CRASH issue 88, 1991 Wreckers

Roger Kean asks Oliver why he likes painting gloop in CRASH issue 88, 1991 – Wreckers

By May 1991, the 8-bit market was running down fast, and CRASH had turned into more of a pamphlet with a cassette attached. ‘I felt committed to giving editor Nick Roberts the best possible covers to compensate, even though the artwork would inevitably be buried under the cover lines and cassette,’ Oliver says looking back.

‘You would’ve thought everyone had got fed up of 3D arcade games like this; they were all the rage a few years back,’ wrote Nick. ‘I for one can’t get enough of them, especially when they are as good as Wreckers.’ At 93%, the Denton Designs/Audiogenic games was described on the cover as a slime-busting smash!

‘Wonderful, I thought! I love painting gloop as much as gore,’ Oli says. ‘A good old-fashioned action hero warmed with a futuristic blaster, fighting his way through bright green slime was just thing to warm up a dull week.’

The weather had in fact been pretty dreary through 1991, and March when Oli was painting the May cover was no exception.

‘The other uplifting item for the issue, was a centrefold poster of ThunderJaws, which was effectively a preview of the Domark release of the Atari arcade game, and I enjoyed painting that as well. I thought the splashy water complemented Wreckers’ gloop very nicely!’

Crash magazine issue 88 centrefold poster, thunderjaws by Oliver Frey