THE BOX ART COLLECTOR
Mike Winterbauer paints his own collection story
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We have a special Collector Corner this month that focusses on Mike Winterbauer’s collection of his videogame artwork. Mike started working in the industry during the “golden age of gaming”. He tells us that, “This was before the digital age, there was no internet and very few cell phones. The games I painted cover art for were made with exciting new 8-bit and 16-bit technology. These were exciting times as I painted cool covers for games running on new platforms like the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega CD and PC.”
Mike explains that his first videogame cover was for War Eagles, a World War I simulation. “I was very happy to get this job and did the painting large, 24 by 36 inches in oil paint. After getting a taste of doing cover art for a videogame company I knew there must be many more videogame companies in the Los Angeles area. I excitedly made lists of videogame companies to show my work to.
After persevering for a while the game cover jobs started coming in”.
We asked Mike what assignments have been his favourites over the years. “The Might And Magic: Clouds Of Xeen and Darkside Of Xeen covers, maps and manuals were my favourite projects to work on. I knew these were highly visible projects and put my heart and soul into these pieces. The role-playing genre is well-suited to creating wonderful fantasy paintings and drawings! I was fortunate to be able to paint the cool covers and very interesting maps that were included in the game boxes.”
As an artist, Mike feels it’s important to keep hold of your original work. “By retaining your physical art, you can make copies and promote yourself in the years to come. Having excellent reproductions of my art I was able to make high-quality prints of my work, document and promote my art. I stored well over 100 paintings for 25 years until there was an interest in retro game art.”
And speaking of storing all these paintings, how does Mike find the space? “Storing a large collection of paintings is difficult and great care must be used to ensure they stay in beautiful condition,” we’re told. “I kept my work in large protective boxes, each painting covered with a sheet of acetate and heavy paper cover.” Mike has recently sold some of his artwork and feels that, “It was important to get the original game art paintings into the marketplace. I did this with the hope that they would become more collectable and resold. Around this time, retro gaming had become more popular, and I was very happy with the response I received from selling my art. This encouraged me to make prints and repaint some of the more popular originals. I’ve also done many crowdfunding projects for prints and books of my art.”
We finish by asking Mike how he feels that gamers still enjoy his work today. “It’s a wonderful feeling, I’m grateful and flattered that gamers still enjoy seeing my cover art. Over the years I’ve gotten many nice comments from people who enjoyed my game art as young adults. This makes it all worthwhile to me.”