Never seen this before! It seems the back of the book credits the cover art to a Spanish art agency Selecciones Ilustradas.

That's not quite how it works. The illustrations were not credited for a number of reasons including that they were done externally by freelance illustrators often hired via an outside design firm, all of which is information that the team making the manual does not have access to. All separate

American illustrator Greg Wray has confirmed for OVGA that he did the box art for the second game, Great Circus Mystery. I believe Greg may have also done the box art for the third game (released in Japan for SFC) but he doesn't remember perfectly and has given mixed answers

Yes, perhaps I will send an email sometime. The involvement of a French illustration studio to create the package art used both in the US and Japan was always surprising. But then again, perhaps that studio already had a long established relationship with Disney, which facilitated the job

I have seen that name (Philippe Harchy) and the post on CAF, but it's a little strange. I am not fully convinced. Further, when you look at the picture on CAF, at the bottom left corner there appears to be an imprint of a Japanese Kanji or two

Just confirming for you definitively, Pedro, that this one is not the art of Marc Ericksen (as you know). I have identified the artist but am not yet ready to share the name

Box art by Michael Koelsch

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Yeah, probably not the most effective approach. The above ad (with 6 figures) appeared in GamePro 58 (May 1994). I'm realizing that there was a 7th illustration (surely also by Barry Jackson) that appeared in the following month's issue that continues the gag (GamePro 59, June 1994)

Thanks for being a sounding board! I'm gonna delete the post

My understanding is that the box art for The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang was done by Dan Harto, who also did a variety of work for Nintendo Power

I don't believe the artist has been identified. The original image is by a Japanese artist (I think Kazumi Kakizaki) and then the image you asked about I believe was redone by a UK artist with the design firm Khartomb. However the specific artist that Khartomb hired remains a mystery

I don't know how it's only 1k! I hope it picks up from here man, so more people see your great work