You could make that argument that Easley, Parkinson, or Caldwell shaped the destiny of D&D and TSR in the early 1980s, but in reality that is like comparing the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, or the Eagles to The Beatles. At the end of the day, any sane person knows there is no comparison as they are all had a telling impact on the industry. Below are some pieces from Larry Elmore I think changed the landscape of the RPG industry, and I'd love to hear if you agree or disagree.
Mentzer 'Red Box'... Now if the Red Box isn't as iconic to gamers as the Trampier PHB, then I don't know what is.
'The Death of Sturm', this scene was so powerful I threw Dragons of a Winter Night across my 10th Grade English classroom and Elmore truly did it justice!
Shadowrun, single-handedly brought the dystopian RPG genre to the masses. You might credit that FASA in general, but as this image graced the 1st & 2nd Edition covers, you know how important it was.
Death of Aleena: Larry broke upwards of a hundred thousand young men's hearts with the death of Aleena the Cleric, and without his rendition of her, I'd so no one would have cared much.
Watch who you hit on... And many folks thought Clyde Caldwell defined vampires with Ravenloft... not so fast Clyde.
Star Frontiers... Before this role-players thought space opera was a black booklet where characters died in character creation. Elmore opened our eyes to a fantastic and beautiful science fiction universe.
Innocence in the big fantasy city will ever be defined for me by this piece.
Clarion: One of the finest examples of ink-wash you will ever see, Clarion the Cleric from D&D Basic.
D&D Expert, and the definition of character advancement in art
Dragons of Autumn Twilight launched TSR into a fiction publishing house and brought D&D to the pure reading masses. For me, this image hasn't aged a day.
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heya Scott, I love Mr. Elmore’s work too! I think we all did. I saw your comment about how publishing vendors didn’t take gaming books seriously to stock on their shelves before books and sets with Mr. Elmore’s art were featured on the cover.
What is going on here? Unfortunately that’s completely false! My man, where in hell did you get this info? Was this your high school thesis? What city did you grow up in where you would have come to that conclusion? You gotta do more research before blogging. Sorry to be harsh but it seems really like a total rookie mistake!
You’re telling the internet/world that Sears wouldn’t dare carry TSR’s games before Mr. Elmore’s cover work because they disapproved of the cover art or thought it looked cheap or “hobby-ish”? Here’s a Sears catalog Wishbook from August 1982 where the earlier basic and expert sets with non-Elmore cover art were sold. come on man!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/sets/72157594229749541/
here is page 7 on flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/albums/72157594229749541/page7
Scroll down—it’s the page to the left of “THESE EXCITING ELECTRIC GAMES”, number 633. I guarantee you other merchandise department stores sold these before Aug that year when that the Wish book was delivered to US residents. Not sure how much publishing experience you have under your belt, but it took Sears at that time many months before to create that catalog earlier in 1982 so that it could be delivered in August.
Certainly the 1e AD&D books were carried by major bookstore chains like the person said above—long before Mr. Elmore’s work. They were also carried in “membership department” stores that were across the US. That was in 1980 and 1981! This included the basic and expert sets by Tom Moldvay and David Cook when they were released in 1981 and before Sears started carrying them in those photos above. Sears was late to the game just so you know.
We all love Mr. Elmore’s work! But somewhere along the way, history got revised in your mind. thousands upon thousands upon thousands of kids were playing a popular game that major retailers and bookstores wanted to sell to those kids as early as 1980. And the cover art didn’t keep them from stocking those products. All I can say is research, research, research!
One of the easiest recognizable fantasy artists out there. Akin to Boris Vallejo, you see that art and the maker is instantly recognizable. Not only that, the art has content, it makes you feel, and put yourself in that image. These images take me back a score of years. I haven’t thought about Star Frontiers in ages, but I didn’t even need to read the caption to recognize it.
Best artist ever.
Hey Larry,
Thanks for a great childhood/teenage years. These pics really take me back!
Larry, Thanks for bringing to life what I could have only imagined all of these years. For me it was Advanced Rules Dungeons and Dragons: One Knight on a hill against a Green Dragon. http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/GREEN_DR.jpg
Thanks much Sir,
(I still remember your story you told me about Ft Knox)
Scott