A BELATED R.I.P.

R.I.P David A. Trampier.  Born in April 22 1954, Trampier died in March 24 2014. I went back to his work when writing the post "Dunder Blunder." I never knew much about him when I was in my early days of gaming. He signed his work with both DAT and Tramp. He is best known for his work on Dungeons & Dragons artwork and his illustrations for Dragon magazine. His "Wormy" comic was sheer genius. I loved his use of color that pushed the boundaries of the then comic art excepted standards. His work for my generation of gamers was the touchstone of imagination. He defined both monsters and the spirit of adventure. 

 It was in 1977, that TSR began to upgrade their game into a much slicker version. The first book was the "Monster Manuel." Among the artists that contributed to this book was Trampier. Dragon magazine gave it good reviews saying the illustrations were worth the price alone. But it was the "Player's Handbook" iconic cover that set David apart. It is a classic image that has been recreated over and over. As the adage goes," A picture is worth a thousand words" this image sums up the game. His comic, "Wormy," needs further

examination. The a fore named dragon first appeared in Dragon #9. It was filled with different monsters from D&D but shown from their point of view. 

Some where in the late 1980s, Trampier simply vanished. "Wormy" stopped midway through the story arch at Issue #138 (1988). Reportedly mail containing payments and royalty checks were returned unopened.  Phil Foglio, creator of the Dragon Magazine strip, "What's New?" is quoted as saying "When an artist's checks are returned uncashed, he is presumed dead."

And so it was presumed. That was until four years later when Southern Illinois college student, Arin Thompson did an article for the local university paper on night time taxi lifestyle and unknowingly interviewed Trampier, publishing both his name and picture. David was wooed once more for new work or the rights to old, but to no avail. 

In 2013, Trampier suffered a mild stroke, loss of employment and if that wasn't enough ... found out he had cancer. He sold eight pieces of his art ... including the 1977 Dungeon Master's Screen artwork ... to Scott Thorne, head of  Castle Perilous Games & Books. Thorne was hoping to arrange a resurgence of "Wormy" but Trampier died shortly before the meetings were to be. 

I have read of some talk about difficulties that David Trampier had with the business side of art and what is expected from the management side. Maybe this is the why of his turning away from his art. I don't know ... maybe driving a cab was a performance art for him. All I can say is, "Thank you, Dave." What he gave was a gift I treasure.

BEAUTY IS ...

... in the eye of the Beholder!

The Beholder is a favorite monster from the Dungeon and Dragons game. Well ... maybe for the DM. For the players it's quite a challenge. Basically a giant floating eyeball with eye tentacles sprouting out the top. Along with being resistant to magic each eye has a power. Some of the rays coming from the eyes can paralyze, charm, cause fear, petrify, and even disintegrate. And lets not even talk about it's death ray. It's only redeeming feature is that the beholder's drool cures the common cold. 

At least that's the rumor. 

DUNDER BLUNDER

Some 35 years ... <brushes away cobwebs> ... I was of the mind to try and crack the comic strip syndicate nut. This idea is something that only comes to the naive, the young or the crazy. You have a better chance to win the lottery than get syndicated and today it is almost is impossible. There is a certain feelings that there needs to be governmental protection as the newspaper cartoonist are placed on the endangered list. Check out the documentary Stripped on Netflix if you want to explore more. 

So the concept I wanted to explore  was a variation of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. I had a false start and decided to try a throw away. At the time I was playing Dungeons and Dragons with my first group and was reading Dragon magazine. They were running a comics section with only two or three features of any worth. "What's New" and especially David Tampier"s "Wormy"were head and shoulders above the other content.  I tried to kill two birds with one stone. So I came up with Dunder's Dungeon and submitted it to Dragon magazine. 

Their response nearly crushed me. They just didn't say no ... they came up with 10 bullet points on why they didn't like it. Some had value and I took the comments to heart and tried to work it into the other strip. Other comments were pretty mean and made little sense when I compared them to what they were printing. I was confused and hurt. Thank God for having Dad in my life at that point. He calmly asked me to read note #10. 

"We are not presently in the market for a continuing feature. Please feel free to submit single panel cartoons."

The light bulb went off and then I was on a mission to prove myself. I did three single cartoons and sent them in. Same drawing level ... same level of humor. Out of the three, they excepted two, printing one. (Issue #50) I learned a couple of lessons about life and editors thanks to Pop.



Anyway ... I rarely throw anything away. Just ask Yoko. I am at this point interested in exploring motion comics and my mind went to redoing Dunder's Dungeon. As I already had 12 episodes, I figured I could just slap them together. You know, at little editing in Photoshop and it would be done. Easy peasy! But as in all things Morgan, this has turned out to be more involved than I originally thought. Besides figuring out the mechanics I am trying to correct mistakes. Hopefully in the 35 years I've learned something to better the strip.

Or maybe I'm just going to make a whole new set of mistakes. 

COREL PAINTER X3

So what the ... are they so superstitious that they can't just say 13. Lucky 13. X3 ... combining Roman and Arabic numerals ... sounds like a rocket ship from some old Flash Gordon serial ... The X3! Yoko's lucky number is 13 ... so by the laws of community property, that makes it my lucky number as well. In this case it proves true.

Painter X3 is ... I think ... two versions at this point behind the current issue. So the lucky thing is that they are practically giving them away. The price dropped in the last week $400. And still it is a usable program. HELL !!! If version 10 was Windows 8 compliant ... I'd still be using that. Now I know you are saying ... another art program! Why does he need this one, especially when he has Photoshop? Painter as it's name implies, is skewed to, by design mimic watercolors, chalk, inks, acrylics and oils. Photoshop is an image editor that one can paint with. Painter is also the last program  I lost in the crash. I feel the return of normalcy. 

The only thing is this color blinded artist is not very painterly. And while learning something new is the last thing I really need right now ... I have always loved this program. I don't know if I will ever get away from my linear vision but here is the first thing I ever did with this latest version. Am I happy with it? No. Will there be a lot of searching on YouTube for painting tutorials? Yes. I do, however, take pride in the fact that this was done completely within the computer. 

Not too bad ... for a starting point. 

THE MOUSE THAT ROARED

Sometimes something as small a a mouse can be the monster. What can I say??? 

EEEKKK!!!

DURIN'S DAY

"Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond.

                                                                             Eric Fraser's "Durin"s Day 
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin'sDay when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But it will not help us much , I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."
                                                       "The Hobbit" - J.R.R. Tolkien

Poor Thorin. No WiFi signal ... no Siri to ask in good olde Middle Earth. All he would of had to of done was click on this link:

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/d/durinsday.html

and he would of found out this year, Durin's Day is on October 13th. Except on other sites I've seen it listed at being on the 14th. That's a long time for a hobbit to be waiting for the thrush to knock. 

Anyway ... so in honor of Durin's Day I am enclosing the first picture from my new journal of a dwarf ... I'm not sure if it's Durin but he says it's his day.

I hope you enjoy. And have a great Durin's Day!!!

CHARACTER DESIGN

Kim Rivers is a deer soul to my heart. We met in my college days. A ringer to preform Bill Lorenzen's play, "Voo Doo" we were part of EPCOT's Prominade Players. A real talent. How often did I hear her say, Every joke contains a little truth."

As I saw this in the paper I, from a far I heard her mouth these words.

I am struggling now ... for months really. I have been working on character designs for what I hope to be a motion comic. It's been far too long and I am still circling. Still working. too cute ... too simple ... too complex. 


<sigh>

Well to continue is to live.