Jack Rokks

The basis for this art is from a 1973 Gottlieb Pinball machine called “Jumping Jack” that I own (along with several others from this era).  I took the character and the concept from the machine, made him a little cooler, gave him a guitar and had him pop out of an amp.  I was able to copyright him for whatever good that might do me.  I added a song from 1973 (Space Station #5 – Montrose) for the flash animation.   For those that don’t know or remember Montrose, Sammy Hagar got his start with Ronnie Montrose, as lead singer on the first two records.  Space Station #5 is off the first and best one, just titled “Montrose”.  It is a classic and if you don’t own it, you should.  I had a really talented flash designer in Hungary create the animation for Jack Rokks and the girls.  The explosion and the flames was his idea. Notice even the chords are pretty close in the beginning! This was all a lot harder than it looks (for him, not me)!

I tried to locate the artist who did the original art, but Gottlieb has been out of business for many years and it turns out the guy who did the art for Gottlieb passed away awhile ago too.  I went to Ronnie Montrose’s site and I forwarded the whole thing to him and asked permission to use a piece of his song for this.  He says on his site he reads every e-mail, but can’t respond to them all due to time limitations.  I thus assume he read it and is OK with it because he never responded. 

Here is the original pinball backglass (click the thumbnail image for the larger picture): 

Run Jack Rokks Flash Animation (click here)