | 1993)
- Super Baseball 2020 (Electronic Arts | Super Baseball 2020 | 1993)
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (Flying Edge | Game Gear, Master System | 1993)
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (LJN, Flying Edge | Amiga, Genesis, SNES | 1993) Repeat image
- V for Victory: Gold-Juno-Sword (360 Pacific | DOS, Macintosh | 1993)
- V for Victory: Market Garden (360 Pacific | DOS, Macintosh | 1993)
- Air Combat Classics (LucasArts | DOS | 1994)
- Evasive Action (Software Toolworks | DOS | 1994)
- Operation Crusader (Avalon Hills | DOS, Macintosh | 1994)
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (LJN | NES | 1994) Repeat image
- Tempo Jr. (Sega | Game Gear (US/EU) | 1995)
- World at War: Volume II - Stalingrad (Avalon Hills | DOS, Macintosh | 1995)
- Full Tilt! Pinball (Maxis | Macintosh, Windows | 1996)
- Operation Blockade (Infogrames | Windows | 2002)
- 1503 A.D: The New World (Electronic Arts | Windows | 2003)
Note 1: David’s Midnight Magic (1983) and Midnight Magic (1986) are each individually included, though they feature the same artwork. Similarly, Marc illustrated two images for The Incredible Crash Dummies, but the game appears four times in the above list: once for the Game Boy release, which has a unique image, and then separately for the NES, Game Gear/Sega Master, and Genesis/SNES releases, which while each featuring the same, second Crash Dummies image are all separate games.
Note 2: Many of Marc’s early home computer game illustrations were released for multiple platforms. OVGA has captured all of the known titles Marc illustrated; however, some titles may have been released for platforms not included above, while some included platforms may be in error. Release year information may not be precise for all titles.
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