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.

Old School Illustrators: Todd Lockwood

Yesterday, I posted one of my favorite Orcus illustrations, which appeared in the October 1980 issue of Dragon Magazine. It was the product of a little-known D&D player -- and budding artist -- named Todd Lockwood. A few subsequent issues of Dragon Magazine also contained his artwork, but then inclusion of his artwork in Dragon Magazine ceased.

Who knew, at the time, that this same Todd Lockwood -- who starting out playing D&D with his buddies in the early years of the hobby, and played while attending art college -- would join TSR sixteen years later, and become famous (along with Sam Wood) for defining the visuals of 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

I am embarrassed to report that I had no idea that Todd Lockwood, of Dragon Magazine #42 fame, is the same Todd Lockwood who would later create the concept art framework for 3E and 3.5E, and provide memorable covers for D&D products, such as The Forge of Fury (I bought the adventure and the related Black Dragon miniature, based on that cover alone) and City of the Spider Queen. A list of Todd Lockwood's impressive artistic rpg art credits can be found here, at Pen and Paper.

You can find Todd Lockwood's website here, and his blog, Behind The Water Heater, here.

Orcus: Ladies Man

Orcus was often depicted, accompanied by Succubi and Type V demons. Here's one illustration, created by Paul Jaquays, that depicts a whole host of demons surrounding him, including the lady-demons.

I guess Orcus just had a way with the ladies.

Fat And Manky Orcus

Tim Brannan of The Other Side blog wrote a recent post on the history of Orcus, along with a conversion to Unisystem. His post is well worth a read.

He also posted the above illustration, which first appears in The Dragon Magazine, Issue 42, October 1980. He was not sure who the artist was, nor when it was published. The illustration is by an artist by the name of Todd Lockwood. This is perhaps my favorite Orcus illustration, showing Orcus sitting lazily on his throne: I can't be sure whether he is snoring or drooling.

Old School Monsters: Orcus, Prince of the Undead

I posted, many months ago, about my then-favorite Orcus miniature figure, produced by Reaper Miniatures. Reaper makes a very nice Orcus miniature (much better than the underwhelming old version of Orcus from the retired D&D minis game). I own a copy of the Reaper version, which is in mid-paint job.

Here's my new favorite Orcus figure. This is being produced by Wizards of the Coast, in limited quantities, and is being distributed some time around June 16, 2010. I found news of the pending release of this Orcus figure here at the maxminis forum, and pre-release ordering details from things from another world (i've never ordered from that site, so I have no idea whether they are reliable or not).

The figure is $75. That's a lot of money, although the figure is supposed to be one of the larger ones they have ever produced.

Throne Of Bloodstone: Dungeon Set-Piece

One of the addictive things about building one's own dungeon set, out of Hirst Arts blocks, is the challenge of building interesting set-pieces.

A Hirst Arts devotee has started building a set-piece of his own, based on the above illustration from the Throne Of Bloodstone adventure module. After a long, cold winter, it's great to clean out the garage, set up my casting tables, and start creating more blocks from which to create more dungeon rooms, passages and dungeon-dressing.

Check out the Hirst Arts site, and go to the gallery or the message boards, to see more creations.

In the interim, here is that Hirst Arts devotee's Throne Of Bloodstone "work-in-progress" set-piece.

Old School Monsters: Orcus

Over at Miniaturelovers.com, you will find a very nicely painted copy (pictured here) of Reaper's Orcus figure. I much prefer the Reaper figure to the one produced by Wizards of the Coast.

I would suggest heading over to the WOTC website to compare them yourself, but they have done some sort of retooling to their website and the old miniatures galleries have been moved or lost.

For now, you'll just have to enjoy the Reaper version!