Captain Hook 100%
Every Python ever. (Except Popeye)

Classic Stern Nine Ball 110%

An obvious choice, but Dave Christensen is a mad genius. Of course his backglass art for Mata Hari, Wizard, and Nitro Ground Shaker are all excellent, but for me, the playfield art for Voltan is possibly the coolest thing in all of pinball, especially the bonus count being represented by planets you've destroyed.

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One of my favorite glasses. From the living room to the tree lines. I have a repro on order.

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We are fortunate that some pins got great artists and excellent compositions. I love Kevin O'Conner's S&S backglass. It's a shame they couldn't get some of the art on the playfield, too. At least the plastics made up for it. Nice to see how Lady Robin Hood carried the art over to the playfield, something that rarely happened in the wedge heads. Very pretty.

No Medusa? The gameplay wasn't to my taste but the art was great!

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I think that Paragon as a whole has the best looking art package of any pin ever made.

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As a kid I loved it - revisiting it, not so great

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Flash Gordon.

Strange World is a stunning backglass. Such composed chaos!
I think Centaur is perfect. Definitely Paragon too, and Lady Robinhood is great.

Art is very subjective, and I'm loathe to add my naysaying, but I have a hard time really getting into artwork that has slight perspective errors / odd anatomical distentions that aren't obviously stylized.

For example, Super Score is one of my favourite backglasses because I run a women's pinballl group and it's just a bunch of women playing pinball. But in regards to artwork, I can't help but notice the oddly-long neck on the woman on the left. Same thing with Target Pool.
and the Gorgar face has slightly awkward perspective issues.

I can't give nods to Quicksilver and Barracora because while they're amazing, the main art is essentially cribbed. (If Paragon is predominantly stolen from a Boris Vallejo painting, I'm unaware.)

since I've already mentioned Paragon and Centaur, I'm gonna have to say Paul Faris is pretty amazing, and I don't mind that he wears that Vallejo influence on his sleeve. He embodied that painted scifi 80s aesthetic of the horrific-yet-enticing tomorrowland so well.
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ooo and Gordon Morrison art packages that bridge 60s psychedelia with the emerging 70s scifi aesthetic. Just A+ stuff

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Biased, as I just picked this Bally Hot Rods up, but this early hot rod art is just so nice to look at (even as dirty as the playfield is):

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I dig most of the early Bally art

Early Bally games were incredible.

I think pinball has lost much of that aspect of the game. Still fun, but they don't seem to have the passion in the art (minus much of the stuff from ZombieYeti).

Chris

Classic Stern art was second to none. Quicksliver, Nine Ball, Iron Maiden, Viper, nothing touches it.

I owned the machine... so may be biased.
Loved the PF and BG. Game play... was ok.

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"Art is very subjective, and I'm loathe to add my naysaying, but I have a hard time really getting into artwork that has slight perspective errors / odd anatomical distentions that aren't obviously stylized.

For example, Super Score is one of my favourite backglasses because I run a women's pinballl group and it's just a bunch of women playing pinball. But in regards to artwork, I can't help but notice the oddly-long neck on the woman on the left. Same thing with Target Pool.
and the Gorgar face has slightly awkward perspective issues."

I have that same issue. But I don't have a way to ask others who feel that way to discuss them in a constructive manner, apparently. No matter the style, I expect a professional artist to have mastered perspective and human anatomy. Andrew Loomis was a brilliant illustrative artist from the 40s, Leyendecker and Finlay from earlier, all those brilliant trashy paperback artists from the 50s and 60s- all show that it doesn't matter what era or style, good art depicting humans requires mastering basic skills, unless you go really abstract. Having said that, not all successful artists have that talent. Some are just better at promoting themselves.

I enjoy Night Rider.

Hardly. Fathom, Xenon, Medusa, Flash Gordon all have brilliant artwork that carries into the playfield as well. I love and own Seawitch. Nine Ball has a pretty PF, not sure about the wizard drawing though. Iron Maiden has an oversized head.

Capt Fantastic.

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Always loved the backglass to Asteroid Annie.

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That Canada Dry has gorgeous colors / compositions and style, carried through the playfield as well. It's rare that I see a pin I haven't seen before, but thank you for sharing that one!

I'll give you all of those except FG.

Nine Balls BG is amazing and I agree that something is oversized on Iron Maiden.

Frankensteinpinball (resized).jpgshpf (resized).jpgplayfield (resized).jpgOf course, Medusa. And I love the compositions and colors of MS Frankenstein. Much better than the film! Now if they could only draw a six pack correctly. But I quibble.

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Just got this one. Backglass is fantastic IMO.

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For some reason when I see Moon Flight I think of Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. And I'm not old enough to have listened to much Bowie.

Oh, that’s really interesting! Is this a common knowledge thing that everyone knows and I’m only just learning of?

I searched and I did find Barracora, or her less cheerful twin, Li 1, by HR Giger.

But I haven’t been able to find where Quicksilver came from. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

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I like that take! For the Quicksilver one, I can well imagine that the second that issue of Heavy Metal hit the stands a whole bunch of people instantly thought “pinball!” If someone ever does a QS remake, they should credit Philippe Cazaumayou on the art too.

It’s also interesting that the art on both of the games cait001 mentioned was done by the same person.

https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/doug-watson

Little Viper in there too.

Speaking of borrowing art, sci-fi and fantasy illustrator Michael Whelan posted this interesting bit recently. BAD2BB2E-A28E-4BB3-AE76-F8590EB44C7F (resized).jpeg

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That is WILD! Thanks for sharing

I’ve been a fan of his since I was 14 when I bought my very first hardcover book!

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Ahhh I love that one! Such a cool game amongst the pinball-style gambling machines

For some reason when I see Moon Flight I think of SPACE MURDER in the 1st degree!

Heh, only if the original artists were involved and compensated. As it is, the fact it was commercial art makes it unethical. People were less aware of the legal risks back then. Like how on Bally Kick Off they have the FIFA logo, but without permission
Good luck getting that past Legal these days!

Viper is cribbed from Hajime Sorayama.

Which is why I used "little"