Ron Cobb | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ronald Ray Cobb (1937-09-21)September 21, 1937 Los Angeles, California |
| Died | September 21, 2020(2020-09-21) (aged 83) Sydney, Australia |
| Citizenship | United States, Australia |
| Website | roncobb |
Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist. In addition to his work as an editorial cartoonist, he contributedconcept art to major films includingDark Star (1974),Star Wars (1977),Alien (1979),Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),Conan the Barbarian (1982),Back to the Future (1985),The Abyss (1989),Total Recall (1990), andSouthland Tales (2006). He had one credit as director, for the 1992 filmGarbo.
Cobb also created a symbol which was later featured on theEcology Flag.
Ronald Ray "Ron" Cobb was born in Los Angeles but spent most of his life in Sydney.[1][2]
By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist forDisney Studios inBurbank, California. He progressed to becoming abreakdown artist on the animation featureSleeping Beauty (1959).[3] It was the last Disney film to havecels inked by hand.
AfterSleeping Beauty was completed in 1957, Cobb was laid off by Disney. He spent the next three years in various jobs—mail carrier, assembler in a door factory, sign painter's assistant—until he was drafted into theUnited States Army in 1960. For the next two years he delivered classified documents aroundSan Francisco, then signed up for an extra year to avoid assignment to the infantry. He was sent to Vietnam in 1963 as a draftsman for theSignal Corps. After his discharge, Cobb began freelancing as an artist, contributing to theLos Angeles Free Press for the first time in 1965.
Edited and published byArt Kunkin, theLos Angeles Free Press was one of the first of the underground newspapers of the 1960s, noted for its radical politics. Cobb's editorial/political cartoons were a celebrated feature of theFreep, and appeared regularly throughout member newspapers of theUnderground Press Syndicate. Although he was regarded as one of the finest political cartoonists of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Cobb made very little money from the cartoons and was always looking for work elsewhere. His cartoons were featured in the back to the land magazineMother Earth News.
Among other projects, Cobb designed the cover forJefferson Airplane's 1967 album,After Bathing at Baxter's.[3]
His cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s are collected inRCD-25 (1967) andMah Fellow Americans (1968) (both Sawyer Press), andRaw Sewage (1971) andMy Fellow Americans (1971) (bothPrice/Stern/Sloan). None of these volumes remain in print.[4]
In 1969, Cobb designed the Ecology symbol, later incorporated into theEcology Flag.[5]
In 1972, Cobb moved to Sydney, where his work appeared in alternative magazines such asThe Digger. Independent publishersWild & Woolley published a "best of" collection of the earlier cartoon books,The Cobb Book, in 1975. A follow-up volume,Cobb Again, appeared in 1978.[4]
Cobb returned to cinema work when he worked withDan O'Bannon to design the eponymous spaceship for the 1973 cult film,Dark Star (he drew the original design for the exterior of theDark Star spaceship on a Pancake House napkin). After contributing designs forAlejandro Jodorowsky'suncompleted film adaption ofFrank Herbert's novelDune, Cobb was engaged byLucasfilm to produceconcept art for the space fantasy filmStar Wars (1977). Working alongside artistsJohn Mollo andRalph McQuarrie, he created the designs for a number of exotic alien creatures for theMos Eisley cantina scene.[6][2]
In 1981,Colorvision, a large-format, full-color monograph appeared, including much of his design work for the filmsStar Wars (1977),Alien (1979), andConan the Barbarian (1982), the first feature for which he received the credit of production designer. Cobb has also contributed production design to the filmsThe Last Starfighter (1984),Leviathan (1989),Total Recall (1990) (and also appeared in the film in a brief cameo[citation needed]),True Lies (1994),The Sixth Day (2000),Cats & Dogs (2001),Southland Tales (2006), and the Australian featureGarbo, which he directed.
Cobb contributed the initial story forNight Skies, an earlier, darker version ofE.T.Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel toClose Encounters of the Third Kind until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite. While Cobb was in Spain working onConan the Barbarian, Spielberg supervised the rewrite into the more personalE.T. and ended up directing it himself. Cobb later received some net profit participation.
In 1985, Cobb received credit as "DeLorean Time Travel Consultant" for the filmBack to the Future.[3]
During the early 1990s, Cobb worked withRocket Science Games. His designs can be seen inLoadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine (1994) andThe Space Bar (1997), in which he designed all the characters.[7][8] His work made a greater and indelible impact in video gaming because of his art's direct influence on the artists and designers who developed theHalo: Combat Evolved blockbuster series, itself one of the most influential video games of all time.[9][10]
Cobb also co-wrote with his wife, Robin Love, one of theTwilight Zone episodes, "Shelter Skelter" (1987).[3]
Cobb designed the Father's Sword and the Atlantean Sword for the 1982 filmConan the Barbarian.[11] Cobb's original drawings of the swords are now used, in cinema merchandising, to mass-produce and sell replicas.
He died on his 83rd birthday, September 21, 2020, from complications ofLewy body dementia.[12]
