Baleful Beasts

HAVE FUN, KID

Rod Ruth, illustrator of children's books like Album of Dinosaurs and Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures -- which I compulsively checked and re-checked out of any number of childhood libraries and public school media centers as a child -- is an unsung master. Everything he painted was filled with mad, vibrant energy and color (and often, terror).

If I could commission RPG artwork from anyone who has passed beyond the veil, this man would be near the top of the list.

(Yes, this post is laughably low on content. It's been an extremely busy week for me.)

Unholy Matrimony

Hey look, more Adventurer Conqueror King content!

As I was a "Visionary" contributor to ACKS' original Kickstarter funding project, I was given the opportunity to place an art order for an illustration I'd like to see in the final product. Not long after I pledged my support, Ryan Browning, the lead artist for the game, contacted me and asked what I'd like to see. I had recently read a section of the draft rules document that detailed the creation of crossbreed monsters -- something that high-level mage characters can attempt in the Adventurer Conqueror King system -- and asked to see some part of that process.

(By the way, the crossbreeding stuff is just one small example of how ACKS goes out of its way to explain and support the backdrop of classic fantasy RPGs in its rules system: we now know why there are all these bizarre composite monsters roaming the countryside.)

Working with Ryan to nail down the exact image we wanted was a pleasure. We ended up with the illustration you see above: a giant centipede/shark hybrid bursting from its creation vessel, lunging out at the viewer. A new terror unleashed!

The Autarch crew recently posted a detailed account of Ryan's artistic process. As you can see, he did a fantastic job of working from my vague guidelines and turning them into something fun and dynamic. I'm proud to be a contributor (in my own small way) to ACKS.

Unearthed

Over Grognardia way, James Maliszewski reminded us of the existence of a line of AD&D-branded stationery and binders produced by a company called St. Regis in the early 1980s.

It turns out these were illustrated by a man named Alex Nuckols. It's beautiful, classically rendered, and downright classy work that gives my beloved Greg Irons-illustrated AD&D Coloring Album a run for its money. I know many gripe about the merchandising of D&D in the early 80s, but in my opinion, some of the best (if not the best) D&D-themed artwork of the era wasn't being produced by TSR at all. Nuckols' work for St. Regis is a perfect example.

There's a gallery of several Nuckols-illustrated St. Regis products at the Tome of Treasures forum. A lot of the scans and photos are frustratingly blurry, but even this limited glimpse is well worth your time if you're into D&D fantasy art in the least.

(By the way, I'd be more than willing to bet that some of these images - including the one posted above - were originally intended to depict scenes from J.R.R. Tolkien's work. That looks like Bard of Laketown slaying Smaug to me, and I'd be shocked if the "Death Rider" art wasn't supposed to be one of the Ring-Wraiths seeking out Frodo and company.)

To Valhalla

I would tell you to rest in peace, Frank, but something tells me you'd prefer to kick some ass.

Help Me Out Here

Tell me that I what I think is happening here isn't really happening:

Because it sure as hell looks like an elf is about to shoot a terrier point-blank in the face with an arrow. "Drop the hammer or the dog gets it!"

Black and White and Red All Over

Over on Grognardia, James Maliszewski recently made a post lauding the look of Labyrinth Lord. (Ahh, alliteration!) I have to agree with him. Though they lack the slick, glossy look of most RPGs these days, they really are striking books, and look especially good if you have both the core rules and the new Advanced Edition Companion.

Tough Steve Zieser's artwork certainly has its charm, I think the real strength of these covers is the color scheme; or rather, the lack of one. The choice to go with red type on top of high-contrast pen-and-ink work was a good one, I think. Though I doubt it was the intent of the creators, they remind me of the gritty, DIY aesthetic of early punk album sleeves, like something the Subhumans would use as an EP cover.

Interestingly, the image I posted here is the only RPG cover my wife, who is something of an ex-punk, has ever said anything positive about. Makes me think that Zak Smith might have been on to something when he suggested "DIY D&D" as an alternate name for "old school" or "homebrew" games...

Xvart-Art

I was flipping through my copy of UK2: The Sentinel the other day and found a post-it note (complete with workplace logo) stuck on the inside back cover.

I only dimly remember drawing this guy.

I always thought the drawing of the xvart in the Fiend Folio was kind of cruddy. Looks like I took it upon myself to reinterpret it.

He's got kind of a bat thing going on, which I guess works okay, and it looks like he's having a pretty good day. Not sure about that earring, though.

(For comparison, I've also posted the original Fiend Folio version. It's not the worst piece of art in the book, but up against the Russ Nicholson illustrations it definitely suffers... I don't know if mine's any better, mind you. You can see I did try to incorporate some of the more notable features, though.)

Inspiration Dump II

As a deck-clearing exercise, I'm going to post some images that are sitting on my hard drive, doing nothing worthwhile:

I hope to have the time to post something more substantive in the future.

Folio Imbroglio

I think that a lot of the illustrations in the original Fiend Folio are begging for New Yorker-style captions.

"Have you heard the good news?"

Now, I love me some gorbel, but that picture's hardly the only one worthy of captioning. Anybody else want to try?

Crabman Attack!

WARNING WARNING CRABMAN ATTACK

CRUSTACEAN CONTROL TECHNICIANS HAVE BEEN MOBILIZED

CITIZENS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID THE CRABCLAW CAVERNS AREA

ON AUTHORITY OF GALDOS CLAWCRUSHER

Jim Holloway Makes Me Smile

The first RPG books I ever bought were the AD&D Monster Manual and Monster Manual II. I had played AD&D a little with my older siblings, but I didn't buy the books because I thought was going to use the rules. I bought them for the pictures.

To this day, I'm fascinated by illustrated, encyclopedic books that list lots of creatures or character. If you looked at my bookshelf during my childhood you'd find things like Donald F. Glut's Dinosaur Dictionary, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and any number of illustrated wildlife guides and encyclopedias. The Monster Manuals were a natural fit.

Monster Manual II was my favorite, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it contained a lot of really inventive creatures - though they crop up on "dumb monster" lists these days, I loved weird stuff like the executioner's hood or the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing. Secondly, it had the boggle, which was a favorite of mine, since my brother's long-running AD&D character had been reincarnated as one. Third, I just plain liked the artwork more.

Now, don't misunderstand me. These days I've found plenty to like in the original Monster Manual, not least of which is the fantastically cool artwork of Dave Trampier. But at the time, the guy whose art really appealed to me was Jim Holloway. His work was clean, clear, and it popped off the page. More to the point, I felt like his monsters had personality, and as they say in Pulp Fiction, "personality goes a long way". Holloway's grippli had a serene sort of smile on its face that, as an eight-year-old, instantly made me want to hang out with him. His tasloi stepped out of the shadows with a mischievous smirk. His stench kow looked downright displeased with itself. I loved it (and still do).

I also appreciate the art Holloway's done for various adventure modules. His characters look like D&D player characters should. They carry chipped swords, battered shields, and mismatched, scavenged armor. They drink, laugh, goof off, make rude gestures, shout battle cries, chop monsters down with bloodthirsty sneers, and flee in terror. It's fun stuff.

I recently found Jim Holloway's site and while it's a bit clunky, it's worth visiting. I'm especially impressed with some of the revamps he's done of his original monster illustrations (they're about halfway down the page). Check it out.

Onward, Dragon Warriors

My longtime friend Kent Bonifield drew an excellent sketch of the player characters from my Dragon Warriors PBP that I had to share. From left to right, we've got:

Iblis Smythe, a.k.a. "Ib the Pale", Assassin (played by my brother Chris)

Taebryn Kayatlaen, Barbarian (played by Bret)

Tobias Strangwald Wroxley-Nott, Sorcerer (played by Kent)

Olethros, Warlock (played by Keith)

Sir Yezekael of Rozhan, Knight (played by Dave, a.k.a. noisms)

Kent's art will soon be gracing the pages of at least one professional RPG publication (which I'm not allowed to mention by name just yet), but until that day, you can see more of his work here.

Inspiration Dump

These images aren't doing any good just sitting around on my hard drive!

Arthur Adams draws himself a mean sexy snake-lady. I was thinking of writing up D&D stats for this one, but then decided that between lamias, yuan-ti, mariliths, and succubi, it'd be pretty redundant.

This is a prehistoric animal whose scientific name escapes me at the moment. The image is called "Suthirinodon", but that was from a Japanese site, and they always butcher scientific names when translating them into katakana and then back into Roman characters. Anyway, "moleratpig" seems like an appropriate description. An animal like this would be the ancestor of the snuffling, tusked, xenophobic dwarves of the Freed Lands setting.

Jeff Rients posted this bad boy long ago. I am a big hobgoblin fan, but more than that, I love the Miyazaki-esque feel to this guy. This is literally one of my favorite RPG-related images, ever, and I wish I could find out who drew it.

Found this guy on a Russian-hosted site about a Forgotten Realms campaign. Looks like it might be D&D 3e art, but it looked vaguely Central Asian/Eastern European to me, so I saved it for Freed Lands inspiration.

Caldwellian Unnaturalism

OH GOD NO CLYDE NOT AGAINPUT THE PIPE DOWN CLYDE PLEASE

Jeff Easley 3:16 Says...

...you just got eaten by a Triceratops.

A Revolutionary New Approach

I don't really buy modules for D&D anymore, but this kind of paradigm shift in product diversification bodes well for the future of the hobby. Kudos to Goodman Games!

It's oddly heartwarming to see the skank-riffic art of Clyde Caldwell make its triumphant return to D&D.

Seriously, though, I appreciate Joseph Goodman's willingness to poke fun at his own products, and I like the attitude of Goodman Games a lot. Their Dungeon Denizens book for 4e has been getting a lot of use in our campaign, and I'm looking forward to flipping through their new print magazine, Level Up.

Keith Parkinson Was Awesome

Exhibit 1.

Exhibit 2.

Exhibit 3.

Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury: I rest my case.

Who?

I don't know why, but it really seems like nobody can get the owlbear right. It's a simple concept, really, but practically all of the official artwork makes it look more like an eaglebear. Look at this guy to the right, for example.

I mean, what's the first thing you think of when you think of an owl? I don't know about you, but I think of big yellow eyes. Am I weird?

I've seen miniatures and fan drawings that get the idea, but TSR, and later Wizards of the Coast, didn't seem to be able to hire artists that did.

This is the kind of stuff I think about all day. Maybe I need help...

Impending Doom

Larry MacDougall (a.k.a. "Doog") was one of my favorite fantasy RPG artists back in the 90s. These days his art is a bit more fairy-tale than the grimy sword & sorcery stuff he did for Earthdawn and Palladium, but he still does some great work. (Incidentally, I think his current style would be a great fit for Dragon Warriors.)

I especially like "No Quarter", seen here. It's rather whimsical, but there's still a sense of tension and menace. After well over a year of playing big, cinematic action games, this painting - along with that AD&D Coloring Album - has got me longing for something with a higher risk factor for the characters. I think I miss really worrying about my character getting killed.

(I also love the guy in the middle with the axe, well behind the shieldbearers and spearmen.)

Judge, Book, Cover

You know, for a game called "Dungeons & Dragons", it's strange to see what illustrations have ended up on the covers of the main rulebook. We've got people riding horses, people climbing on statues, people breaking down doors... it seems like only the various versions of the Basic Set really went for the obvious choice: characters facing off against a dragon in a dungeon.

When the 4th edition of the game was announced, it looked like Wizards of the Coast had finally figured things out. This is one of the first promotional images they released:

Pretty great, right? For the first time, it looks like we have a cover image depicting a full-blown, four-man party of adventurers in a dungeon, locking horns with a dragon. We've lost the piles of treasure, but hey, you can't have it all. I immediately assumed this would be the cover for the new Player's Handbook, or at least a new starter set.

I assumed wrong. The 4th edition PHB ended up showing a pair of characters standing around and striking 1990s-style comic book poses, a motif that has been continued on the new PHB2. No action, no story, just posing.

And the dungeon-dragon picture? What became of it? Well, it ended up being used as the cover of a pack of character sheets. Yeah, those things nobody buys anymore.

Kind of sad, really.