It has been too long, so I thought I’d start on a new round of Willis artwork posts. I have a bunch to show, but decided to start by throwing out a fun one, Bubbles. The Willis Bubbles UR cpo is an eye catcher, with bright vibrant colors and what else? Lots of bubbles of course! This little beauty was produced by Willis on quality materials using the screen printing process we purists know and love. Of course as a purist you would never actually use this cpo, but it is still a cool piece of 80’s arcade nostalgia nonetheless.
At first glance the bubbles look very neat and uniform, which is odd, considering they’re bubbles and should be a bit more random; but I think it’s a fun overlay and certainly a good effort by the Willis artist. Taking the idea of the sink and drain very literally, with lots of bubbles and a very stylized sink makes for an interesting if not awe inspiring design. Considering there was probably very little time for the creative process, a direct approach may have been the best idea. It gets the message across and there can be no confusion that the game is Bubbles. A closer look at the actual artwork reminds me of my days rendering products with markers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original drawing of this screen printed cpo was done entirely with markers.
Take a look at a few close ups of the Willis Bubbles UR cpo.
This particular Willis Bubbles UR cpo is an excellent example, with no creases or damage to speak of. The overlay is 22.75″ x 17.5″ with bright, vibrant colors and with all of the die-cuts intact. Finding one with all the die-cuts in place doesn’t happen often, but its nice to view the full layout without interfering holes. The Willis Bubbles cpo was made in 1983, about a year after the classic Williams game made its debut, just in time to replace those worn out originals. The Willis Bubbles UR cpo will make a fine addition to the collection, into the vault it goes! Game on!