More long-ago snippets today from the early development of Dragon Warriors. Above is Bob Harvey's illustration for the scenario "The Greatest Prize" from DW 4. Not a great scan, I'm afraid, but it spreads across two pages and I couldn't have got a cleaner image without taking a Stanley knife to the book.
And here's the sketch I did to brief Bob. It's no surprise that I'd do it as a bunch of comics panels, as I'd already used le neuvième art in DW book 1 to explain the combat rules and how to roleplay. I'd rather Bob had stuck closer to my sketch, with Sir Grafven looking to the right in the first panel so that his gaze led naturally to the castle on the island. And then having the falcon flying directly towards us out of the final frame for extra drama. I didn't know it at the time, but Bob was an experienced comics artist so this approach ought to have been right up his alley.
In the end I don't think it was one of the most successful Dragon Warriors pictures, perhaps because Bob felt too constrained by my over-detailed specification. He did some superbly atmospheric pictures throughout the books so the lesson (learned forty years late) is that I should have just provided brief descriptions and left the visualization to him.
Bob Harvey's work for a range of gamebook series in the 80s was hugely influential on me. I found his work deeply disturbing as a young teen, but now really enjoy many of pieces of artwork he created which are just very outre compared to even other gamebook art of the time, let alone now. What happened to him? There's some brief info in the Magic Realms art book but not much. His scratchy, scary textured ink and brush style is much missed.
ReplyDeleteAs well as his illustrations for Dragon Warriors, I particularly like his artwork in the Way of the Tiger series. It's a pity that Jamie and Mark weren't able to get in touch with him about using those images in the second edition.
DeleteGreat shout out for Bob. My Art teacher at school loved the Ninjas I drew all those years ago. I didn't then have the heart to tell him I'd just copied The Way of the Tiger artwork. If Bob's still with us, I hope he forgives me for the blatant copyright infringement.
ReplyDeleteI hope Bob is still with us, but nobody seems to have any idea of how to contact him. Maybe he's gone into hiding to avoid being pestered by several generations of gamebook/RPG fans.
DeleteDid Bob have the monster descriptions prior to illustrating the bestiary? The troll illo is near perfect to the text. Very creepy.
ReplyDeleteI think Bob must have had the whole manuscript. Oliver and I would highlight some scenes and creatures we wanted Bob to illustrate, but in other cases he chose them himself. In The Power of Darkness (DW book 5) for example, there's a picture of a Darkness Elementalist using the Shadow Self spell, and as far as I recall that was one Bob did off his own bat.
DeleteIt's a striking image though: the moment I saw it on this page I knew it was Myrkyn's Castle from The Greatest Prize. It clearly stuck with me!
ReplyDeleteThe undead image is very evocative, and one I really associate with DW.
Did Bob do the Volucreth in Book 1? That was a particularly stand-out image! "Chicken Man weilding two-handed sword" could have a recipe for unintentional comedy, but boy did that one look dramatic!
That's great, isn't it -- and yes, it's one of Bob's. Erik Wilson's picture of a volucreth in the DW Bestiary is a kind of homage to it. It must have been Bob's experience in comics that gave his artwork such dynamism and physical solidity. One of my favourites is the mere-gaunt upending a rowboat in DW Book 4.
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