R.I.P. Dave Trampier
One of the finest illustrators of role-playing games passed away about a week ago. He was a major contributor to the 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual, Player's Handbook, and Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as others. He wrote the long-term comic in Dragon magazine, Wormy. His work was really excellent and Wormy was getting pretty outstanding toward the end. It ended abruptly, soon after a Wormy collection was announced, in 1988. Wormy stopped appearing in Dragon, money was refunded for the collection, and he simply vanished from the industry. In 2003, a campus newspaper had a small article about a local cab driver named Dave Trampier. Well, it turned out that he was the same guy, but he politely declined any offers of work or whatnot. Just this year he had a stroke and was suffering from cancer. Needing money, he started pawning off his old art and attended a convention, toying with the idea of publishing his Wormy collection, after all these years. Now, he's dead, making these recent developments all the more tragic. Here's to you, Dave!
Some links:
http://skylandgames.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-strange-case-of-dave-a-trampier/ -- A better summary than what I just wrote.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/david-a-trampier-obituary -- A short article with more art samples.
Some links:
http://skylandgames.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-strange-case-of-dave-a-trampier/ -- A better summary than what I just wrote.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/david-a-trampier-obituary -- A short article with more art samples.