Rumour has it David Trampier, artist for the original cover for the 1st D&D players’ handbook, the first monster manual, gamma world, the wormy comic strip in Dragon etc has passed at 59. His work helped craft the imaginings of generations of gamers from the very beginning of the modern era.
The artist famously vanished in April of 1988 and was presumed to be dead by many then.
In 2005 however a student reporter doing a piece about a night as a cabby in Carbondale, Illinois published a photo of a Taxi driver that was identified as being the vanished artist (above). You can read all about that here.
Keen-eyed fans spotted an obituary for a David Trampier in Carbondale Illinois on Monday and while we can’t be 100% it is the same man, it is the same area , same name and the right age.
Our condolences to the family of David Trampier and our very deep apologies to the family if this not in fact the artist.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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