Unofficial Tex Murphy

I recently ordered a few "noir" comic books from a company called Moonstone. I noticed an advertisement for their noir line of books on the back, which I think looks suspiciously like a P.I. from the future.

I wonder where that Tex silhouette graphic came from. I actually doubt that it originated with Tex Murphy: the face doesn't strike me as the spitting image of CJ, and more importantly, since Tex hasn't used a gun since Martian Memorandum, why did this graphic first appear with Overseer? So my guess is that Moonstone and Access/Microsoft (whoever) got ahold of the same clip art.

I asked them about this picture a couple years ago. At the time, they were using it to promote their Moonstone Noir line, more specifically Bulldog Drummond. They said it was a generic picture they found somewhere online. When I told them that the picture had been used previously in conjunction with Tex Murphy, they said they'd stop using it immediately so people wouldn't confuse their product with a previous franchise.
As to the origin of the pic itself, I cannot say. However, this picture is on all six of my PD CD's, albeit they were released in the UAKM/PD two-pack offer that came with Overseer, so it's possible that it's been around since the time of PD. Since Tex had a gun in the opening day of UAKM, it cannot also be ruled out that the picture was used to promote that game & then was adopted as a trademark symbol for the series when PD came around.
Just my two cents' worth.
A loyal Tex Murphy fan,
Hammerhead

As far as I know, that image originated (associated with Tex, at any rate) with the original release of Under a Killing Moon. It was subsequently used for The Pandora Directive and Overseer as well, and, as such, has become the recognized "logo" for the Tex Murphy series. Not sure if the image itself was an Access Software creation, or if it was a pre-existing clip art of some kind...

Nevermind, you guys are right! It's on the flippin' Under a Killing Moon poster in the contest! Freakin' idiot!

Realizing that, it could have been designed between MM and UAKM, perhaps before it was certain that Tex would not use his gun.

I looked up publication dates for the issues with the “Tex” ad, and they were all 2002-2003. I have one 2006 issue, and it has a different Moonstone Noir picture. So this would confirm Hammerhead’s account.

Darn, here I thought I was breaking news, and it turns out that Hammerhead knew about it years ago.

Hey, LancelotLink, don't feel bad. I wouldn't have known about it at all if it wasn't for a friend introducing me to a certain investigative reporter, one Carl Kolchak, the Night Stalker.
Hammerhead

My Desktop at home has an interesting picture of Tex, quite similar to the noir pic. When I get home I will post it here and we can compare them.



It looks like they simply reversed the pic.