Homage: 1986
For all subscribers: Here is your exclusive advance look at the cartoon homage from Episode 14.
While chatting with David “Zeb” Cook during episode 14, I worked on a cartoon homage to the cover of Queen of the Spiders, a 1986 collection of adventures that compiles the “Giants” series, the “Drow” series, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits into a single 152-page book.
I love the painting that Keith Parkinson did for the book … but it’s not without controversy. It walks directly into the debate about the Eurocentric focus of early (and not JUST “early”) D&D products … and whether the drow—the “dark elves” who were inherently evil—were intended to represent African-Americans or other people of color. This debate and accusations have gone on for decades, and only in recent years has D&D begun to successfully make the game’s art more inclusive across the line.
When preparing to do this homage, I struggled with whether to reflect the image as painted—where the figures are CLEARLY based on real-world people of African descent and don’t seem particularly elven at all (though they do SCREAM 1980s glam fashion)—or to make changes so that the characters looked more like how drows have been depicted recently.
In the end, I decided to maintain Parkinson’s original stylistic choice. For better or worse, that’s how it WAS … and it IS a terrific painting. And if my cartoon homage inspires debate further about racism in the products or the era … well, that’s important, too.
All controversy aside … as a drawing, I like how this one came out!
As a subscriber to this newsletter, you’re seeing this art three days before it is released for general consumption. You also have the option to buy an art print of this or any of the cartoon homages (and if you’re a paid subscriber, you get a discount on those purchases).
Please share this newsletter with friends who are also fans of Dungeons & Dragons. The best promotion we can get is word of mouth … and your opinion matters! Drop us a line if you have any comments or suggestions for the newsletter or the livestream shows.