Oliver Frey | Code Like It's 198x

Oliver Frey (30 June 1948 – 21 August 2022) was a Swiss-born illustrator and comic artist. For readers of Newsfield’s magazines he was the man who painted the covers. CRASH credited him with its cover in its first issue, in February 1984, and was still crediting him in February 1992. He also painted the covers of Zzap!64 and Amtix!, and co-founded Newsfield, the company that published all three.

His covers were paintings, not screenshots, drawn with a comic artist’s sense of drama at a time when the games themselves were small, blocky figures on a television screen.

Before CRASH

Frey was born in Zürich. His family moved to Britain in 1956, when he was about eight, and later returned to Switzerland. While at school there he took the American Famous Artists School correspondence course.

By the time CRASH launched he had a long career in British comics behind him. Amtix! introduced him to its readers in 1985 as someone with “a long history of illustration”: IPC’s War Picture Library, the Trigan Empire strip for Look and Learn, Dan Dare for Eagle, and the comic-book art used in the opening sequence of the 1978 film Superman. He also drew for Battle.

Newsfield and the covers

Frey, his younger brother Franco Frey and Roger Kean founded Newsfield in Ludlow, Shropshire. The first issue of CRASH (February 1984) lists Kean as Editor, Oliver Frey as Designer and Franco Frey as Consultant Editor, and carries the credit “Cover illustration: Oliver Frey”. The same issue ran a comic strip, Terminal Man, “story by Kelvin Gosnell, drawn by Oliver Frey”.

When Zzap!64 launched in May 1985 he was on its masthead as “Art supremo”. By the launch of Amtix! in November 1985, the magazine could say that he had been “responsible for almost all the drawings inside CRASH, ZZAP! and every one of their covers”, and that he would do the same for Amtix!.

He kept going after Newsfield. The company stopped publishing CRASH after its October 1991 issue, and from December 1991 the magazine came from Europress Impact, still in Ludlow. Its cover credits still read “Cover design by Oliver Frey” in February 1992. That month a Zzap!64 reader signed off a letter: “Well done Oliver Frey, the covers are superb”.

Covers worth knowing

CRASH issue 1 (February 1984): the first of the run.
CRASH issue 23 (December 1985): the magazine’s own index called it the “Scary cover”, in the issue that previewed Friday the 13th.
CRASH issue 96 (February 1992): among the last issues to carry his cover credit.

Other work

Under the pen name Zack he drew comics and illustrations for British gay magazines, including HIM, which he and his partner Roger Kean owned. In the late 1990s he was publishing director of Thalamus Publishing, and he and Kean later ran Reckless Books in Ludlow. A collection of his work, The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey, was published by Thalamus in 2006.

Reputation

His obituary in downthetubes.net credited his airbrushed covers with shaping the look of the British games industry in the 1980s.

Sources

CRASH, issue 1 (February 1984), contents and masthead: “Cover illustration: Oliver Frey”; Kean as Editor, Oliver Frey as Designer, Franco Frey as Consultant Editor. The same issue: Terminal Man, “drawn by Oliver Frey”.
Zzap!64, issue 1 (May 1985), masthead: “Art supremo Oliver Frey”.
Amtix!, issue 1 (November 1985), staff profiles: “Oliver Frey: Art Editor”, his earlier comics and film work, founding Newsfield with Franco Frey and Roger Kean, and “every one of their covers”.
CRASH, issue 24 (January 1986), back-issue index: issue 23 (December 1985), “Scary cover and Scary Preview of Friday 13th”.
CRASH, issue 93 (October 1991) and issue 94 (December 1991): the change of publisher from Newsfield to Europress Impact. Issues 93 to 96 (October 1991 to February 1992): “Cover design by Oliver Frey”.
Zzap!64, issues 11 (March 1986) to 35 (March 1988): cover credits to Oliver Frey. Issue 81 (February 1992), letters: “Well done Oliver Frey, the covers are superb”.
Birth and death dates, Zürich, the move to Britain in 1956, the Famous Artists School, Battle, the pen name Zack and HIM, Thalamus Publishing, Reckless Books, The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey, and the airbrushed covers’ influence: Wikipedia, “Oliver Frey”, and downthetubes.net, “In Memoriam: Illustrator and comic artist Oliver Frey” (2022) (web, secondary).