Sam Petrucci was an artist who did a lot of the early painted artwork for the original GI Joe starting in 1964. His artwork really helped sell GI Joe, and was one of the reasons it was successful. Later one he did some of the artwork for the 12" Attendee Sets at Joecon. I had the honor of meeting him at the 2010 Convention in Providence. I've included some examples of his work below.

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Wow. A very serious artistic loss here, a tragedy to the G.I. Joe community.

R.I.P.

I hadn't heard that he had passed... Sorry to hear this, and agree, this is a loss, not just to the Joe community, but to his family as well. I always liked his work, it was part of what helped to sell GI Joe as a serious action toy when I was a kid; I will always think of him when I see these great works of art!

Prayers for his family and friends...

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Sorry to hear this. I met him at the KC con and bought some of his work. He really did some good stuff.

That's very sad news. I'm glad I was able to meet him both in Rhode Island and Orlando and let him know that I greatly admired his work.