Monday 29 August 2011

Larry Elmore and Utter Ridiculosity: A Love Story

More art, mainly because there's a bit of Larry Elmore love going round the blogosphere. I'm a fan of Larry Elmore, because it's his art that I cut my teeth on in my early years of D&D playing, and let's face it, there is no more iconic "Silver Age" D&D artist.

The thing I like about Larry Elmore art, now, is that it is all "quite" something, and never "very" anything. It is either quite good, quite cheesy, quite bad, or quite ridiculous. Some examples to illustrate:

Quite Good




Quite Cheesy




Quite Bad




Quite Ridiculous



7 comments:

  1. He does run the gamut, but you can't argue he wasn't a huge contributor to the look of D&D for quite a while. Personally, I always liked his armors which were neither slavishly historical nor too fantastic/silly. They usually seemed plausible and practical for a fantasy world like that of D&D.

    And let us never forget, he was Gary Gygax's favorite artist, according to statements made by Gygax himself in various places over the years.

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  2. Anyonmous: Yep, whenever I think of D&D I usually imagine it looking a bit like a Larry Elmore painting. And even his naff stuff is more appealing to me than the 'dungeonpunk' nonsense currently on offer.

    Roger the GS: I know, that one with the two winged centaur things and the two female adventurers is a bad hair classic.

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  3. Love the flying centaurs' hair! It rocks! Can't you just see them on an album cover?

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  4. What is wrong with the picture of the Kzinti? Seems pretty fitting with how Niven described them.

    Anyway, Elmore produced some great art, and some really terrible stuff too, as you indicated.

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  5. I didn't know they originated in a Larry Niven novel. In that case the fault is with the writer I guess! ;)

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  6. Ah Larry.

    So many memories.

    Snarfquest!

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