Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Fat And Manky Orcus - Redux


Six years ago, I posted an image of a fat and manky Orcus illustrated by Todd Lockwood, of Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 fame.  The image above was taken from Dragon Magazine Issue 42, October 1980.  This may be old news to many, but I recently stumbled across an image of the original Todd Lockwood illustration on Flickr.  Someone was displaying original fantasy art at a gallery and the original Todd Lockwood illustration was part of the displayed collection.


The owner of the original print appears to be someone by the name of Jimmy Simpson David "Diesel LaForce.  Does anyone know him?  He looks to be a fantasy art collector.  He also had a copy of the original Greyhawk cover "illustrated" by Greg Bell.


I'm asking about the owner of the Todd Lockwood illustration, because years ago, Lockwood and I exchanged emails about this particular Orcus illustration.  At the time, Lockwood had lost track of the Orcus art and was wondering if I knew where it had ended up.  He asked that I send him a high res scan of the Dragon Magazine version.

Perhaps someone knows a guy who knows a guy who can identify the owner of the original artwork, and put Jimmy Simpson and Todd Lockwood in touch with each other?  Alternatively, someone could use their google-fu to track Jimmy Simpson down and let him know about Todd Lockwood's search.

I've since been in contact with Todd Lockwood, and he confirms that David "Diesel" LaForce, an illustrator and cartographer for TSR, has the original Orcus illustration.  He gave LaForce the illustration in 1997 when they were cleaning out the archives at TSR, during its sale to Wizards of the Coast.

7 comments:

Steamtunnel said...

Take a look at the placard- it says Todd gave it to him when he worked someplace with Todd.

Aaron E. Steele said...

Thanks, I have passed an email along to Todd. If anyone can provide additional insight or assistance please feel free to share that here!

Dr. Obscure said...

It looks like this was at ArmadilloCon here in Austin, TX. I've seen images of Orcus that I like a lot, but this one of Lockwood's is still the best.

Baggs said...

To my knowledge David S. LaForce owns it.

Aaron E. Steele said...

Yes, Todd Lockwood confirms that is also his understanding, that he gave it to Laforce years ago, when they were cleaning out the TSR archives during the WOTC purchase.

JB said...

Man, I'd love to have that art framed in MY office. *sigh*

Aaron E. Steele said...

YOu can get a print from Lockwood. I'm ordering mine on Thursday.