Ya recognize this image?
Do you KNOW it intimately...
Maybe even having sketched a version of it yourself?
More complex, but how about this one?
Both of these are images with INSTANT recognition...
Images that come from the world of Advanced Dungeons
and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons took you into a
world where you could go on an adventure as an elf,
hobbit, warrior or sorcerer. Epic battles or quiet
exploration...
It was a world of enjoyment.
With that enjoyment of adventures far and wide,
there was often some sort of cool art. Sometimes it
was art to show or explain something, sometimes
it was just a nice accompaniment.
Trampier helped us along
in our imagining of these worlds.
He made it easier to understand some of the
creatures described to us with some sort of rule book,
and he inspired (many of us) to try our own pen at
works much like his...
....No matter HOW dark they may be.
He even created and drew
a comic which appeared in Dragon Magazine.
Sometime in the late 1980's,
Trampier disappeared from the scene.
He stopped producing work for Dungeons and Dragons,
as well as for Dungeon Magazine. This should have
been him at his peak, but for a long time,
he wasn't to be found at all.
He eventually re-surfaced...
...As cab driver number 4, working for
a company in Carbondale Illinois.
The rest of what follows is from Wikipedia:
"...A decade later,
when Trampier's taxi company
went out of business and he discovered
he had cancer, he began to entertain the idea
of republishing some of his early artwork in book form.
He also agreed to end his long isolation from the gaming community by appearing as a special guest at
a Carbondale gaming convention scheduled
for April 2014. However, he died two weeks
before the convention."
David Trampier, rest in peace.
You hid from the limelight. But before
sneaking off into the shadows though,
you entertained, and you inspired.
And I know I'm not the only one thankful.
