Trampier - the master

Very sad to hear of the death - at such a horribly young age - of Dave Trampier. For my money, he was the best artist D&D had; his illustrations summed up how I visualised my dungeons and the one above is for me, THE archetypal dungeon scenario. He was a man who helped to make my memories, and is now a memory himself but what images he's left behind for us to remember him by.

What my players get up to....

...when they're supposed to be concentrating on the game

although in this case, I didn't really mind that much  ;)

(art courtesy of Gullhar's player)

Harpy Christmas, Everybody!

Joshua Hoffine

Do you like macabre and unsettling pictures? Then this link is for you. He's done a series of horror photographs on Pickman's Model and the portfolio is pretty cool too. Don't forget to check out his blog for more details.

(not suitable for your Junior Grognards)

The Battle of R'lyeh

Well, it's a year that I've been posting now. Time flies, and all that. I've got some good stuff coming up soon, so I'll mark the anniversary with a picture that Junior Grognard has done for me.



As you can see, Cthulhu is there, in all his Cyclopean glory, being attacked by a red dragon and many, many warriors. There is, if you look carefully, a water serpent in the river that flows down from the castle. And something with tentacles in the water at the bottom.

I particularly like the thunder and lightning - freak weather is always good for heralding the arrival of a Great Old One.

Scaree Monstaz!

Found this whilst out on the net today. Check out the site - it shouldn't work but it does - hilariously. And I don't even like lolcats.

It also introduced me to the macabre work of Michael Whelan's Halloween collection. Whelan is a brilliant artist anyway and well worth a visit; he does do lighter stuff, honestly.

Art on Friday - Patrick Nicolle

When I visualise the world of Dungeons and Dragons, it's not the High Mediaeval period that I see. Instead, I tend to picture the heroes and warriors as existing in a kind of magical fantasy Dark Ages, complete with Saxons and Vikings, crumbling ruins of Roman magnificence, hauberks and axes. It's a milieu that appeals to me - fallen empires, tough men hacking out new kingdoms with sword and axe, battles and action aplenty.

One artist who supplied my mind with a plethora of images when I was a young grognard was Patrick "Pat" Nicolle (1907-1995). Born in London, he spent most of his youth in the Midlands. He was a founder member of the Arms and Armour Society at the Tower of London. This fed through into his illustrations for comic strips about the Norman invasion and Robin Hood, giving them an authenticity and feel that others struggle to match. One of his earliest jobs was illustrating for the Boys's Own Paper in the 1930s, and he continued with illustrations and comic strips based on tales of High Adventure until, in the late sixties, he was employed by the children's magazine Look and Learn, a staple of my youth, doing the artwork for countless historical articles and series.

His colourful and highly-detailed style of work is all the more impressive when one considers that Look and Learn was a weekly magazine and the turnaround on these pieces must have been tight to say the least. Yet there is no compromise on the workmanship and the attention to detail.

Sadly, like the magazine in which I first encountered his work, he is no longer with us; another link to a bygone age passes. Yet, as with all great artists, he lives on through his work.

I can't find a specific dedicated site for Nicolle's work but here is the link to the Look and Learn site which will take you straight to his pictures.



What I like about this one is the monk on the far left of the picture. While the others are holding up their holy symbols and raising their arms in prayer, he's scarpering.

Vikings! Don't you just love these guys? Always on the move, looking for new lands and new opportunities for plunder. A bit like most adventuring parties I could mention.

A horde of barbarians gatecrash a Roman dinner scene. I love the expression on the face of the lead axeman.

Big battles, axes, swords, warriors - what's not to like?

Macbeth and the Three Witches - this is a picture full of character, and depicts probably most realistically what Macbeth (fl. 1040) might well have looked like. Gotta love those witches!

A minor diversion into the fourteenth century - despite my earlier comments about mediaevality. Nicolle did plenty of this period as well. The guy with the hammer is so evocative - you can almost hear the crunch as the lump hits home.

More Dark Ages in this one, and it's interesting to note that there are also fyrd men and civilians here, as well as some cool scenes of drakkars at full sail and some more combat action.

This is a picture of an episode just after the Battle of Hastings, in which the Saxons turned and cut some pursuing Normans to bits at a place called the Malfoss or Evil Ditch.

About a quarter of a mile to the north-west of the main battle was a deep gully, today known as Oakwood Gill. It was a series of ditches with very steep banks; covered with brambles and undergrowth, it was almost hidden from the fast-moving Normans as the light faded.

Newly arrived Saxons, too late to influence the battle, took up an orderly defensive shieldwall position on the northern bank of the huge ditches and called to any fleeing fyrdsmen to join them.

They lured the Normans, who did not know the lie of the land, towards them and as the invaders charged over the edge, they somersaulted and tumbled headlong into the ditches. More cavalry followed, unable to see much before them, until the ditches were almost full. Anyone who didn't break their back or neck was put to the sword by the Saxons. Unsurprisingly, this particular engagement did not make it onto the Bayeux Tapestry.

Art on Friday - Gary Gianni

A big shout to Trey on this one; in one of his comments on Monday Miniatures, he mentioned Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon and when I checked it out, I was presented with the artwork of Gary Gianni. Going to his site, I found that he had done artwork for several of REH's works, the ones about which Jamie Mal frequently waxes lyrical on his blog.

His style evokes the original pulp era; the sort of imagery which, regrettably, one tends not to see so often any more. When I was young, my mother had a set of Newnes Pictorial Knowledge from 1945, reprinted from a 1936 edition. Being a bookish lad, I read them from cover to cover again and again. The illustrations of historical events sank deep into my subconscious and encounters with the style of the 30s still bring the studious child out in me. N C Wyeth (1882-1945) was another illustrator in a similar style and last week, I mentioned Maxfield Parrish.

Solomon Kane

Kane again

Conan in chains

Some Romans on the hunt for Bran Mak Morn

More Puritan sword fighting

Bran Mak Morn has a little trouble with the Romans.

Here is a sample of Wyeth's work to illustrate the tradition in which Gianni is working.






Modern illustrators are fine in their own way but sometimes, the pulp classics cry out for a certain style. Wyeth had it and Gianni carries it on.

Art on Friday

Today, I'd like to draw your attention, if it hasn't been drawn already, to the art of David Palumbo.

Not this one. Not that I'm saying he's not a good artist. I wouldn't want to offend anyone with muscles as wide as me.




No, his namesake. Someone not quite so...knotty. These pictures give a good idea of Palumbo's style and a demonstration of his superb talent. I'll let the art speak for itself, but do pop over to his site and take a look at the other stuff that is there.










I like this one and I reckon it could double as a picture of Drusetta from Dungeonmum's excellent Portworld fiction.




This one has the look of the 1920s about it, which leads me in to this piece from the great Maxfield Parrish, which has a hint of Palumbo about it.


And of course to show that there is nothing new under the sun, the Parrish piece was referenced by Enya for her album The Memory of Trees.



Pop in tomorrow when I'll have some more hooks for you.

Art on Friday - Marc Simonetti

Today, I'm offering something with a Gallic flavour. Marc's work is very versatile, spanning a wide range of subjects from George Martin to H P Lovecraft. I've tried to include a fair selection of his pieces here but of course as always, a visit to either of his sites is well worth it. Check them out here and here.

Flying Vikings versus Giants - what's not to like?

Sci-fi? Yeah, we do that.

At the Mountains of Madness - one of my favourite HPL stories.

Oh boy, is this party in trouble.

Your date is here, and she's brought her pets with her...

He does pre-Raphaelite as well.

Bad Girl warning!

I only asked if they did prawn crackers with that...

That's all for now, but at some point over the weekend, I've got some more hooks for you. And more solo dungeon adventures next week.

Art on Friday

A bit of a thin week for me post-wise; still, not to worry. Some solo dungeon stuff happening over the weekend, methinks and I'm rather chuffed that my paperback copy of Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold has arrived from Amazon. I have some birthday gift tokens left over so I shall probably order the HP Lovecraft Omnibus (3 volume set) from Waterstones this weekend as well.

But down to business. What art treasures have I found out on the net for you this week? Well, today's artist goes by the handle Gaius31duke - I know no more except that he is a resident of the UK. Never mind - I salute you, friend, when you can turn out brilliant stuff like this:

Did someone mention Ravenloft?

I need to write a dungeon for this...

And this...

I think I'm already writing one for this.

Who needs a film of the Hobbit when you've got images like this?

The inhabitants of Atlantis face some hard truths about climate change.

One pepperoni with anchovies for some guy named Raggi?

"It says ring the bell and ask for Aslan..."

Okay, I'm getting my books, my dice and my pens out right now...


Be sure to go and check out his website via the link above - there is so much cool stuff there that I was very spoilt for choice.