Greetings to all...

I have searched the web on several occasions for some of the original illustrators from the early AD&D books such as Erol Otus, David S. LaForce, David Trampier, Darlene Pekul, and such but never found any references to them or their work.

If anybody has any information on them, please share it.

Thanks.

Erol Otus is still working. Recently he had illos (including the cover) in The Dungeon Alphabet and there's this, in to regards which, I don't even know what to think

IRRC Erol Otis is still around a little and known by a few people.

David Trampier turned his back on gaming, drives a cab, won't talk about it.  It's speculated that TSR's attempt to steal the rights to Wormy pissed him off but really nobody knows.  Old Geezer might but hasn't really said.  The above is largely from someone who went to great lengths to track him down and ask about getting original art.

I would assume many went on to get real jobs and lives.  Because let's face it they were amateurs.  There's nothing wrong with loving and respecting their work, but face facts, they were not professionally trained artists.  (thank goodness)

[This reply to Aos]

Hmmm.. Interesting.  

Otus' style looks very different now. Of course, it has been over 40 years since he did the stuff we all know him for.

Thanks for sharing.

Quote from: David Johansen;491272David Trampier turned his back on gaming, drives a cab, won't talk about it.  It's speculated that TSR's attempt to steal the rights to Wormy pissed him off but really nobody knows.  Old Geezer might but hasn't really said.  The above is largely from someone who went to great lengths to track him down and ask about getting original art.

Fascinating. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff like this.

QuoteI would assume many went on to get real jobs and lives.

LOL

Sutherland is dead. He was hitting the bottle pretty hard later in life, from what I gather.

Darlene is a graphic designer. She briefly came back to the fold to do the Castle Zagyg field map, but that's it. Interview here. She sounds like a real 'character,' to put it politely.

Sutherland was one of the last (only?) holdouts from the era of Original D&D - his art graces Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and other original supplements of the day who lasted up until the late 1990s when WotC came along.  He'd moved from art, including cartography, to art direction.  The story as I understand it was that WotC dismissed him and he (at a very late stage in life to "restart" on a different career path) had to take work as a long haul trucker.

Fortunately for his family, Paul Stormberg contacted him and was able to auction off much of his original art and doodads from his nearly three decades at TSR and left a moderate inheritance for his kids.

David A. Trampier's "story" has been passed around the internet so much all the surface details have been worn smooth.  Disappeared under mysterious circumstances, tried to sue TSR to get Wormy back to create more Wormy comics/books independently, that failed, he vanished entirely, then turned up in the late 1990s in an article in a student newspaper as an overnight cabbie in Carbondale.  Brother in law Tom Wham (also an occasional TSR artist, and independent game designer - Snit Smasher, Snit's Revenge, etc.) confirmed that that was "the" Dave Trampier but that he didn't want to be bothered, had no interest in D&D, fantasy gaming, art, or any of that.  I have heard at least one story that prior to the collapse of pen and paper RPGs, in the very early 2000s at least one well-known company (not WotC) basically offered to drive a truckload of money to his house and dump it on his yard for artwork and were told not so politely to fuck off.

As mentioned, Erol Otus is still out there producing art, and at fairly reasonable prices too.

Jeff Dee is still in the gaming biz only his focus is Villains & Vigilantes.

Darlene Pekul did the fold-out map in the Yggsburgh hardback for C&C some years back.  She's got her own website now and just goes by Darlene.  Met her in passing at LGGC III in 2006.  Very nice lady.  Odd, but very nice.

Quote from: FASERIP;491279Darlene is a graphic designer. She briefly came back to the fold to do the Castle Zagyg field map, but that's it. Interview here. She sounds like a real 'character,' to put it politely.

Wow. That is quite the loon.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;491263I have searched the web on several occasions for some of the original illustrators from the early AD&D books such as Erol Otus, David S. LaForce, David Trampier, Darlene Pekul, and such but never found any references to them or their work.

How, exactly, are you searching the web?

In the future, I recommend Google. You can reach the homepages of every single one of these artists* within two clicks.

* Except the famously reclusive Trampier, but for him you can get a very informative Wikipedia article and several assorted articles.

Quote from: RPGPundit;491357Wow. That is quite the loon.RPGPundit

Meh.  I find her pretty much below average in the hierarchy of nutjob fantasy artists.  Her overweening hubris is what struck me most about the interview.

Quote from: RPGPundit;491357Wow. That is quite the loon.

RPGPundit

We should all be thankful she had time to do rpg illustrations in between building the pyramids, warding off pandimensional negative energy beings, and teaching the secrets of Eck at the learning annex.

That being said, I like some of her illustrations.  She's awfully full of herself, though.

Quote"Instinctively, someone within TLG grasped the concept in 2006 at their Lake Geneva Gaming Convention, and gave me the title, "Our Lady of Gaming." That designation crystallized things for me. Why not? "

I was the Sideshow Raheem.....

Regards,
David R

Quote from: FASERIP;491279Darlene is a graphic designer. She briefly came back to the fold to do the Castle Zagyg field map, but that's it. Interview here.

Thank you very much for posting this. Very interesting, indeed.

QuoteShe sounds like a real 'character,' to put it politely.

LOL - Yeah, I have to agree with your assessment.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;491359How, exactly, are you searching the web?

In the future, I recommend Google.

"Google"? Is that some kind of search engine or something? Never heard of it.

Will it work on my Mosaic 1.3 browser?

Quote from: VectorSigma;491385We should all be thankful she had time to do rpg illustrations in between building the pyramids, warding off pandimensional negative energy beings, and teaching the secrets of Eck at the learning annex.

That being said, I like some of her illustrations.  She's awfully full of herself, though.

Meh.

A lot of people in the industry seem to be that way. I make a lot of calls to Palladium Books to clarify things, but I've never been able to get Kevin Siembieda on the phone. He's always "too busy" to take calls.

By way of comparison, Charlie Krank at Chaosium has been very forthcomming the few times I've had to call there.