William Stout (born September 18, 1949) is an American fantasy artist and illustrator with a specialization in paleontological art. His paintings have been shown in over seventy exhibitions, including twelve one-man shows. He has worked on over thirty feature films, doing everything from storyboard art to production design. He has designed theme parks and has worked in radio with the Firesign Theatre. Stout began his professional career as an illustrator for comic books and graphic novels, with his first job coming in 1968 with the cover for the first issue of the pulp magazine Coven 13. In 1971, he worked as Russ Manning's assistant on Manning's Tarzan of the Apes Sunday and daily newspaper comic strips. In 1972, Stout worked for Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder on Playboy's Little Annie Fanny. In 1973, Stout began drawing album covers for the Trademark of Quality bootleg record label. He created 42 sleeves for the label and its subsidiaries, including the Rolling Stones' All-Meat Music (his first), the Yardbirds' Golden Eggs and More Golden Eggs, and the Who's Who's Zoo and Tales from the Who. He became associated with the Firesign Theatre and designed his first official album cover, In the Next World, You're on Your Own, in 1974. Stout also designed the original Rhino Records logo in 1978 and designed a second Firesign Theatre cover for the 1982 Lawyer's Hospital.

From 1975 to 1977, Stout worked as art director for the rock magazine, Bomp! During this time, he became one of the first American contributors to Heavy Metal magazine. He continued to work occasionally, designing posters and album sleeves. These included the poster for Rock 'n' Roll High School featuring the Ramones in 1979, the controversial cover for the compilation album, Beatlesongs, in 1981, and the cover for The Smithereens Play Tommy in 2009. In 1977, Stout painted his first movie poster, for Ralph Bakshi's film Wizards. During his career, Stout has worked on the advertising for over 120 films. In 1978, with Buck Rogers, Stout began his film production design career. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Stout and fellow illustrator Richard Hescox ran a Los Angeles art studio, working on such projects as the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark and pop singer Michael Jackson's video Thriller. Fellow cartoonist Dave Stevens worked for a time in the same studio. Stout has worked on over thirty feature films, including both Conan films, First Blood, The Hitcher, and Invaders From Mars. He was also the production designer of the Masters of the Universe film.

 

Stout illustrated the poster art and wrote the story (and the first draft of the script) of the film The Warrior and the Sorceress for Roger Corman, as well as writing a never-produced dinosaur feature for Jim Henson. For Industrial Light & Magic in 1996, he designed "Edgar", the big bug in Men in Black. Stout was the key character designer for the computer-animated feature Dinosaur (released in 2000). Stout worked as the conceptual designer for The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, and key designer for Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Recent film work includes Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige and creature design for Frank Darabont's & Stephen King's The Mist. He is slated to work on del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness as well as a proposed John Carter of Mars film.