« Artist » could lead us to a much wider spectrum of talents and I think music composers and performers would win out the reference game, but if we are talking purely illustrators referenced in western gaming magazines, my bet would be on Frank Frazetta who was very influential, had an easily remembered and evocative name, and played to a type of illustrations and topic (heroic fantasy) that came up much more often in video games than Giger’s work (biomechanical horror) or Moebius (… ascetic fantasy?). But Giger is definitely up there in terms of successful personal branding and helping some poor shmuck not repeat “this sure is ripping off Alien” in every paragraph of their article.
Obviously Disney wins it if you accept illustrators who might be mentioned for a different reason than their art.
