Marc Ericksen

Marc Ericksen (born 1947, Virginia ) is a American video game box art illustrators panned from 1982 to 2002, Marc William Ericksen was a video game box art illustrator. He has more than a hundred game covers to his name for companies such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega and Electronic Arts.
== Early life ==
Born in Virginia, in 1947, Ericksen is the son of a U.S. Air Force officer and veteran of WWII. 
In 1966, Ericksen joined the U.S. Army. He was then sent to Vietnam, where he joined the 1st Squadron, 4th Armoured Cavalry unit attached to the 1st Infantry Division (United States)|1st Infantry Division. 
Ericksen’s decision to become an illustrator took shape while he was waiting to be rotated back to the U.S. Faced with the challenge of supporting his wife and two young sons, he considered the idea of attending art school. 
== Personal life ==
Marc lives in San Francisco with his wife, Dianne. They have two sons. 
== Career ==
In 1975 Ericksen graduated from ACCD with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours. He was then recruited by O’Grady Graphics in Chicago, where he spent a year as a staff illustrator and designer doing commercial art.
Ericksen, was in San Francisco at the start of 1980s, where he began doing technical illustrations and cutaways for Apple, Intel, Varian, Coherent Technologies, Hewlett Packard and Searle, as well as advertising work for United Airlines, Clorox, Litton, Crown Zellerbach and Anheuser Busch. He then received a phone call from Doug Carlston from Brørderbund which started out making video games for the TRS-80 and Apple II, before expanding to the IBM PC and early Atari consoles. Ericksen provided cover art for a host of Brørderbund titles including the Dan Gorling game, Choplifter!. 
Ericksen enjoyed the freedom to imagine and interpret the games as he saw fit. Ironically, the one instance where he was directed resulted in his most controversial piece of box art with Mega Man 2. Ericksen delivered the artwork based on Capcom’s feedback – complete with infamous handheld pistol – and it featured on the cover of the North America|North American release, while the European Union|European and Japanese versions got their own box art. More upsetting still were the comments, which were quite offensive about the artist and his work. Any issues with the box art didn’t stop Mega Man 2 selling 1.5 million copies, but within a year, Capcom had shut down its American arm in favour of handling everything from Japan. Fortunately, Ericksen got the chance to ‘correct’ the image, when the organisers of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo asked him create some artwork for the 2018 event, which featured on attendees’ hand tags.
Ericksen’s portfolio of clients quickly expanded to more than 30 game companies, including the likes of Atari, Capcom, Activision, Sega, Data East, SNK, Virgin Interactive, Maxis, Electronic Arts, Hudson Soft and many more. In all he would go on to create cover art for more than 100 games, if you include artwork he did for other projects which were reused as box art. Ericksen also did all of the art for The Incredible Crash Dummies toy range for Tyco which was then reused on various video games.
Like many illustrators, Ericksen relied on photographic references to create his paintings. With Sega’s Afterburner, for example, he bought a model kit of an F-14, and painted it flat grey to show off the curves, the light and shadow. He then took a photo of the model, traced over the transparency and airbrushed the artwork on top. Figure work naturally requires human beings, and when professional models proved too expensive, Ericksen often left his studio on Sansome Street and approached passersby who looked appropriate for that day’s illustration. 
Ericksen continued to work as a commercial freelancer, and was contacted by the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, asking him if he’d like to teach. He enjoyed the experience and continued to teach for the next six years.
== Featured in ==
* Airbrush Technik, by C.Michael Mette, Berlin, ISBN 3-89268-039-6, Verlagsgesellschaft&Agentur mbH (1988)
* NES/Famicom: a visual compendium, United Kingdom, ISBN 9780995658608, Bitmap Books (2017)
* Art of Atari, by Tim Lapetino, USA, ISBN: 978-1-5241-0487-0, Dynamite (2017)
== Cover artworks ==
* 1503 A.D.: The New World (2002)
* Aerobiz Supersonic (1994)
* After Burner II (1989)
* B.O.B. (1993)
* Bermuda Triangle (1982)
* Blasteroids (1989)
* Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure (1993)
* Chelnov: Atomic Runner (1992)
* Chop N' Drop (1987)
* Crash Dive (1983)
* Das Boot: German U-Boat Simulation (1990)
* David's Midnight Magic (1981)
* Deadly Skies (1983)
* Delta Patrol (1987)
* Drol (1983)
* Evasive Action (1994)
* First Over Germany (1988)
* Full Tilt! Pinball (1996)
* Galaga (1986)
* Gold Fever! (1983)
* Gridrunner (1982)
* Harley's Humongous Adventure (1993)
* Heavy Barrel (1989)
* Herzog Zwei (1989)
* Hockey (video game)|Hockey (1992)
* Hydra (video game)|Hydra (1992)
* Ikari III: The Rescue (1990)
* Juice! (1983)
* Kid Grid (1982)
* Labyrinth (1982)
* Laser Force (1989)
* LucasArts Air Combat Classics (1994)
* Mechanized Attack (1990)
* Mega Man 2 (1988)
* Megafortress (1991)
* Minnesota Fats' Pool Challenge (1983)
* Museum Guide (2017)
* Overrun! (1990)
* P.O.W.: Prisoners of War (1989)
* Pole Position II (1987)
* Racing Aces (1993)
* Radio Game (2017)
* Scorpion (1982)
* Shark Trap (1982)
* Sidewinder (1982)
* Space Harrier (1991)
* Space Phreeks (1982)
* Spare Change (1983)
* Spellicopter (1983)
* Star Blazer (1982)
* Steel Empire (1992)
* Steel Talons (1992)
* Stellar Shuttle (1982)
* Storm Across Europe (1989)
* Strike Gunner S.T.G. (1991)
* Suicide Strike (1983)
* Super Baseball 2020 (1993)
* Tetris (1989)
* The Incredible Crash Dummies (video game)|The Incredible Crash Dummies (1993)
* Thunder Force II (1989)
* Turtle Toyland Jr. (1983)
* V for Victory: Battleset 1 - D-Day Utah Beach - 1944 (1991)
* V for Victory: Gold-Juno-Sword (1993)
* V for Victory: Velikiye Luki (1992)
* World at War: Volume II - Stalingrad (1995)
* Xybots (1991)
Category:American people
Category:1947 births
[[Category:People from Virginia]