Integral memories of '93 breached the surface of today's otherwise dull hangover: illustrator Don Ivan Punchatz had died. Doom cover art illustrator Don Ivan Punchatz had died.

From Spectrum's obit:

"Don suffered a cardiac arrest on the morning of October 11 and never regained consciousness. After eleven days of intensive tests and treatments the doctors determined that there was no brain activity or chance of recovery and the family made the difficult decision to remove him from life support; he died peacefully shortly after the machines were disconnected."

Punchatz was already lauded for a painterly photorealism, the kind of confident brushwork found in his illustrations for clients like Playboy, Penthouse, National Geographic, and a near-infinite number of novels,  before agreeing to create the box art for iD Software's watershed moment. Going into the project, Punchantz had no idea he'd help realize the first true FPS; the game that launched a million gibs.

"Years ago [Punchatz] was hired to produce the packaging for a new video game by a start-up company; the owners offered to either pay him his fee (which he had cut to meet their budget) or give him a percentage of the game's profits if it took off. Not being familiar with this new market and having his own bills to pay, Don opted to take his fee instead of the percentage. 'So how was I to know this thing called DOOM would make a jillion smackers?' he laughed years later."

I remember staring at Doom's glorious cover, scrutinizing it with a 10 year-old's seriousness. Could two 3.5" disks hold this much awesome? If he wears a helmet, why's his stomach showing? Is creepy demon guy staring at me?

Space marines. Hell Knights. IDKFA. Doom began gaming's puberty; Punchatz set the tone for its adolescence.

(He also illustrated the one-sheet for some lesser-known film...)

Update on 11.3.2009 by Anshuman Iddamsetty

Correction Punchatz's son Greg thankfully pointed out that his father did not do the '77 Star Wars art as originally assumed. More in his comment below.