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Like many of his fans, I met Bob at one of the gaming expos he attended in support of his good friends, online retro seller The Attic Bug. As no doubt the umpteenth such individual to approach the talented artist that weekend, I was greeted with a friendly 'alright mate' in his soft Liverpudlian tone that served so well in disarming the nerves of awestruck geeks such as myself. The accompanying grin, almost as wide as the Joker's from one of Bob's most famous pieces, was equally effective, and belied the cantankerous reputation that this honorary scouser had nurtured over the years. The truth was, in person, Bob Wakelin was almost impossible to dislike and, inevitably, I came away from our brief meeting laden with goodies emblazoned with his work for Ocean Software. The crafty sod. "Bob was from the start, such a gentleman," Anna Bäckström of The Attic Bug tells me. "He found the events quite difficult to start with, as he couldn't understand why people would be interested in 'this old crap' - a typical Bob comment. But he grew to love the shows, and he loved to talk to anyone who would listen. He was devastated if he was too ill to attend, and actually went to a couple he probably shouldn't have."
Despite being best known for his work at Ocean, Bob's first love was not video games; in fact he was never much of a fan of them at all, finding them to be an insular occupation that got in the way of one of his favourite pastimes, going to the pub. Instead, as a lad growing up in the 60s in North Wales, Bob dreamed of a career working in comics. After a graphic design course at a local college, he relocated to Liverpool and a steady pay check at a studio based in the city. But the freedom of the freelance was calling him, and in the late 70s, having been elevated to studio manager, he struck out for himself and finally got to work for his ideal company, Marvel. After a brief sojourn playing synths in a local band called Modern Eon ('It was a whim really,' he told Crash Magazine in July of 1985, 'I'd got bored of drawing and we did reasonably well for a while - then we had a row and split up.'), a chance meeting with an acquaintance of David Ward's encouraged Bob into illustrating once more.
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