The Galtor Campaign is one of perhaps a dozen scenario driven supplements for Battletech released in the late 1980s. All of them were quality works, as was the practice of FASA in that day and age, but I found Galtor to be my favorite because it was one of the few FASA products other than Star Trek that we got to see a David Deitrick painted cover.
Deitrick’s work on this supplement makes this product sing in a fashion that only he was capable of for the Battletech product line. Sure, Jim Holloway had several stunning covers, but if you really sit and stare at this Archer on this cover you’ll come away knowing that FASA missed the boat when they basically only had David do military clothing for the game line.
That said, Galtor reflects the standard art directive process of FASA in that the interiors are sporadic, don’t have ‘energy’, and are in simple black and white. There is no detail within, no anima, and the sense of action is absent as most images are posed as though the artist didn’t really have the talent level to depict mechs in action.
Jim Nelson, who has grown into a master in his own right, was young during this period, and although his images are admirable, they don’t have the feeling he would fold into his works later in his career. Todd Marsh seems overburdened with his work and Chris Palm, while delivering a lovely Marauder, again only replicates stock images and adds nothing to the canon.
In all, Galtor feels similar to the D&D module work of the time, fantastic cover with forgettable interior work as gaming companies were tightening their art budgets going into the 1990s.
Artistic Rating: 3.5 [Out of 5]
