Post by jlv61560 on Mar 29, 2014 1:38:06 GMT -5
I was sorry to see this evening that David A. Trampier (artist of the cover of the iconic Player Handbook from the 1st Edition AD&D and the much-loved "Wormy" comic) passed away on the 24th of March, apparently from cancer.
He abruptly left TSR 26 years ago and never even accepted any of the money they owed him for the work they were still publishing once he'd left. While the details of that break were never made public, rumor has it they revolved around TSR refusing to honor a contract they'd made to either publish, or permit him to publish, an anthology of his "Wormy" comic that ran in The Dragon Magazine from issue number 9 up until his last strip in (if memory serves) issue 162. He forever after refused to have anything whatsoever to do with TSR, WotC, or the gaming community at large. TSR was guilty of many atrocities in the gaming community about then, and died a well-deserved death when it went under a few years later, but far from the least of their wrongs was removing from the RPG family this wonderful talent and his superb products over the past quarter of a century.
According to a blog entry published in Carbondale, Illinois, he had recently begun to consider returning to the community scene by appearing as the Guest of Honor next month (April) in a local game convention there in Carbondale, where he had been driving a cab since at least 1998, and perhaps selling some of his work in order to pay for his cancer treatment. His sudden passing took all concerned by surprise apparently, and is a great loss to the entire RPG community -- especially all of us who grew up admiring his work. To my mind, he was the best of the artists illustrating the early D&D/AD&D/etc products from TSR, though many of you may disagree and have your own preferences for that title. RIP Mr. Trampier -- you deserved far better than you got from life. You will be missed.
He abruptly left TSR 26 years ago and never even accepted any of the money they owed him for the work they were still publishing once he'd left. While the details of that break were never made public, rumor has it they revolved around TSR refusing to honor a contract they'd made to either publish, or permit him to publish, an anthology of his "Wormy" comic that ran in The Dragon Magazine from issue number 9 up until his last strip in (if memory serves) issue 162. He forever after refused to have anything whatsoever to do with TSR, WotC, or the gaming community at large. TSR was guilty of many atrocities in the gaming community about then, and died a well-deserved death when it went under a few years later, but far from the least of their wrongs was removing from the RPG family this wonderful talent and his superb products over the past quarter of a century.
According to a blog entry published in Carbondale, Illinois, he had recently begun to consider returning to the community scene by appearing as the Guest of Honor next month (April) in a local game convention there in Carbondale, where he had been driving a cab since at least 1998, and perhaps selling some of his work in order to pay for his cancer treatment. His sudden passing took all concerned by surprise apparently, and is a great loss to the entire RPG community -- especially all of us who grew up admiring his work. To my mind, he was the best of the artists illustrating the early D&D/AD&D/etc products from TSR, though many of you may disagree and have your own preferences for that title. RIP Mr. Trampier -- you deserved far better than you got from life. You will be missed.
