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I checked your Bisley gallery (amazing collection you got there, by the way) and I guess you mean the barbarian piece. It does remind me a bit of the style he used for the cover of Gods, which is from the same period (1991). I looked it up, but all I was able to find is the same image referenced as "Soldier of the Sacred" somewhere in Pinterest.
I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be some cancelled project. Commissioning cover artwork from top artists only to have the project cancelled isn't unheard of. It happened to Azpiri a few times. On one occasion, he even got to finish a commissioned cover illustration for a videogame only to have it replaced by another illustration by Luis Royo.
As for the easiness to identify Azpiri's videogame art, it's mostly due to the fact that Azpiri was the most prolific videogame illustrator in Spain back in the eighties. There were other top artists such as Luis Royo or Juan Giménez working for the Spanish videogame industry, but nobody came close to Azpiri's sheer volume of work. He contributed cover, promotional and/or production artwork for more than 60 videogames from 1984 to 1992.
His legacy in the history of Spanish videogames is so important that nowadays Spanish retrogaming fans can't evoke the eighties without mentioning Azpiri at some point. He attended all major retrogaming events in Spain as a guest of honor up until the very last one celebrated a few months before his death.
Such is the interest in his videogame related production from that time that a book was published in 2009 devoted exclusively to his art for videogames, 'Spectrum: Videogame Art of Alfonso Azpiri'. It's a very extensive compilation, showing not only the final art, but also lots of pencil sketches, discarded art and artwork for cancelled projects. Unfortunately, the book is now out of print and the asking price for available copies online is very steep. Lucky for me, I got to have my copy signed by Azpiri himself.
Muchas gracias por el comentario. Azpiri tiene otras versiones de Nancy en color, pero esta y otra muy parecida que hizo sólo a tinta y con un detalle de rojo en los labios me encantan por lo fieles que son al estilo del original de Miller.
Thank you. This one's actually from the eighties, but I get what you mean. :-) In my opinion Azpiri's absolute best period as an illustrator was from mid eighties to mid nineties. His videogame related art, in particlar, stands out from the rest of his production of that period.
Muchísimas gracias, Alberto. A ver cuándo podemos pasar de la "nueva normalidad" a una normalidad real y volver a coincidir en algún salón o firma. Hasta entonces, un abrazo y cuídate mucho.
