First Wave

Yeah, finally artboy makes with the mechs. For a long time, I had a rather fickle relationship with robots. Sometimes I was into them (Shogun Warriors, Astro Boy), but mostly remained indifferent, if not antipathetic towards them (Vicky-Small Wonder). I can’t say what fully brought me around, but I’d say that Hajime Sorayama, James Cameron and Hasbro (Transformers) have much for which to answer.

Over the last decade or so, I’ve been particularly fond of the vintage Weird Science robots and indeed the entire Weird Science genre in general. I was very fortunate to get an opportunity to illustrate period mecha for Isaac Asimov’s History of IBotics.

The two illos featured here were part of the production art depicting some of the robot designs from the WWII portion of the book. For the most part, the designs were predetermined, so I just came in to illustrate key scenes or in the case of the Axis Kriegmaschine, the basis for fictional propaganda poster art.