Homage 1978
Here's the cartoon homage that was produced during Episode 6.
More than a few people assumed that for the show focusing on 1978 I’d choose to do an homage to the cover of the original Player’s Handbook, and I can understand why. That painting of two thieves prying jewels from the an idol of Moloch while their adventuring party cleans up the remains of a fight with lizardmen is just about the MOST classic piece of D&D art ever produced. Created by the late, lamented Dave Trampier, it’s been honored, homaged, and reproduced more times and in more formats than I can begin to recount. And, in fact, that’s exactly WHY I chose NOT to interpret it this time.
It’s been done before. Heck, I’VE done it before … on at least three different occasions. And there is so many classic pieces of art in that 1978 book (some of which I’ve ALSO already done homages to) … so I decided to turn my cartoonish hand to another truly iconic piece of art from that original PHB … “A Paladin in Hell.”
This full-page illustration by Dave Sutherland (who was the artist who painted the Basic Set cover I recreated in Episode 5) appeared on page 23 of the PHB, and was seared into the brains of every 1E player I’ve ever met. It was a source of discussion, debate among players, and an inspiration to DMs, who tried to craft for our players adventures that were as epic as the one that brought that paladin to such a state.
In fact, it was so memorable and inspirational to one young gamer, that twenty years later, when he himself was on staff at TSR, he proposed and then designed a full-length adventure based on that long ago piece of art. That designer, of course, is now a legend in his own right—Monte Cook—and the book cover featured an homage to the original artwork, done by the inestimable Fred Fields.
So yeah … I figured it was a strong candidate to be the piece of art I used to celebrate and honor the year 1978 for this show. Because I’m doing these pieces in a square format, I chose to zoom in on the main action (as Fields did for his cover piece) … but I also wanted to add in at least some reference to the hordes of Hell that Sutherland had put in his original … all in a cartoon that I could do at least most of during an hour-long interview show.
Here is the result…
I’m pretty pleased with the result. To be fair, though, during the show I only did the line art for the main two characters … I drew the bone devil and tentacles, and colored the rest of it, in the evening after the show wrapped up.
Next week I’ll be making the first post giving subscribers the opportunity to purchase signed art prints of the cartoon homages produced for this show … and this will be among them. Bear in mind that if you’re a paid subscriber, you get a discount on these prints (and if you pay at the Art Lover level, you get one print per month included with your subscription) … so now’s the time to upgrade your subscription if such things are appealing to you.