The cover art illustrator Don Punchatz had hired a professional model for the role, but Romero and the model didn’t see eye to eye and the designer struggled to convey his vision of a marine on a hill shooting down into an endless horde of demons.
What we didn’t know, until now, is that that guy was modelled after Doom’s lead designer, John Romero.
He ended up trying out several poses as the illustrator snapped photographs of Romero getting into the role.
Few video game protagonists are as iconic as the Doom Marine, which is kind of odd as we only see the first-person shooter hero’s body illustrated on the game’s cover.