My disturbed sleep brings me to this place in the history of TSR's Dungeons and Dragons game - Dark Sun and the art of Gerald Brom. Brom is without a doubt the dark master of D&D art. No other painters for the genre draw near his hard edge and ugly beauty. Indeed, he was such an outlier he is the only one among TSR's painters to move on to a far more prominent solo career. I think I can write that his artistry is renowned even outside the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. He's such an artist that he dropped his first name. He is BROM. Here I will focus on his pre-BROM days as a TRS Pit artist, with a special emphasis on the Dark Sun campaign setting.
Brom began working for TSR in 1989 and was an inhouse artist in the Pit through 1993. I believe one of his first paintings was of a wild elf for the Dragonlance setting. It may have first appeared in the 1989 Dragonlance calendar, but I first saw Wild Elf as a full color interior in The Complete Book of Elves, an AD&D 2nd edition source book published in 1993. Wild Elf foretells the coming of the grunge era. Looking at the work below, I try to place what sets it apart from the Four Greats of Elmore, Easley, Caldwell, and Parkinson. The stone background with skulls could easily feature in the work of Caldwell or Parkinson. The tree roots, Parkinson. The figure's pose and general composition, Elmore. From there we have a departure. The blade of the spear has baren quality to it, the true appearance of a hard edged metal. The skin and musculature of the figure also have a quality that speaks truth. Then there is the face. It has detail not seen in the other painters. The quality is so different it had me wondering if Brom works in acrylics rather than oils. Apparently he states that he combines both, starting with acrylic washes and moving to oils for depth and detail. The hair, war paint, spiked vambrace all point to the grunge era to come. That face almost looks to be inspired by Eddie Vedder.
Brom's Wild Elf
From here we make a true departure from the Four greats and all TSR art up to 1991. Here we arrive at Dark Sun. The themes are dark and apocalyptic. The style is harsh. Lumps and pounds of flesh come to mind. Colors go from clashing to subdued. In many cases I say the colors are ugly. It reminds me of grunge, which I hated at the time. All my friends were deep into grunge music and esthetic. I recall too many high school nights spent in dark, dank rooms that smelled of shrooms and snakes with the aggressive thumping of grunge bass guitar and the wailing complaints of grunge singers. As much as the Dark Sun esthetic speaks to grunge, I have a fascination and attraction to Brom's vison of the setting. My twin brother and I bought the massive D&D Dark Sun boxed set. However, we had never before even brushed the surface of the dark apocalyptic before, remained dyed in Arthurian legend, landscapes of the British Isles, and pre-Black Death medieval history. I think we played one or two sessions of Dark Sun and gave up, not knowing how to approach the subject matter.
Brom's The Darkest Shadows
The image above is the cover to Dragon Magazine Issue #173, published in September of 1991. It was TSR's entre to the Dark Sun setting, with a massive boxed set for the game coming out later in the year. There's just nothing pretty about this picture, but it's hard to look away.
Brom's Burnt World of Athas
The painting above was a full poster included in the original boxed set. The two interior books of the boxed set (were there two?) featured covers with the left and right half of the painting. Below are two pieces of concept art Brom did for the game, probably earlier in 1991.
This cover painting for the 1993 Dark Sun adventure module Dragon's Crown by Richard Baker is the epitome of the setting. Unforgiving, ugly, otherworldly. It's no wonder Brom went onto painting the cover for the horrific hellscape of a computer game Doom II.
This Dark Sun painting has always intrigued me. It's an interesting depiction of the sorcerer-ruled cities of Athas, Dark Sun's world setting. But mainly I think it's the colors. It has a very desert Southwest feel, which is close to me. The female figure again goes to Brom's ugly beauty, and to grunge. There's no seduction there for me. The painting was split in half to feature on two Dark Sun novels by Troy Denning, The Amber Enchantress and Arcane Shadows. Denning's novels were also a departure from previous TSR fare. Main characters routinely died.
Freedom is a classic that becomes representative of Brom's post TSR style. It was the cover to the 1991 adventure module Freedom by David "Zeb" Cook. The pale flesh and black spiked features of the figure's rig again speak to the grunge esthetic. I would not call her pretty, but a grim beauty, yes.
I don't expect to ever return to Brom's work in this blog, so I'll add a few more of Brom's Dark Sun paintings below for additional flavor, followed:
Brom's The Reconeers
Brom's Dune Trader
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