Many of you know Steve Purcell as the creator of Sam & Max, but did you know that before Sam & Max Hit the Road, he worked at LucasArts doing a lot of in-game art (including drawing many of the 2D sprite characters and animations in the old games like Guybrush in Monkey Island 1 and 2, concept art, as well as background artwork)? He also painted many of the well known classic LucasArts box covers, including the first two Monkey Island covers, Zak McKracken's cover, and a bunch more that I can't remember.
Most everyone familiar with the box art to Monkey Island 2 puts it pretty high on their vaguely existent internal list of most awesome game artwork, including me, so I was pretty pleased when these two digital photos showed up from Steve Purcell this evening, with a note:
"I had these images of two of the paintings I did for LEC packages. I thought some of the folks that follow the old games might like to see them in this non-package format."
So yes, he has the front cover of Monkey Island 2 and that Edison family portrait from the back of Maniac Mansion hanging somewhere in his house.
If only he'd release more artwork... like highres scans of the original Monkey Island 2 background (drooooool) or even the Monkey Island 1 box cover!
Actually I do recall LucasArts putting some MI2 background art on their website, so they must have it :(
Yes! Thanks man! =D
And thanks Jake for sharing here, and for your cleanups. Woohoo!
Purcell is god. Nuff said.
I just think it's awesome that he still has these things around. Now all he has to do is give them to me.