Ron Cobb – Filmography

Friend of my father. Here's the thing most people don't get about Ron. I saw the literal blueprints for the Gun Star from The Last Starfighter on his drawing board when I was 8. He didn't just draw vehicles. He figured out entirely how they worked and had INTERNAL diagrams as well as external. He had an understanding of engineering that made his designs highly practical and realistic. Amazing talent. RIP.

If you like this sort of thing I highly suggest checking out Light and Magic, which is a documentary by Lawrence Kasdan about the history of ILM. In specific, startup fans will appreciate the early days of the company. Just an insane rise of an industry in such a short period of time. It gave me a lot more respect for Lucas, who seemed less a Director, and more a powerhouse visionary of technology.

Ron Cobb, Syd Mead, Joe Johnston. Amazing artists, designers, futurists. They stayed just close enough to plausibility and realism to sell their visions of other or future worlds. Along with the visual look of "2001: A Space Odyssey", this was the "visual code" that shaped and informed me.

That's an amazing resume. Along with the pure sci-fi movie contributions, there were plenty of surprises like the laser system ("Crossbow") in Real Genius.

Oh, it&#x27;s the same guy who also made the cover to Jefferson Airplane&#x27;s After Bathing at Baxter&#x27;s! I didn&#x27;t know this guy was also responsible for some iconic sci-fi and movie artwork.<p>It seems he was obsessed with cool vehicles. That cover art as well shows a hybrid between a WWI triplane and a San Francisco townhouse, flying over an American wasteland dropping confetti over it and probably blasting psychedelic music from its attached loudspeakers. Bathing at Baxter&#x27;s was the group&#x27;s code for taking LSD.

Funny how there&#x27;s a large gap between the first job and second between age 19 and 37. Most of the list is after 37. Makes you think that the best years of your life for some people doesn&#x27;t come after your 40s.

This one guy touched so many of the cult sf films of the 80s and 90s. Impressive to see his style woven throughout these movies.<p>Though, even with his design talent, Space Truckers was still a washout.

He died in 2020, the website stands as a tribute. I had no idea he did this kind of design work, knew the cartoon style but hadn&#x27;t picked up on it&#x27;s influence in set design.

I collect things related to Sega CD and one day I came across a set of press CDs from Rocket Science games along with some other Rocket Science swag. Several years later I was scanning the disc and covers and noticed that Ron had written “Heads Up! Ron Cobb” on the CD liner for an alpha build of Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine.<p>He had been one of the early employees of Rocket Science, whose goal was to being Hollywood quality movie experiences to console games. Several of his designs from Space Truckers were brought in for vehicle design and I believe he wrote the story.<p>It’s become one of my favorite bits in that collection.<p>Throughout my research I also came across Elon Musk being an early contractor there who wrote their video compression algorithm for the PC versions.

I&#x27;ve watched &quot;Robot Jox&quot; countless times for its MST3K&#x2F;RiffTrax vibe; I always really enjoyed the general world and the mech designs and now I know why. It&#x27;s amazing to see it nestled between these sci-fi touchstones. I&#x27;d highly recommend watching it once if you&#x27;re ok with (or love!) &quot;bad&quot; movies.

His book &quot;Colorvision&quot; is a rich and wonderful book of design. I spent so many hours flipping through it.