Hmm, I misspoke. Allow me to correct myself. I should have said first four, rather than the big four. Calling them the big four was be making a judgement that I am truly not qualified to make. I can say that the work of the four below fills me with joy, thought much of that joy is asinspired by nostalgia for those days as much as it is the art.
The four I was referring to are Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Bill Willingham and Jim Roslof. Trampier would certainly be in any list of biggies for his work on the cover of the original AD&D Player’s Handbook alone.
Oh yeah, those blokies! I remember their work well. Otus and Roslof were particularly interesting to me because of their ‘wild child’ style, and overall I’m not sure Willingham was anywhere near the level of those other four, but at least he had a fairly pleasant, expressive style.
Tramp is indeed all over the various early books and modules, and of course did the brilliant Wormy comic in Dragon magazine, tragically cut short. At my community I’ve posted his work a couple times:
Hah! Yes, I remember that little ad in comic books.
As for the “big four,” I’m guessing Trampier, and who else?
Hmm, I misspoke. Allow me to correct myself. I should have said first four, rather than the big four. Calling them the big four was be making a judgement that I am truly not qualified to make. I can say that the work of the four below fills me with joy, thought much of that joy is asinspired by nostalgia for those days as much as it is the art.
The four I was referring to are Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Bill Willingham and Jim Roslof. Trampier would certainly be in any list of biggies for his work on the cover of the original AD&D Player’s Handbook alone.
Oh yeah, those blokies! I remember their work well. Otus and Roslof were particularly interesting to me because of their ‘wild child’ style, and overall I’m not sure Willingham was anywhere near the level of those other four, but at least he had a fairly pleasant, expressive style.
Tramp is indeed all over the various early books and modules, and of course did the brilliant Wormy comic in Dragon magazine, tragically cut short. At my community I’ve posted his work a couple times:
Wormy:
https://piefed.social/post/479441
Full double-panel shot of the Players Handbook art:
https://piefed.social/c/eurographicnovels/p/1940237/the-original-cover-for-the-ad-d-player-s-handbook-1978-david-trampier