A ThunderCats mystery - seeking THE artist

[Mark_Grizzlor]

Hello gang,

I’ve started a site to ask for help in tracking down the mysterious artist who painted the iconic piece of art used on most of the merchandise and publicity materials made for the show. The site is available at www.thundercatsart.com and here is a pic of the art:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/Grizzlor18/clip_image002.jpg

Despite my best efforts I’ve not been unable to find out who the artist was that made this painting.

If you know who the artist was, or know of somebody who might then please contact me. It was created for the promotional literature that went out to TV stations.

Please feel free to forward this website address to anybody you think may be able to assist.

Best regards,
Mark Sheard
grizzlor@thundercatslair.org

[Bengali]

Great thread. I’ve been wondering who the artist is for a long while as well. Its probaly my favorite piece of ThunderCats art ever. Just spectacular and represents everything I like about the cats. Hope we can locate him/her.

[Purrsia]

The annual featuring this art doesn’t say who drew it? Really? :duh:

[Bengali]

Heres a better pic of it since the one there is a bit faded http://thundercatslair.org/forums/images/icons/icon12.gif

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70/bladdermustang/Misc/thundercats.gif

[Mark_Grizzlor]

Purrsia,

I’m pretty sure there is no credit for the cover of the annual, but now that you’ve suggested that I’m kicking myself for not having my copy anymore. It got lost in a move 2 years ago. Can anyone check their copy for me?

[Originalthundercatro]

@grizzlor

Purrsia,

I’m pretty sure there is no credit for the cover of the annual, but now that you’ve suggested that I’m kicking myself for not having my copy anymore. It got lost in a move 2 years ago. Can anyone check their copy for me?

There is nothing in the UK annual suggesting the artist for the cover. It was printed in Holland however.:cheetaraveryhappy:

[Purrsia]

Yeah, I checked everything handy I have that uses that art, and none of them credit it with a specific source or artist. Probably because it was on just about everything - it’s kinda like asking “who drew the logo?” I imagine, just like with a logo, some studio was commissioned to come up with it, and RB then passed it around to whoever had a license to merchandise the stuff in the 80s.

You’ll notice with this artwork, it doesn’t look like, stylisticly, anything Rankin Bass or the animators put out (aside from the show itself, for example, the character sheets) and it doesn’t look like the work of anyone from Marvel, either. The characters have a bit of a different style to them, some details are different and…where the heck is WilyKit? :roll:

You may have them here at TCL too, but I’ve got some ‘art elements’ RB passed around for people to use, and it includes some of the characters in the artwork in question although by themselves and uncolored. Sadly, the letter RB sent with those images doesn’t explain who created the art either, just their rules about use of this promo art.

I’m sure someone already thought of it, but anyone think to ask someone like Tim Perkins about the art? I know nobody at Marvel drew it, but they used it on the annuals like many others who were licensed to crank out Thundercats merch. He may remember what the deal was with that art. Or maybe even ask that guy that runs the RB site now…Rick, uh, something lol
As I think it likely something RB had commissioned anyway - something uniform, along with the logo, that would tie all the stuff together. One look at a list of who had licenses to make what back in the day and you quickly realize a lot of it had that art, in full or in part, on it. None of which apparently credits anyone specific for it.

Well at least now I don’t feel so bad for not noting a credit with it either - apparently, it’s not so obviously unturned

Good luck.

PS btw, David Lima did a wonderful restoration job digitally on that art, and made a sweet desktop out of it, here. Just in case someone here hadn’t seen it before

[system]

Chris here…

@Purrsia

Yeah, I checked everything handy I have that uses that art, and none of them credit it with a specific source or artist. Probably because it was on just about everything - it’s kinda like asking “who drew the logo?” I imagine, just like with a logo, some studio was commissioned to come up with it, and RB then passed it around to whoever had a license to merchandise the stuff in the 80s.

You’ll notice with this artwork, it doesn’t look like, stylisticly, anything Rankin Bass or the animators put out (aside from the show itself, for example, the character sheets) and it doesn’t look like the work of anyone from Marvel, either. The characters have a bit of a different style to them, some details are different and…where the heck is WilyKit? :roll:

You may have them here at TCL too, but I’ve got some ‘art elements’ RB passed around for people to use, and it includes some of the characters in the artwork in question although by themselves and uncolored. Sadly, the letter RB sent with those images doesn’t explain who created the art either, just their rules about use of this promo art.

I’m sure someone already thought of it, but anyone think to ask someone like Tim Perkins about the art? I know nobody at Marvel drew it, but they used it on the annuals like many others who were licensed to crank out Thundercats merch. He may remember what the deal was with that art. Or maybe even ask that guy that runs the RB site now…Rick, uh, something lol
As I think it likely something RB had commissioned anyway - something uniform, along with the logo, that would tie all the stuff together. One look at a list of who had licenses to make what back in the day and you quickly realize a lot of it had that art, in full or in part, on it. None of which apparently credits anyone specific for it.

Well at least now I don’t feel so bad for not noting a credit with it either - apparently, it’s not so obviously unturned

Good luck.

PS btw, David Lima did a wonderful restoration job digitally on that art, and made a sweet desktop out of it, here. Just in case someone here hadn’t seen it before

Once again, Purrsia = ThunderGoddess! There’s some great comments and suggestions there that hopefully Mark will be able to utilise - I must admit, I hadn’t thought of suggesting Rick Goldschmidt, that’s a great suggestion right there!

Those artwork elements are lovely, I’ve never seen them before - would you mind me being really cheeky and asking where you got those from, i.e. was there a set of them up on eBay or something?

Take care…

[Purrsia]

Sorry about being so long getting back to this thread - I’m not around as much anymore :-p

Chris, you’re too kind. Hope you guys can find out, and if I happened to be helpful then that’s great.
Goldschmidt. Yeah, that’s his name! Oh well, it was early when I posted

Oh yeah, the art elements…hmm, I think it was an ebay win. Ironically, I think it was Rick that sold it from the RB stash, as it also included some stuff from other RB toons, but mostly it was tcats stuff.

There’s ad scans on my site too from the same auction win, that RB issued for newspapers and magazines, and they too use this same art. It’s under, er, ads & clippings I think in the memorabilia section. In case you hadn’t seen those either.