Don Ivan Punchatz (September 8, 1936 – October 22, 2009) was a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

artist who drew illustrations for numerous books and publications, including

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s such as '' Heavy Metal'', ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'', ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. He illustrated album covers, and provided the cover art for session guitarist Steve Hunter's debut solo album, '' Swept Away''. Characterized as a "skilled hyperrealist with a penchant for the fantastic and absurd" and "elegantly weird," he produced cover art for books by Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov and others. Punchatz was born in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

. In 1970, he started the SketchPad Studio there, where he trained dozens of apprentices (known as "the elves") and came to be known as the "Godfather of Dallas Illustration." During 1993,

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

hired him to create the ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...

'' video game package art and logo. The result was named the second best game box art of all time by '' GameSpy''. His son, Gregor Punchatz, has worked on

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s for several movies, and also created monster sculptures for ''Doom''. Punchatz suffered a

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...

on October 11, 2009 and died in an Arlington hospital on October 22, 2009.

Partial cover art bibliography

*''

A Barnstormer in Oz ''A Barnstormer in Oz: A Rationalization and Extrapolation of the Split-Level Continuum'' is a 1982 novel by Philip José Farmer and is based on the setting and characters of L. Frank Baum's ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. The central character o ...

'' *''

Dayworld ''Dayworld'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip José Farmer. Published in 1985, it is the first in the Dayworld (trilogy), Dayworld tetralogy of novels inspired by Farmer's own 1971 short story "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-T ...

'' *'' Dayworld Rebel'' *''

Foundation and Empire ''Foundation and Empire'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov originally published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the second book in the ''Foundation'' Series, and the fourth in the in-universe chronology. It takes place in ...

'' *''

Gods of Riverworld ''Gods of Riverworld'' (1983) is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip José Farmer, the fifth and last in the series of Riverworld books. It was reprinted in 1998 by Del Rey under the title ''The Gods of Riverworld''. Plot This boo ...

'' *''

Second Foundation ''Second Foundation'' is the third novel published of the ''Foundation'' Series by American writer Isaac Asimov, and the fifth in the in-universe chronology. It was first published in 1953 by Gnome Press. ''Second Foundation'' consists of two ...

'' *'' Worlds of the Federation''

Videogame cover art

* ''Doom'' (1993)

References

External links

A high-resolution scan of ''The Ultimate Doom'' poster
*
Spectrum's article on Punchatz
American speculative fiction artists 1936 births 2009 deaths Fantasy artists Science fiction artists Artists from Texas Books with cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz {{US-illustrator-stub