Part of the falling out Trampier had (and this is fairly common info so I'm not trying to lord anything over) came from the fact that he wanted to self-publish Wormy compilations.  TSR said no, that they belonged to them; he essentially sold each strip to TSR/Dragon Magazine.

So his last effort regarding Wormy involved selling "shares" of profits of a future Wormy compilation to fans and then using that money to hire a lawyer and take TSR to court.

He lost, case closed.  IIRC he repaid most if not all "investors" over a short period of time, tho.

bonk! wrote:My fave WORMY strip is the one where the wicked wizard, Grimolry, on the back of ShadowCat, crashes through the glass shell of their current sphere of existence and flies out into hyperspace

I agree: it's a wonderful image. For those who don't remember it:

Tav_Behemoth wrote:Hmm. Might it be lawful good if we raised a bunch of money and respectfully let Trampier know that he could claim it (& do whatever he wanted with it) if he picked up the pen again & started doing original art. If he didn't want to do that, we could use the money to start a health insurance trust for him.

After the tragedies of losing Sutherland and Parkinson and the scare of Gygax's stroke, etc., etc., I feel like we should do whatever we can to look after the health of those original geniuses we have left -- especially if, as some have speculated, they might not be looking after themselves in the best possible mannet.

Quite frankly, from whatever I've read and heard, Tramp has absolutely no interest in professionally illustrating and I personally have no interest raising money for someone that treats his fans like diseased pariahs.  There are plenty of other artists from TSRs "Golden Years" like Erol Otus, Jim Roslof, Jeff Dee and Jim Holloway that are still around and still working and throwing us bones at least (the Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl covers).  Plus at least Dee and Roslof are accepting commissions (I have Jim working on a piece for me at this time) and this shows me they are interested in interacting with at least a segment of their fan base. Whatever hole Tramp has crawled in the last 20 years, he's welcome to it. All this digging up of what are probably to him bad memories is unproductive.  Imagine the job you absolutely hated the most in your life, and this job screwed you over and basicaly crapped on you,  then imagine having to bring up that job constantly as the result of well meaning strangers who continually want you to reminisce about those days, and having those same people want you to work at that job again!  If I already wasn't a cynaical curmudegon, I would be in short order.
      If Tramp wants anything to do with his fan base, there exists lots of avenues where he could seek redress (I'm sure Gencon any year would immediately pay him whatever he wanted to set up a table there for sketches, he's make a fortune, and the line for him would go out the door).  That he chooses not to at great final loss for himself tells me all I need to know about his mental and emotional state.  From what I've heard through the years, his actions speak of mental illness and he may actually be incapable of assuming his former profession.  For those of us 40+, this reminds me so much of the hassling Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett received for decades after retiring in his prime during the late 60's (he had several fullblown psychotic episodes and is in seclusion until this day).  People kept showing up at Barrett's mother's cottage, where he lived and begging to see him only to be shooed away.  If Tramp want's to be the RPG art world's Syd Barrett, I have no problem with that and think anyone who wants to contact him needs to realize he is a recluse because he wants to be....

Mike B.

Hard to argue with that analysis, Badmike, much as I wish it were otherwise!

Did you have contact with Dave when he first began illustrating for TSR? How did he link up with TSR and did he talk about those early days?

jkason wrote:To lok at it another way, read Wormy again, but from the point of view of someone who's making fun of gamers in general, wargamers in particular, and FRPG players specifically.

If that is true, he had in in for gamers long before he left the industry.  

Xaxaxe wrote:
I agree: it's a wonderful image. For those who don't remember it:

[ Image ]

That's awesome.

As I noted on Rob's site, it makes me sad to hear this. It such a shame that such a gifted artist who many people highly admire(myself included) is now not doing the thing that he is greatest at.