Fred Gambino – PC Review #39, The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm’s Revenge Cover Original Art, 1995

Year: 1995

Publication: PC Review #39, January 1995

Featured Game: The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three – Malcolm’s Revenge

Publisher: EMAP

Artist: Fred Gambino

Medium: Acrylic on illustration board

Size: 15 × 12.5 inches (38.1 × 31.8 cm)

Original painted cover artwork by Fred Gambino created for the January 1995 issue of PC Review, featuring Malcolm, the villainous jester and central character of Westwood Studios’ The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three – Malcolm’s Revenge.

The finished magazine cover used Gambino’s striking portrait of Malcolm alongside the prominent cover line “MALCOLM’S BACK!”, promoting the return of one of the Kyrandia series’ most memorable characters. The January 1995 edition was PC Review Issue #39, published by EMAP.

Malcolm had originally appeared as the principal antagonist of the first Legend of Kyrandia adventure. In the third game, Westwood reversed the perspective and made the sardonic jester the playable protagonist, following his release from imprisonment and his attempts to clear his name. The character’s distinctive skull-like grin and brightly colored jester costume make Gambino’s original instantly recognizable as one of the series’ defining characters.

The painting is particularly effective as magazine artwork. Rather than producing a conventional game-box composition, Gambino isolates Malcolm against a clean background, leaving the surrounding space available for the magazine's masthead, headlines and other typography. The original therefore provides an excellent example of how traditionally painted artwork was specifically composed for 1990s computer-game magazine publishing.

Malcolm’s Revenge was the third and final installment of Westwood Studios’ Legend of Kyrandia trilogy, following The Legend of Kyrandia and The Hand of Fate. The series was an important part of Westwood’s output before the studio became increasingly associated with its enormously successful Command & Conquer games.

Artist: Fred Gambino

Fred Gambino is a British science-fiction and fantasy illustrator and concept artist whose career spans publishing, movies, television and video games. After establishing himself as a commercial illustrator, he produced artwork for clients including Penguin, Warner Books and National Geographic, together with numerous book covers, magazine illustrations and computer-game commissions.

His work became particularly familiar to British science-fiction and gaming audiences during the 1980s and 1990s, encompassing everything from Doctor Who publishing and painted movie-video artwork to fantasy and video-game imagery. Gambino later moved extensively into concept and digital production work, including work on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Guardians of the Galaxy.

His books Ground Zero and The Art of Fred Gambino: Dark Shepherd document a career characterized by cinematic lighting, imaginative characters and environments, and highly finished traditional painting.