Ron Cobb 1937 - 2020

 

Editorial cartoonist and movie designer Ron Cobb passed away on his birthday, September 21, 2020. The cause was Lewy body dementia, said his wife of 48 years, Sydney. 

Cobb began work as an "in-betweener," an animator, for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty in 1959. But in the next decade, he became a freelance editorial cartoonist. Initially working for Los Angeles Free Press, in the coming years he would become syndicated in over 80 markets all over the world. His pro-Earth, anti-war and anti-pollution cartoons were forceful and detailed. 

Ron Cobb also created the well-known ecology symbol in a 1968 cartoon.

Even if you don't know that, you know Ron from his movie work. He began creating movie production designs in the 1970s. 

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Cobb brought to life several cantina creatures for Star Wars (1977) and came up with weaponry and sets for Conan the Barbarian (1982), the exterior and interior of the Nostromo ship in Alien (1978) and the earth colony complex in Aliens (1986) and the DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future (1985).

His prolific design work also included the breathing tanks and helmets in The Abyss (1989), the Omega Sector logo and the H bombs in True Lies (1990), the interior of the Mothership and the stranded tanker in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the vehicles of The Last Starfighter (1984).

 

The Daily Cartoonist has much more here.