Probably my favorite of all the DC house ads of the 1970s was this one announcing their new line of fantasy/adventure titles. They all looked so cool to a five-year-old me. But outside of Warlord, I never found any of them until my late teens. After all that build-up of expectations, boy, was I (mostly) disappointed.
I remember wishing this was an ongoing comic series. I think there were more of these ads too, but I don't know if Bill Willingham illustrated them all. He was doing early TSR D&D modules like White Plume Mountain, Isle of Dread, Against the Giants and a bunch of other stuff. His early work here certainly added a touch of class to a rather unexciting advertising campaign. I think the one below was drawn in Willingham's style, but might have been Jeff Dee. Maybe @nweathington would better know.
Regardless, I would read these whenever I saw them, but never really got into D&D.
The first one, the one with the shambling mound that ended with the green slime, was done by an outside ad agency. The second one, which Chris posted above, was drawn by Jeff Dee. The rest were drawn by Bill, who started out trying to draw them in Dee’s style, but quickly developed his own style.
I started playing D&D when I was in 5th grade, just a few months before these ads started coming out. I loved these things, and was always a little disappointed when I got a comic that didn't have a new episode. Then of course, they stopped producing them in 1982. I held out hope for probably a couple of years that I would eventually see another one to find out what was waiting for our heroes inside the mysterious mountaintop castle.
Yeah, me too. I never ordered the game but it looked cool. There was another board game I was always interested in too: The Awful Green Things from Outer Space. Never got it either.
Comments
The working shock absorbers and steering systems still amaze me.
Did they forget that there was a King Kong out before this?
-chris
I remember wishing this was an ongoing comic series. I think there were more of these ads too, but I don't know if Bill Willingham illustrated them all. He was doing early TSR D&D modules like White Plume Mountain, Isle of Dread, Against the Giants and a bunch of other stuff. His early work here certainly added a touch of class to a rather unexciting advertising campaign. I think the one below was drawn in Willingham's style, but might have been Jeff Dee. Maybe @nweathington would better know.
Regardless, I would read these whenever I saw them, but never really got into D&D.
I started playing D&D when I was in 5th grade, just a few months before these ads started coming out. I loved these things, and was always a little disappointed when I got a comic that didn't have a new episode. Then of course, they stopped producing them in 1982. I held out hope for probably a couple of years that I would eventually see another one to find out what was waiting for our heroes inside the mysterious mountaintop castle.
I always loved the excellent draftsmanship of this ad. Adams at his best.
This one fascinated me, as well....
-chris
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