# David Trampier, D&D Illustrator, has died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784 "2014-03-28T20:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/1 "2014-03-28T20:10:55Z")
I did not know David Trampier’s name before today, but [this article](http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/david-a-trampier-obituary) came across my fb feed this afternoon. Certainly the cover of the Players Handbook is well known to all geeks of a certain age, even if they didn’t play D&D themselves. Guess he failed his saving throw. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/2 "2014-03-28T20:21:32Z")
The majority of my favorite drawings from those early editions had his distinctive signature at the bottom. RIP\*\* DAT\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/3 "2014-03-28T20:26:22Z")
The guy who did Wormy, the dragon? Doggone! That was a great comic strip! The art was top notch, and the writing was funny. Inspired by Vaughn Bode. (As was Larry Elmore’s Snarfquest.) One particular scene was particularly memorable: the wizard is riding a flying black cat, which bursts through the walls of reality, to reveal hundreds of other bubble universes beyond. A truly grand vision of the vastness of the magical universe. Haroog, Floyd, bring me a beer. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/4 "2014-03-28T21:30:50Z")
Hadn’t heard his name in a very long time, but his art immediately came to mind. In a bit, I will pour myself a scotch in his honor. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/5 "2014-03-28T22:02:15Z")
Sad, I loved **Wormy** , back in the day I collected every Dragon magazine it appeared in. They were, of course, lost to that timeworn tale of “Mom Throws out Box of Son’s Stuff When Cleaning Out the Attic” ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/6 "2014-03-28T23:49:45Z")
When I got My Monster Manual (the Beholder pic) autographed by Tom Wham (2013), he mentioned that most of the other folks associated with the book were dead (I got Gary Gygax’s autograph in 1988). He mentioned that DAT was alive and his brother-in-law, but hadn’t heard from him in years. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/7 "2014-03-29T03:54:03Z")
I guess he’s never going to finish _Wormy_ now. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/8 "2014-03-29T04:07:12Z")
I always kinda wondered why he dropped out of sight. Was the geek fame too much for a very private man? It’s not like he was making huge mad dough doing the illustrations. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/9 "2014-03-29T04:19:57Z")
Not only was he never going to finish, he wouldn’t allow any collections to be published. He didn’t seem to care about unauthorized use, either. For example: [https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home](https://sites.google.com/site/wormycollected/Home) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/10 "2014-03-29T06:46:00Z")
He had a very nasty falling out with TSR and swore off the industry. His wikipedia article alludes to it, and the talk page goes into a lot more detail. > **[David A. Trampier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Trampier)** > > David A. Trampier (April 22, 1954 – March 24, 2014) was an artist and writer whose artwork for TSR, Inc. illustrated some of the earliest editions of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Many of his illustrations, such as the cover of the original Players Handbook, became iconic. Trampier was also the creator of the Wormy comic strip that ran in Dragon magazine for several years. > At the height of his career in the late 1980s, Trampier suddenly withdrew from the gaming world and became a s... Per wikipedia and other stuff I’ve read, he was entertaining the possibility of reprinting his old comics, but it hadn’t gone anywhere; he sounds like he wasn’t quite right in the head. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-trampier-d-d-illustrator-has-died/684784/11 "2014-03-31T15:07:46Z")
It was DATs cover of The Village of Hommlet that introduced me to D&D.