{{Short description|American artist}} {{Use American English|date=January 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc --> | name = Rodger B. MacGowan | image = Cover_of_Squad_Leader_1977.png | caption = Avalon Hill's bestseller ''Squad Leader''. <br>Cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan, 1977 | birthname = | birth_date = 1948 <ref name="bp" /> | birth_place = San Francisco | death_date = February 21, 2025 | death_place = | education = | occupation = Artist, publisher, graphic designer, game designer | alias = | status = | title = | family = | spouse = | children = | relatives = | salary = | networth = | agent = | URL = }}<!--image--> '''Rodger B. MacGowan''' (1948 - February 21, 2025) was an artist, game developer, art director, and magazine publisher who was active in the board wargame industry from the 1970s. MacGowan was a prolific artist of cover art for wargames, and the wargaming magazine he founded, ''Fire & Movement'', won the Charles S. Roberts Award several times while under his editorial control. MacGowan co-founded GMT Games, and created ''C3i'' magazine, for which he was Editor-In-Chief and art director.
==Biography==
===Early life=== Rodger MacGowan was born in San Francisco in 1948, the son of career Marine Donald L. MacGowan, and grew up on various Marine bases in Hawaii, North Carolina, New Jersey, and California.<ref name="bp">{{Cite magazine |last=Flahive |first=Peter |date=November-December 1987 |title=Rodger MacGowan: His Art & Style |magazine=Battle Plan |issue=5 |pages=38–48}}</ref> Rodger was a budding artist from a young age and using his personal observations of military life, he began creating military history illustrations in the seventh grade.<ref name=bp /> While attending Oceanside High School in California, he was introduced to Avalon Hill's ''Gettysburg'' by a friend, and his parents purchased a copy for him while vacationing at the Gettysburg battlefield. Hooked on the board wargaming hobby, MacGowan started reading books about military history, and received Avalon Hill games ''Stalingrad'' and ''Afrika Korps'' as birthday gifts. He dropped his wargame hobby after entering UCLA to study art, motion pictures, and graphic design.<ref name="fm94">{{Cite magazine |last=Zalewski |first=Tony |date=May-June 1994 |title=Rodger MacGowan |magazine=Fire & Movement |issue=94 |pages=12–13}}</ref>
MacGowan restarted his gaming hobby again after playing Avalon Hill's ''Panzer Blitz''. MacGowan kept in touch with his high school gaming friends, corresponding with them about the games he was playing and describing the games in "Battle Reports" which included maps and analyses. These proved to be so popular with his friends that he expanded his concept to create an amateur magazine, ''Arquebus''.<ref name="moves59">{{Cite magazine |last=DeBaun |first=Richard |date=July-August 1981 |title=Founders & Memories: Looking back on the Genesis of Fire & Movement |magazine=Moves |issue=59 |pages=26–29}}</ref>
Following graduation, he found work at an advertising agency, where he was serendipitously given the opportunity to create cover art for one of the agency's accounts, a science fiction magazine titled ''Vertex''. Although the magazine only lasted sixteen issues (1973–1975), MacGowan contributed one cover and over a dozen interior illustrations for various science fiction stories.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2025/02/23/adventures-in-science-fiction-art-rodger-b-macgowans-approachable-new-wave-art-part-i/| title = Adventures in Science Fiction Art: Rodger B. MacGowan's Approachable New Wave Art, Part I| last = Boaz| first = Joachim | date = 2025-02-23| website = Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations| access-date = 2025-02-25}}</ref>
MacGowan moved to Los Angeles to become a television graphic artist.<ref name=moves59 /> thumb|right|Cover of ''Fire & Movement'' #1
===Professional career=== In 1975, there was no professionally-published independent review magazine for wargames – the largest, ''Strategy & Tactics'', was owned by the games company Simulations Publications Inc., and its rival ''The General'', was owned by games company Avalon Hill. MacGowan saw a niche market for an independent wargames magazine and approached Baron Publishing Company, who expressed interest in printing it as long as MacGowan paid all printing costs after the first issue.<ref name=moves59 /> MacGowan created the company RBM Design Studio, borrowed money from friends,<ref name=moves59 /> and published the first issue of his new bi-monthly magazine ''Fire & Movement'' in May 1976.<ref name="10th">{{Cite magazine |last=Newberg |first=Stephen M. |date=July-August 1986 |title=F&M's First Decade |magazine=Fire & Movement |issue=49}}</ref> The first issue was 48 pages, and had a circulation of 2000.<ref name="fm94" /> By the end of 1976, ''F&M''{{'}}s circulation matched that of ''Moves'' (owned by game company SPI), and was nominated for a Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Professional Magazine".<ref name=moves59 /> In 1978, ''F&M'' won the "Best Professional Magazine" award, and repeated this for the next five years.<ref name="bgg" />
In 1977, Avalon Hill approached RBM to produce cover art for their wargames. MacGowan's first cover was for ''The Russian Campaign'', which became the first American wargame to portray Soviet soldiers on its cover.<ref name=bp /> In 1977, MacGowan created the cover art for Avalon Hill's bestselling wargame ''Squad Leader''. For subsequent expansion sets and related games, Avalon Hill's plan had been to only portray German soldiers, but MacGowan insisted on using a different nationality on each box cover.<ref name="bp" /> MacGowan continued breaking new ground, being the first to portray Japanese pilots and crews on a wargame box for 1979's ''Flat Top'' by Avalon Hill, and the first to portray Egyptian soldiers on 1981's ''Suez '73'' by GDW.<ref name="bp" />
MacGowan quickly made a reputation for wargame cover art. Game critic Kevin Pollock, reviewing ''Beachhead'' by Yaquinto Publications in 1980, opined that "the cover painting by Rodger B. MacGowan is excellent. I think Roger is far and away the best illustrator in the industry and I'm sure all the ''Squad Leader'' devotees out there will back up that statement."<ref name="camp101">{{cite magazine |last=Pollock|first=Kevin| date=January–February 1981|title=Beachhead|magazine=Campaign|issue=98|pages=32–34 }}</ref>
In 1982, ''F&M'' was sold to Steve Jackson Games.<ref name="10th" /> In 1990, MacGowan co-founded GMT Games, and two years later created ''C3i Magazine'', in MacGowan's words to readers, to "inform, entertain, add to your perspective and instruct you in your enjoyment of GMT games."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=MacGowan |first=Rodger B. |date=Winter 1992 |title=Editorial |magazine=C3i |publisher=GMT Games |issue=1}}</ref> For many years, MacGowan was a graphic design consultant with ''Computer Gaming World''.<ref name="fm94" />
===Personal=== MacGowan enjoyed music, especially movie scores by Jerry Goldsmith, for inspiration while painting. He was married and lived in Santa Monica, California.<ref name="fm94" /> He died on February 21, 2025 of pneumonia.{{fact|date=March 2025}}
==Partial list of box cover art by company== MacGowan is a prolific artist, having created over 275 pieces of box cover art for over twenty different wargame companies. A partial list includes:<ref name="bgg">{{Cite web |title=Rodger B. MacGowan |url=https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/71/rodger-b-macgowan |access-date=January 22, 2022 |website=boardgamegeek.com}}</ref> *3W: 34 covers *Australian Design Group: 2 covers *Avalon Hill: 24 game covers including ''Squad Leader'', ''Cross of Iron'', ''Advanced Squad Leader'' *Game Designers' Workshop: 17 covers including ''White Death'' *GMT Games: 137 covers including ''Air Bridge to Victory'' *Hobby Japan: 25 covers including ''Ironbottom Sound'' *Operational Studies Group: 4 covers including ''Napoleon at Bay'' *Peoples War Games: 4 covers *Quarterdeck Games: 4 covers *Simulations Canada: 11 covers including ''Kriegsmarine'', ''Dieppe'' *Yaquinto Publications: 11 covers including ''Swashbuckler'' and ''Beachhead''
MacGowan has also created cover art for several video games including ''TAC'', ''Midway Campaign'', ''Carrier Strike'', and ''Carriers at War''.<ref name="bgg" />
==Awards== *After winning the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Professional Magazine" from 1978 to 1983, ''Fire & Movement'' was inducted into the Origins/GAMA Hall of Fame in 1999, and MacGowan himself was also inducted in 2004.<ref name="ops">{{Cite web |title=Profile on Rodger B. MacGowan |url=https://www.c3iopscenter.com/pages/profile-rodger-b-macgowan/ |access-date=January 22, 2022 |website=c3i Ops Center}}</ref> *In 2004, at ConsimWorld Expo, MacGowan received the "Ed Blomgren/Winston Hamilton Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement",<ref name="ops" /> and the same year MacGowan's company RBM was awarded the "Academy of Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame Award".<ref name="ops" /> *Several wargames with art and graphics designed by MacGowan have won industry awards for graphic design,<ref name="bgg" /> including ''Modern Naval Battles'' (1989 James F. Dunnigan Award for Playability and Design). <ref name="bgg2">{{Cite web |title=Modern Naval Battles (1989) |url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1668/modern-naval-battles |access-date=January 22, 2022 |website=boardgamegeek.com}}</ref>
*In 2025, MacGowan was inducted into the Charles S. Roberts Wargaming Hall of Fame. <ref name="bgg3">{{Cite web |title=2024 Charles S Robert winners |url= https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3530470/charles-s-roberts-awards-winners | access-date=June 23, 2025 | website=boardgamegeek.com}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacGowan, Rodger}} Category:1948 births Category:American game artists Category:Games Workshop artists Category:Living people Category:American video game artists *