{"id":643,"date":"2008-05-02T14:10:19","date_gmt":"2008-05-02T04:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/05\/02\/rip-john-berkey\/"},"modified":"2008-05-02T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2008-05-02T04:20:21","slug":"rip-john-berkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/05\/02\/rip-john-berkey\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP: John Berkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another of science fiction&#8217;s greats &#8212; an artist rather than a writer this time &#8212; passed away on 29 April 2008. John Berkey is recognisable to anyone who reads SF &#8212; in particular those who did so during the 1970s and 1980s &#8212; for his iconic spaceships, such as this one:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/berke-spaceship.jpg\" title=\"John Berke spaceship\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/berke-spaceship.jpg\" alt=\"John Berke spaceship\" height=\"600\" width=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But others might be more likely to remember him for the renditions of King Kong he did for the 1976 version of the film. One of his pictures was used as the key image in advertising for the film:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/king_kong1976poster.jpg\" title=\"King Kong 1976 poster\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/king_kong1976poster.jpg\" alt=\"King Kong 1976 poster\" height=\"653\" width=\"430\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Berkey is also known for his <em>Star Wars<\/em> paintings and other work that formed the basis of various film advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/star-wars-berkey.jpg\" title=\"Star Wars art \u2014 Berkey\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/star-wars-berkey.jpg\" alt=\"Star Wars art \u2014 Berkey\" height=\"553\" width=\"330\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But seeing as the Backbrain is obsessed with giant monsters, here are some more of his Kong pictures, first the original &#8220;rough&#8221; artwork for the poster image. Changes were demanded, in particular removal of the shadow on the far tower of the World Trade Center, as executives &#8212; concerned for realism as they always are &#8212; wanted to make it look more like Kong was leaping between the buildings rather than straddling the impossible distance.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/kongposter1.jpg\" title=\"King Kong 1976 poster original art\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/kongposter1.jpg\" alt=\"King Kong 1976 poster original art\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/snakemarked.jpg\" title=\"Kong fighting snake\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/snakemarked.jpg\" alt=\"Kong fighting snake\" height=\"330\" width=\"397\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/wallface.jpg\" title=\"Kong face\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/wallface.jpg\" alt=\"Kong face\" height=\"529\" width=\"399\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/wallmarked.jpg\" title=\"Kong and the Wall\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/wallmarked.jpg\" alt=\"Kong and the Wall\" height=\"551\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source of King Kong paintings and more information on their creation: John Michlig and his articles <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongisking.net\/kongfiles\/102505.html\" target=\"_blank\">KongisKing.net<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kongisking.net\/kongfiles\/12706.html\" target=\"_blank\">KongisKing.net<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More of Berkey&#8217;s space paintings can be viewed <a href=\"http:\/\/astrona.blogspot.com\/2007\/06\/john-berkey-space-and-sci-fi-art.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another of science fiction&#8217;s greats &#8212; an artist rather than a writer this time &#8212; passed away on 29 April 2008. John Berkey is recognisable to anyone who reads SF &#8212; in particular those who did so during the 1970s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/05\/02\/rip-john-berkey\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,44,3,30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8855,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/8855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}