Yoji Shinkawa’s first Metal Gear Solid magazine cover: Weekly The PlayStation, March 1997

We’re looking back at Yoji Shinkawa’s Metal Gear Solid cover artwork for the March 21, 1997 issue of Weekly The PlayStation, also known as Zapure.

As Ark_hound noted, Shinkawa’s commentary in the original The Art of Metal Gear Solid book identifies this as his first MGS illustration produced for a magazine cover. The CGI SOCOM pistol in the background was based on a prototype design.

The standalone illustration and the printed cover offer two views of the same piece: Snake’s vivid colors and loose brushwork sit against the sharply rendered pistol, while the magazine version shows how the artwork was presented to readers in 1997.

And the third image? Just Yoji looking cool!

Sources: Shinkawa’s commentary in The Art of Metal Gear Solid, via Ark_hound; our original MGN post.