The iconic videogame illustrations of Wil Overton are synonymous with two of the most popular Nintendo mags to ever hit newsstands – and there can be no doubt that they contributed to their success. We chat to Wil about creating covers, dabbling in games journalism and being in a long-term relationship with Joanna Dark

Words by Stuart Hunt

NOW

After helping to transform Anime UK from a newsletter to a magazine, Wil got the opportunity to combine his love of Japanese animation, videogames and Nintendo working as an illustrator and designer on Super Play and N64 Magazine at Future. He then left magazines to join Rare as a concept artist

THEN

After leaving Rare in 2011, Wil worked as an artist and illustrator for several game studios. He has since returned to Rare as a UI artist and recently worked on Sea Of Thieves. Thankfully, Wil still enjoys creating magazine covers and has drawn a number for us and others over the years.

» Wil has also illustrated awesome covers for this very mag – issue 20 and, most recently, issue 257.

What is the first videogame you remember playing, Wil?

I’m quite old, so I remember playing a lot of the electromechanical games in the arcades when I went on holidays. I was there when it switched over to digital games, with stuff like Boot Hill – which was probably one of the very first games I played. I remember there was a little snooker club in the town I grew up in, in Essex. They had a rotating roster with the likes of Space Invaders, Defender, Joust, Mr Do! and Missile Command. All the ones you know from those early days.

What computers and consoles did you own growing up?

By that time, the early Eighties, I had left school. My mate and I both had an Atari VCS; I was the first to get a micro with the ZX81. I’ve always liked gaming, ever since it started coming from the arcade and appearing in the home. I went from a ZX81 to a ZX Spectrum. I then had a Commodore 64 and jumped to the Amiga. Then the Japanese thing happened, and I was in a world of ridiculously expensive import carts for my Super Famicom, and then my Mega Drive much later.

When was your first job in graphic design?

That was in 1985. I attended a local college and did a graphic design course because I loved drawing. When I left college, I thought I wasn’t good enough to be an illustrator, so I pursued graphic design and got a job working for this guy in London who ran a little one-man design studio. He was looking for a junior designer. I was doing paste-ups for adverts, magazines and local newspapers, stuff like that.

When did your interest in Japanese animation start?

I would say it was between 1985 and 1990. I found people who were getting third-generation duplicate VHSes of obscure Japanese cartoons. They weren’t even subtitled. We’d watch them without a clue what was going on, but I loved the art style. It wasn’t like the cartoons that I watched when I was a kid; it was like cartoons on steroids. They were well drawn and a lot more detailed.

Didn’t your passion for anime lead you to producing a fanzine on the topic?

I found myself with some friends in London and part of a little fan group for Japanese animation. They were producing a fanzine, which was typed out, cut out and pasted up on a kitchen table. I asked if I could get involved and help to make it a bit slicker – because I had access to typesetting and all this other equipment from my job. One day, my boss saw me working on it and asked what it was. I told him, and he said, “Do you want to create a magazine? We can try to sell it.” That’s how Anime UK was formed.