Category: D&D
July 5, 2024
After The Monstrous Manual: The Calm Before The Storm Using the money I had earned from Dragon Mountain and the Monstrous Manual, in the summer of 1993 I rented a two-bedroom apartment, dedicating one bedroom as my “art studio”. Well…really I drew and painted all over the place, as you can see in the photo …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 10”
July 2, 2024
TD, Monster Machine Welcome back to a deep dive of my experience working on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual. As I mentioned at the start, I finished illustrating the Dragon Mountain boxed set adventure on February 1st, 1993 and began immediately on the Monstrous Manual the following day. All 100 pieces were due …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 9”
June 26, 2024
Creepy-Crawlies I am sad to say our trip down Monstrous Manual Memory Lane is nearing its end but don’t fret, we still have a few more monsters to cover: Giant creepy crawlers that are iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters, like… ILLUSTRATION #3: Ankheg The giant subterranean invertebrate known as the Ankheg (ANN-kegg) made its colorful …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 8”
June 22, 2024
Lizard Men, Fish Folk and a Mantis Warrior Welcome back to a deep dive of my experience working for TSR on the 1993 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual. We’ve covered quite a bit leading up to this point–from my humble beginnings as an aspiring art school graduate to rendering some of D&D’s classic creatures. …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 7”
June 18, 2024
“There were virtually no fantasy figurines being produced when Chainmail Fantasy Supplement tabletop battles were being played, and so that is where the conversion of dime store toys into monsters began.” –Gary Gygax, 2007 I’m back and highlighting some classic, iconic monsters of Dungeons & Dragons that I had the opportunity to illustrate back in …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 6”
June 14, 2024
The Fairy Folk We enter the enchanting fairytale world of sprites, sylphs, gnomes and other fae folk in this installment of ‘Behind The Monstrous Manual’. Previously, I spoke about mythology, folklore and J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic books, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy influencing Gary Gygax and his designers when creating Dungeons & Dragons …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 5”
June 10, 2024
Moving beyond Parts 2 and 3 of fantasy humanoids, we’ll now take a look at a several monsters I had the opportunity to illustrate for the Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual that have been celebrated for centuries in epic myths. We’re talking the Cyclops, Medusa, Minotaur and more! ILLUSTRATION #44: Giant, Cyclops Our first monster …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 4”
June 4, 2024
Big Bad Humanoids I’m back with my deep dive into the making of 1993’s Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual, a book that was pivotal in my career as an aspiring illustrator. Previously, I discussed how I came to work on the first colorized edition of this classic D&D rulebook and shared the story of the …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 3”
May 31, 2024
Humanoids “The fact is that I have read so much mythology, folklore, fairytales, and authored fiction with monsters and all manner of strange folk and creatures that it is hard to pin down exactly where a good number of the AD&D monsters got their inspiration.” –Gary Gygax, 2007 In Part 1 of ‘Behind The Monstrous …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 2”
May 29, 2024
Long Time No See It has been eons since I wrote a new blog post. In fact, it was two presidents and a pandemic ago since I’ve added anything new. Wow. I still love sharing what I am up to…but over the years, social media has come to replace posts like this. Most of us …
Continue reading “Behind The ‘Monstrous Manual’: PART 1”
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