CGE '99 DISTINGUISHED GUEST:
JOE KING

Joe [Ferreira] King, a graphic artist, came to Mattel Electronics with little experience, admitting that his previous job was cleaning up trash on San Clemente beach. But he showed tremendous enthusiasm from the moment he walked in the door, greeting his interviewer with the question "Is it as much fun to work here as I think it is?"

Joe eventually worked on a greater variety of game systems than any other artist or programmer at Mattel Electronics, contributing graphics for games on the Intellivision, Atari 2600, Apple II, Aquarius and Colecovision. He was also chosen to do demo screens for Intellivision III and the top secret Intellivision IV.

His Intellivision titles included Motocross, Loco-Motion and Space Shuttle. With programmer Steve Ettinger, he was co-designer of the games Magic Carousel and Hover Force.

After Mattel, he became the only member of the software staff to return to Mattel, getting a job in the Licensing Department in the former Mattel Electronics building.

Later he started his own graphic design business, Pendragon Studios, fulfilling toy design and illustration contracts for manufacturers such as Playmates, Matchbox, Universal Studius, Marvel and Disney. He has published several comic books; one of which, Men From Earth went into preproduction limbo at Paramount Pictures in January 1996. Today, with his bride Angela, he develops internet sites and self-syndicates several of his comic strips. Currently Joe and Angela are producing a line of 3-D pop-up trading cards.