Originally shared by Paul Gorman
The Road Not Taken in D&D Art
It's not far fetched to imagine D&D might have started with a different artistic direction when we look at book covers of the period, including those from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, Penguin Science Fiction, or Arkham House. Wargames of the era off...
https://quicklyquietlycarefully.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-road-not-taken-in-d-art.html
The Road Not Taken in D&D Art
It's not far fetched to imagine D&D might have started with a different artistic direction when we look at book covers of the period, including those from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, Penguin Science Fiction, or Arkham House. Wargames of the era offer similar examples, including one from Gygax.
Interesting post.. D&D art and design definitely had a wide range of inspirations, from wargame design aesthetics and book covers to Weird Tales covers and comics like Eerie and Creepy from the 50's and 60's.
ReplyDeleteAs for the wargame visual aesthetic, I'd say original edition Traveller was probably the first to rock that look - the black cover with color accent line was a pretty striking design, and lacked any traditional sci fi elements.
Speaking of other ways D&D's art direction could have gone, Clyde Caldwell (one of TSR's primary artists in the 80's) did some illustrating for Heavy Metal magazine in the late 70's before he was picked up by TSR.
ReplyDeleteHave to say, his early stuff was a lot more interesting than his TSR work - how cool would it have been if he'd done work like this for the D&D line? Cover of Heavy Metal magazine, August 1978 (Vol 2, No 4):
http://www.heavymetalmagazinefanpage.com/0878l.jpg
Andy: That link wouldn't work for me. :(
ReplyDeleteI posted at that blog, and gladly share it here: I recall the not-so-recent outrages among some D&D players modern and old school that Greg Bell's 0e art offerings were s***, but, I never held to that particular ideology, because as a fledgling artist in the 70's & 80's, I could not have done much better, and I've always tried to maintain that "if you could've done better by TSR in 1974" I'd accept your critique of Bell's art as legitimate, if not functional.
Of course, when measured against today's fantasy aesthetics, Bell's critics have a lot more leverage, but I guess that depends on which set of lenses you're wearing when looking at D&D as a pastime. I still look at it through 70's tinted lenses, not because I'm nostalgic about the game, its that this version still evokes the same spark of creativity in me from my favorite period in fantasy & science fiction, a trend that still continues to influence me.
I never thought to compare Bell's (or the other 0e artists') 0e art with his novel cover artist contemporaries. I'd say that D&D in 1974 not only brought out a new style of gaming, but they were also on the cutting edge of packaging their product through the artistic visions of Greg Bell & company! In fact, I think that some D&D products could have been presented with art more abstract, but I think that D&D without DIS & DAT, Otus, Dee, Bell et al, would have been a mistake. Even some of Otus' wilder pieces weren't used in D&D (to my knowledge), that I particularly like and would love to use as illustrations in my games.