This Week's Guest ... Jefferson Dunlap
Our guest this week is the graphic prepress specialist and archivist for D&D—Jefferson Dunlap.
Jefferson Dunlap has been the Graphic Prepress Manager at Wizards of the Coast for thirty years and has preflighted EVERY D&D product since the TSR purchase. He is also the archivist of both TSR & Wizards D&D files. He's even run D&D for the State of Washington’s Secretary of State.
Join the live chatroom and learn a bit about a side of the D&D business you might never have considered, from someone who loves and knows the game and its history as deeply as any editor or designer who ever worked in Lake Geneva or Renton. Episode 54 will stream live at 6pm Pacific time on Wednesday, February 12.
While Stan! chats with Jefferson, he’ll be working on a cartoon homage to Clint Cearley's cover painting for the 2023 hardcover The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons.
If you have any questions for Jefferson, post them in reply to this message. Remember that if you’re a paid subscriber, your questions get bumped to the head of the queue.
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How much of your yunzer accent (if it wasn't beaten out of you) have you retained? If it's not too painful to discuss, can you tell us what it was that happened with the Deck of Many Things production? It sounds like Murphy's Law ran rampant. Are there parallels to what you do and what it appears that Dave Arneson's role was back in Lake Geneva? (I'm referring to what I learned from the When We Were Wizards podcast series). Are you the last member of the 'Class of 95' to still be at D&D? Do you have your own 'Dewey' cataloging system for the archives?
Jefferson is awesome! Fantastic person. I am curious how Jefferson sees printing and distribution has changed at Wizards across his career. What are the big changes? And, does printing in the US cost much more than printing books in China? If so, what are the advantages? Thanks!