The Art of Dave Trampier (again!)

(With apologies to experienced old school bloggers for Yet Another Whatever Happened to Dave Trampier Post)



Fans of early Dungeons & Dragons will of course remember the art of Dave Trampier - perhaps best known for his cover of the 1978 Player's Handbook. From 1977 to 1988 his art was found throughout D&D books and supplements, including the regularly appearing "Wormy" strip in Dragon magazine. You might think he was still making fantasy art - but you'd be very wrong...

Some time in early '88, Dragon announced that Wormy would no longer be appearing in the magazine (without a storyline conclusion). That was the last anyone really saw of his work - rumors circulated about his disappearance from the scene, with some saying he was no longer alive, and others that a business disagreement was the cause (incidentally, my friend Vince has posited that he had a sudden conversion to a conservative branch of Christianity).

Years later, new rumors circulated that he was in fact working as a cab driver with no interest in the role-playing industry, and Wizards of the Coast released a statement in 2003 that he was alive but not working in comics or games any longer.

While I'd love to see a Trampier art compilation released, I'm not holding my breath. I hope Dave is alive and well, and at least we can find an (incomplete) archive of Wormy on Angelfire's pages, and enjoy his various images found in TSR's published materials via Google.