Laser Gun for Hire

Yesterday, we reported that Wing Commander SNES cover artist Mike Winterbauer has re-launched his Kickstarter project to create a printed art book of his work. The project is going great, already nearing the 50% funding mark in less than 24 hours... and today we can reveal that it turns out Mr. Winterbauer has been proud of his Wing Commander artwork for quite a while! The scan below is from the August 1993 issue of Computer Gaming World. It's a self-published advertisement from the same artist offering his services... and showing the then-recent Wing Commander cover painting as an example. This was not a common tactic at the time at all, and was a pretty clever way to drum up interest for a freelance artist in the era before services like DeviantArt and ArtStation. Pretty neat that the same painting is still loved and sought-after today! (And let's be real here: the cowboy lasso'ing a planet while flying a rocket shark on the surface of the sun is also pretty rad.)