Darlene the Artist

The following is my submission article to Jane Frank answering some questions for her upcoming “Biographical Dictionary of RPG and CCG Artists” (planned publication 2012):

DARLENE
Classic 1980s Fantasy RPG Artist
“Our Lady of Gaming”

Throughout my career, I have used and developed my skills for illustration, book design, logo design, type design, publication design, graphic design (and marketing), cartography, greeting cards as well as other applications within the graphic arts and continue to explore new artistic ways to express myself.

During the classic period of the 1980s, at the dawn of Role Playing Games (RPG), I used my skills in drawing and painting to create fantasy illustrations for this new genre. As a student of the medieval art of illumination and having learned calligraphy in London from one of the Craft members of the prestigious Society of Scribes and Illuminators, I drew upon historical sources for inspiration. In my work with TSR Hobbies,Inc.² I brought with me a keen historical knowledge and the talent for rendering letters, both drawn and written. For this reason, I often refer to myself as a “medievalist.”

As an informed creator of letterforms, my work lent a feel of authenticity to the projects I did for TSR Hobbies. Since 1978, I’ve regularly combined illustrations with words as I am a big admirer of William Morris and of William Blake who both advocated the thoughtful integration between illustration and the written word. My calligraphic and lettering skills in concert with fantasy illustration were useful for many RPG projects–article titles, column mastheads, RPG cartography, calendar headings, logos–art which often gets overlooked. I designed TSR’s wizard head logo.

I’m also a writer, known mostly for my illustrated fantasy adventure³ that ran for a year in The Dragon magazine. But most significantly, I’m the creator of the first role-playing card game in history and invented the art genre of fantasy illustrations on cards.

1. full name as you wish it listed (incl middle name or initial) ….plus your professional name (as you are known, or sign, for illo work, if different. if you use a a brushname (pseudonym, provide it)
2. full date of birth: for you month, day, year.

My full, legal name is DARLENE (typed in cap/small caps) but I was born Darlene Jean Pekul, the third of seven children. “Darlene” was my father’s favorite name while “Jean” was my mother’s favorite. I liked the signature of my first name and began the practice of using one name only when signing my work. I trademarked the name “DARLENE” in 1980 and legally dropped my surname in 1984.

3. where born and raised: town or city, state. Early schooling or formative experiences optional

I was born a farm girl and grew up in rural Elkhorn, Wisconsin. My mother was an artist and my early memories are pervaded with the smell of linseed oil and turpentine. There was never any question I would follow in her footsteps. In school, I excelled artistically. I became one of the youngest members to join the Geneva Lake Art Association and my paintings were exhibited in all the local venues. Before I turned sixteen, I made my first professional gallery sale, a surrealistic painting of a human in the process of becoming a tree. In high school, I acquired a fascination with art nouveau and medieval art and taught myself calligraphy from an old Speedball pen book. In 1972, at the age of 17, I graduated with honors from Elkhorn High School and attended Beloit College that fall.

I majored in art at Beloit College and was exposed to and influenced by the work of Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Aubrey Beardsley, Kay Neilson and other children’s book illustrators. I also responded to Heinrich Kley, Gustav Dore, Gustav Klimt and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1974, I became a participant in Beloit College’s Studies Abroad Program and spent the fall in London. There, I loved to visit the collections at Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Gallery and British Museum.

From the very beginning, my passion for letters developed alongside my passion for art. As a part of my independent study, I arranged to take formal classes in foundational calligraphy from a Master of the Craft, Dorothy Hammond. One of the book projects I began in London was illustrating “The Death of Rameer, the River Nymph,” a fantasy story I was inspired to write. Using a blank book I’d purchased, I created a medieval-styled manuscript by writing the text in calligraphy and illuminating the pages.

I graduated with honors, receiving my Bachelor’s degree from Beloit College in 1976. I became deeply involved with what was happening in the calligraphy revival movement nationwide and abroad. I began teaching calligraphy classes in 1977 as an Adult Education instructor and would continue to do so for many years. Beginning with a summer workshop to learn the tools and techniques of medieval manuscript illumination, in the next few years I would learn to cut my own quills, mix my own inks, make my own paper and bind my own books. In 1979, I helped co-found the Wisconsin Calligrapher’s Guild and served as the first editor Scripsit, its newsletter. Less than a year later, I would apply what I learned to create a large RPG map for TSR known as The World of Greyhawk.

During the time I freelanced for TSR Hobbies, I further developed my skills in figure drawing, portraiture and painting through taking University of Wisconsin extension classes. I also took anatomy and photography classes at The Milwaukee Institute of Art and spent a couple weeks in Woodstock, NY learning traditional under painting techniques for oils from Albert Handell. As a part of the University of Georgia’s Studies Abroad Program I traveled to Italy with a group of art students and spent the summer of 1983 studying Italian art, calligraphy, paper-making and bookbinding.

In August of 1982, I attended a class at Rochester Institute of Technology taught by Hermann Zapf, one of the most influential type designers of the 20th century. Zapf, himself an accomplished calligrapher and book designer, encouraged me to expand my studies along these lines. In 1984, I left Lake Geneva (and hence, RPG) to attend the advance MFA program in Graphic Design at Indiana University. 8   I took full advantage of the University’s resources and also taking courses in anatomy, figure drawing, color theory, art history and printmaking. I also discovered I had a knack for photography. During my time at the university, I became immersed in history. I investigated the development of calligraphic writing and alphabetic forms, Islamic calligraphy, the history of typography, design of type, bookbinding, and the history of design. I frequented the University’s Main and Art libraries and researched and wrote several books. I am most proud of the comparisons I made between the history / development of type with that of calligraphy and discovered many fascinating correlations.9 By the time I received my Master of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University in 1987, I was designing typefaces.

The type design aspect of my career becomes pertinent to RPG in 2004 when I had the opportunity to come full circle and use my knowledge of type design to create an uncial typeface for Paizo Publishing for use in their updated version of the Greyhawk maps.¹°

Upon graduation, I moved to Plainville, a small town in Connecticut not too far from Hartford. There, I freelanced in graphic design for the insurance industry for clients such as The Phoenix Group, ITT Hartford and Aetna. I taught calligraphy and typography classes at Paire College of Art,¹¹ and taught workshops for The Connecticut Valley Calligraphers and art classes for the Art Guild in Farmington, CT.

4. education (art or otherwise, name of school) and dates….+ degrees rec’d (or state, self taught)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM DARLENE’S FORMAL EDUCATION:

• 1972 Graduated salutatorian. Elkhorn High School, Elkhorn, WI.
• 1974 Art Study in London. Field term in London, Studies Abroad Program, World Resource Center, Beloit College, Beloit, WI.
• 1976 BA in Studio Art, graduated cum laude. Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit WI. Minor: English Composition.
• 1982 Study with Hermann Zapf, pre-eminent type designer of the 20th century, Rochester Institute of Technology, College for Graphic Arts, Rochester NY.
• 1983 Independent Study in Cortona, Italy. University of Georgia, Studies Abroad Program, Athens, GA. (Professor Ken Williams)
• 1987 MFA in Graphic Design. Indiana University, School of Fine Arts, 107 South Indiana Ave., Bloomington, IN. Thesis: “The Facets of Type Design,” The theme of my graduate work centered around documenting the problems involved in the design of typefaces and how different type designers approached and solved these problems. I also designed the typeface FACET.

5. art influences (if any) ….comment on technique etc

I discussed the re-emergence of calligraphy as an art form to art students of my old Alma Mater, Beloit College, in a lecture I gave in 1981.¹² To me, designing letterforms is just a much more disciplined way of drawing, involving curves forming patterns imparting meaning. Like most designers of type, I was intrigued by how the shape of something defines its essence. I was not the only one interested in this concept. During the early 1980s, most of the issues of the popular New York-based U/lc (Upper/Lowercase) monthly tabloid featured examples of illustrated alphabets and other “word art” even though the publication’s purpose was to sell new fonts. The idea of mixing images with alphabets was hot, exciting and new.

At this point in time, the technology of printing involved several stages. Producing a publication took much time and many people. The stodgy and laborious process began with mathematically calculating the number of pages (in signatures) required to accommodate the amount of text with the desired number of illustrations, specifying (specing) the manuscript for typesetting, preparing a layout dummy to be followed by a layout or paste-up artist who hands off the mechanicals to have negatives prepared with which to burn the press plates, etc… Within this process, the only room for creativity–aside from the illustrations, of course–was with the titles and headlines of the publication.

The first editor of The Dragon magazine, Tim Kask, immediately recognized the advantages of someone who could do both fantasy illustrations and lettering at the same time. Before I arrived on the scene, TSR Hobbies’ published materials looked noticeably different. Much of my artistic influence may not be immediately apparent because I often worked invisibly and behind-the-scenes. When I moved on, RPG’s look of magic and whimsy left with me (eventually to be replaced by a colder, more somber corporate appearance).

But at the beginning, my art was influential because it was ever-present. For many years, the first module that came with the basic D&D set was “In Search of the Unknown,” (B1). Every person introduced to the genre saw my work on the front and back covers of this module. Also, the headings I did appeared monthly in The Dragon magazine. Additionally, I illustrated and hand rendered the calendar information for both the 1980 and 1981 “The Days of the Dragon” calendars. So the possibility is great that my work was seen every day. In 1983, I designed and created “The Guide to the World of Greyhawk” book to appear like an illuminated manuscript. I also contributed lettering for the 1983 and 1984 Realms of Wonder calendars and the 1985 Dragonlance calendar. The visual context for RPG came through my filter, making my art directly responsible for imparting a mood–an authentic gothic sensibility–to those early RPG materials.¹³

I always maintained a presence at Gen Con, TSR’s Annual Gaming Convention. My fantasy illustrations usually appeared on the cover of Gen Con’s Convention Booklets. My art was also used for Gen Con t-shirts, Gen Con certificates and Gen Con coupons. Every year at Gen Con, I had a booth where I sold my fantasy art. In addition to my display of original fantasy paintings, I created a series of fantasy tablets, fantasy book plates, game-related certificates, and other items for sale. In April 1982, I created a series of images for Moira Collins (The Rubberstamp Queen) and her company, The Griffin.¹4 These Fantasy Stamps are now collector’s items.

In all these ways and more, I created the visual backdrop for the RPG genre, the subtext that helped the world understand and better relate to Gary Gygax’s world known as D&D. Collectively, my work carried a significant impact. I also shaped the look, the identity and the public face of TSR in another significant way. In October 1980, I designed TSR’s “wizard face” logo (an article about its origins appears in Scripsit¹5). I’m also responsible for the logo, letterhead, business cards and advertising materials for TSR Periodicals and Dragon Publishing.

Beginning with The Dragon Magazine #10, my art fired people’s imaginations. Particularly noteworthy is my depiction of a fat unicorn on the title page of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Many people now consider this 33-year old image to be iconic, a symbol of a time gone by, past pleasures fondly remembered. Michael Varhola addressed the subject in 2004 when he wrote: “It would be appropriate for us to acknowledge the contributions of Darlene–she is a fantasy illustrator whose work has appeared in gaming books for more than a quarter century and, as a result, has profoundly influenced much of the art that has followed it”¹6

However, I am most renowned for creating two large color maps (each measuring 22″ x 35″) for The World of Greyhawk. Gary Gygax describes my renditions as the “best gaming maps ever created for this genre” and believes my maps are still an unrivaled classic.¹7· This is because I approached the drawing of the maps as if it were an illustration. I drew individual pictorial representations of individual mountains, trees and other geographical features and integrated these organically with different styles of lettering to produce a masterpiece of cartography.

The overall effect of my Game map cannot be reproduced by anyone who doesn’t understand or appreciate the subtle nuisances of letterform design. That’s why these maps set the standard for future RPG Fantasy Game maps and cannot be easily replicated. That’s also why these maps deserve a mention in the development of role-playing game art.

6. medium you work(ed) in, for illos ….materials etc, for paintings and your process….if relevant. If digital now, date when you switched.

In the 1980s, freelance artists who were engaged in doing art for reproduction (at least for TSR) had to prepare their artwork so that it would print in black and white. In today’s terminology, this would translate as a one-color bit-mapped image. TSR editors seldom accepted illustrations having subtle gradations of gray (using media such as pencil, charcoal, or watercolor) due to the extra steps and costs involved in preparing them for reproduction.

After an assignment was accepted and the sketch finished, the next step was to render it to approximate light and dark gradations while using only black. Depending upon the deadline, I employed several techniques. Oftentimes, I used a stylus on scratch board or modeled an image using a crow quill pen to apply the cross-hatching. Using a technical pen to create images composed entirely of individual dots, pointillism was the most satisfying but also the most tedious. Another technique I used was to outline the main subject of the drawing using an organic line and create interesting patterns in the negative space. For the ONE-ON-ONE game book set,¹8 I had 200 illustrations for complete in a small window of time. To meet my deadline, I saved time by placing tracing paper over my sketches and applying India ink directly onto it with a thin brush.

Today, I seldom go through the process of rendering. With today’s computer technology, it’s no longer necessary. I will go through the process for aesthetic reasons or to produce an original. But depending upon the purpose of the image, it’s just as good to produce scans of my raw sketches and manipulation these via computer.

I did not seriously begin using the computer as an art tool until I purchased an Apple LC II PowerMac in 1992. I am completely self-taught. I started with vector-based software for logo design and became extremely proficient at creating expressive one-of-a-kind “hand-lettering” directly on computer. I also used Photoshop and experimented with different ways to manipulate pixels. After I became conversant with the computer as an art tool, I created a series of sixty-five grey-scale photo-montages juxtaposing symbols with each other in a surrealistic way. These evocative computer-generated illustrations (and cover art) depicted abstract metaphysical, geometrical, and mathematical concepts for a book about the physics of consciousness.¹9 I have kept up with technological advances and the latest in computer graphics technology. I’m versatile in a multitude of graphics and illustration programs and am conversant with both PC and Mac platforms.

As Art Director for Aethyrea Books, a publisher of esoteric subjects, I was responsible for creating a certain look for their book line, most noteably, “A Monument to the End of Time: Alchemy, Fulcanelli and the Great Cross” (1999, 2000) and “The Prophet Code” (2001). I was also responsible the illustrations and photography which appeared in “The Cross of Hendaye” published in 2004 by Inner Traditions.

I had an opportunity to team with Gary Gygax again in 2004-5. I was feeling nostalgic when I created his “Yggsburgh and the East Mark” and “The Town of Yggsburgh” gaming maps (for Troll Lord Games) but this time I did them entirely on computer using vector-based software. In 1980, the original game maps were laboriously created, to size, on illustration board with color applied evenly by applying different Pantone adhesive color sheets on separate acetate overlays. I found the computer made the editing process easier but it also took a great deal of time to draw all the individual geographic features, such as trees and hills. It’s not impossible, but the computer cannot easily replicate the feel of something hand-rendered.

7. how you sign if special: initials, monogram, logotype

Even before I legally dropped my surname in 1984, I’d been in the practice of signing my work using my first name solely. I trademarked my name and signature in 1980.

As mentioned above, I am most renowned for being the creator of the Greyhawk maps. But I am also remembered for the twelve episodes (17 panels) of an illustrated fantasy-adventure, The Story of Jasmine™ saga that ran in The Dragon Magazine from May 1980 to April 1981 (see bibliography). When The Dragon editors failed to renew The Story of Jasmine adventure for another year, I developed my Jasmine saga into a game.

My card game sprang directly from the interactions of my characters. I sorted them into four factions, each possessing different and unique strengths and attributes. Since the card game was initially character-driven, it is natural for players to ad lib assuming the personae and traits of their faction during play. Hence, a role-playing card game!

In August of 1982, I published Jasmine: The Battle for The Mid-Realm™ collector card game just in time for Gen Con XV. This officially marks the first appearance of 1) a role-playing game using playing cards and 2) a game-related collector card game that is heavily illustrated.²° The card game system I was the first to develop defines three types of playing cards–faction cards, event cards, and special cards–each with unique actions which can change depending upon what other cards are in play or which factions are holding them. This was unique, both then and now. In 1982, I was honored at the Ninth Annual Strategist’s Club Awards for creating the “Most Outstanding New Game in an Open Category” and I still have the plaque to prove it.

For my collector card game, I lavished much attention on the details of the fantasy artwork. Unlike most card decks in use at the time, I illustrated all 112 playing cards. The event and special cards I printed in two colors. But I went through the expense to create full color miniature portraiture paintings for the Faction cards. Thus, Jasmine: The Battle for The Mid-Realm™ collector card game is the first game to combine card actions with full color paintings in the context of playing cards. In his review of my game in August 1983, Merle Rasmussen wrote: “JASMINE incorporates a few old ideas with many new ones to create a fresh approach in card-gaming.”²¹ Another positive review of my game appeared in Avalon Hill’s Gameplay Magazine.²² Unfortunately, my plans to publish the expansion deck I was developing never materialized.

Perhaps the most obvious reason why my early work held such sway may be in the fact that I was the only woman artist to offer my talents to RPG fantasy illustration. Since I reappeared on the scene in 2002, I’ve gotten much feedback that my artwork within the DMG–especially the female figures–has consistently had a profound effect upon many young gamers. I’ve been told this very often and by many different people(!) A working theory on why this could be is simply that I possessed the feminine component. Perhaps someone with a Psychology degree could offer an explanation of the phenomenona but couldn’t an anima figure serve as a type of catalyst producing the spark that allowed a masculine, testosterone-drenched industry to ignite? Who can say?

9. most recent SF/F ….or if not doing illos or covers now but other work, what?,… briefly describe

Like a comet on an elliptical path, I returned to RPG in 2002 after Gary Gygax contacted me. This gave me an opportunity to revisit the World of RPG and I discovered a lot of history happened to the RPG industry during my absence, including the willful violation of my copyrights. On the plus side, I seem to have a lot of devoted fans who fondly remember my work. In 2005, “for old time’s sake,” I created a 2-map gaming set for Gary Gygax’s CASTLE ZYGAG²³ and have also designed four issues of Troll Lord Games’ THE CRUSADER Journal as well as miscellaneous logos, designs and small illustrations for them.

10. where you are in your career, and where you are going.

I now refer to my art in terms of “Visual Communication.” When I produce books, brochures, and other publications for my clients, the pages become my canvas where I combine art and word for effect. I command everything–from the choice of type, page format and graphics to the details of the illustrations. Everything is considered, nothing is left to chance. I’ve even added “marketing” to my arsenal of abilities and can create materials capable of touching people on many subtle levels.

I entered the corporate world as an expert in marketing and design in 1999 and currently enjoy a position as a valued member of the marketing team for Toshiba Business Solutions as their in-house computer artist / designer / marketing expert. The Division I work in has benefited greatly with record sales as a direct result of my contributions. But this is not where my passion resides.

My work is classically oriented, harmonious, and tends to appeal to people on a heart-level. I feel a great responsibility to use my talents wisely so I’ve turned my attention towards children’s books and am in the midst of illustrating a wonderful story by Nancy Kimbell Baumgarten in my old 1980s fantasy-art style.

As a tribute to my husband and all the gamer people I seem to have attracted throughout my life, I’m developing a series of humorous characters–Game Toads–for a pet project named “Squats the Toad.” I’m also in the midst of developing an unusual menagerie of characters for a comic (an updated “Addams Family” type thing) complete with strange characters whose house contains portals leading to multi-dimensional realities…

11. If now (or previous, or ongoing) in other genres, mention…i.e., children’s books, or film, advertising, names of clients etc

I’d like to address an unusual turn in my artistic direction after I’d moved to Connecticut in 1987. At that time my husband, Michael Price and his brother Patrick, were exploring their ancestral Native American ties. Along with them, I became deeply interested in Native American spirituality. Using the Native American Medicine Wheel, Michael (who once worked for TSR as a game designer) and Patrick, developed a system in which a series of cards, when placed on a board, could be “read.” While they were testing the boundaries between game design and divination systems, I also decided to move beyond the boundaries of my traditional education and relinquish some pre-conceived notions.

The more I read about Native American Spirituality, the more I began to understand their world view in which everything is imbued with “The Great Spirit.” I could not hope to understand their symbols using the intellect alone. It was not enough for me to simply scan in an indigenous symbol and slap it on a design. To find its deeper meaning, I wanted to inform myself through non-cerebral means. To understand completely, I immersed myself in doing native crafts tactilely, using my hands to work with leather, carve on pipestone, do beading and quill work. This slowed me down enough to enter the spaces in between. I don’t know how else to describe it. My in-depth experiential investigations directly lead to discoveries in how the shape and meaning of symbols interrelate. I did indeed find the correlation between symbol, spirit and the act of creation. Plus I discovered what it is that gives sacred objects power.

My Native American phase ended abruptly when moved to North Carolina to be with historian and author Vincent Bridges, now my current husband. Vincent encouraged my fascination with ancient Egyptian art. He also introduced me to the concepts of sacred geometry. Coupled with my knowledge of native symbols, I developed a great appreciation for the intuitive. I decided to create some Egyptian ceremonial tools just to see how the process differed from what I had done earlier with the Native American craft work. I found the Egyptian creations to be abstract in concept and precise in execution. The importance of exact color, exact shape, and exact proportion can never be over-estimated.

Using colored pencil, in 1998, produced a series of illustrations of ancient and sacred places for use in a video featuring Greg Braden. 24 And I also contributed thirty black and white interior illustrations and grayscale paintings of different goddess images for a book published in 2003.²5

My artistic accomplishments over a 30 year span cannot easily be categorized as my work and talents are multi-faceted. Before now, no one has glimpsed the range of my diversity. During my career, I’ve sought to balance right and left brain functions–intuitive expression with the fruits of research and exacting detail. I have joined together professional training and raw experience, discipline with freedom. Possessing the ability to create anything I set my mind to, I am confident there is no artistic expression I cannot master.

12. awards, honors, special recognition other stuff like that, exhibits, interviews with you (will need copies, or quotes) and sources…

GAME AWARD

JASMINE: THE BATTLE FOR THE MID-REALM™ collector card game was recognized at the Ninth Annual Strategist Club Awards as the “Most Outstanding New Game of 1982.” A plaque was presented to DARLENE at Gen Con XV (Kenosha, WI).

A GREAT HONOR

DARLENE was commissioned by Maya Angelou to calligraphy and illuminate her “Inaugural Poem for President William Jefferson Clinton” which she personally presented to the President and which subsequently hung in the oval office. “ON THE PULSE OF MORNING,” Maya Angelou (Winston-Salem, NC) 1995.

___________________________
¹ Title bestowed upon DARLENE in June of 2006 at the 2nd Annual Geneva Lake Gaming Convention where she was invited as guest (Lake Geneva, WI).
² TSR Hobbies was a game publishing company responsible for the development of Role Playing Games and was most famous for publishing the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
³ The Story of Jasmine™ Fantasy Adventure Saga appeared serially in The Dragon Magazine from May 1980 until April 1981.
4. I created and published Jasmine: The Battle for the Mid-Realmâ„¢ collector card game in 1982 having based it on The Story of Jasmine Fantasy Adventure Saga.
5. August 1, 1954 (at Lakeland Hospital, Elkhorn, WI.)
6. GLAA is a professional alliance of artists working in and around the Geneva Lake area in Wisconsin. I would later serve in several capacities as board member. Every year, I would exhibit work at the GLAA’s Annual Art Show held at the Lake Geneva Public Library.
7· Gateway Technical College, 400 County Road H (Elkhorn, WI) 1977-1984.
8 I wrote an article about the experience: “The Game of Design,” THE CRUSADER, Vol. 2 #3, Troll Lord Games, Chenault & Gray Publishing (Little Rock, AR) Winter 2006, pp 10-13.
9 DARLENE. “TYPE & CALLIGRAPHY A Brief Survey of Their Relationship,” privately printed by the author (Plainville, CT) 1987.
1o Designed type font (Greyhawk Uncial) used in new version of the WORLD OF GREYHAWK Map (font was subsequently purchased by) Paizo Publishing (Bellevue, WA) 2005.
¹¹ PAIRE COLLEGE OF ART, 14 Gorham Ave., Hamden, CT.
¹² Calligraphy Today, Lecture by DARLENE, Wright Art Center, Beloit College (Beloit, WI), December 1981.
13 A fan, JD, in a July 2007 e-mail described it this way: “I guess what I like about it. It harkened back to what must have been an exciting era. I loved that almost underground look and feel to the games and the magazines. An almost Dark feel that matches the Medieval era.”
14 The Griffin (Evanston, IL) April 1982.
15 DARLENE. “A Personal Experience with Logo Design,” SCRIPSIT, The Wisconsin Calligraphers’ Guild Newsletter, Volume 2 Number 4, Autumn 1980, pp 5-9.
16 Michael Varhola. NUISANCES Skirmisher Publishing, 2004. p. 7.
17 DARLENE. “Serendipity: The Medievalist DARLENE Returns to RPG,” (pp. 15-16), THE CRUSADER Journal of the Intrepid Adventurer, Vol. 1 #1, Troll Lord Games, Chenault & Gray Publishing (Little Rock, AR) January 2005.
18 AD&D ONE-ON-ONE Gaming Book Set, “THE AMBER SWORD OF WORLD’S END” by Mike Price, TSR Hobbies, Inc. (Lake Geneva, WI) May 1986.
19 Dan Winter, Edit. Vincent Bridges. ALPHABET OF THE EARTHEART, Aleph Books, (Mount Gilead, NC) but first published on a CD by author, Dan Winter, 1997.
20 I published Jasmine: The Battle for the Mid-Realm™ collector card game in 1982. The first appearance of Magic the Gathering wasn’t until 1993, over ten years later and, curiously, it borrows ideas that closely resemble my collector card game.
21 Merle Rasmussen, “Fun Is In The Cards With JASMINE,” THE DRAGON Magazine, TSR Periodicals (Lake Geneva, WI) January 1983.
22 Patricia Lentz, “Cards and a Good Deal More,” GAMEPLAY Magazine, Avalon-Hill (Baltimore, MD) June 1983, pp. 60-61.
23 “Town of Yggsburgh” and “Yggsburgh and the East Mark” maps created for: CASTLE ZAGYG PART 1: YGGSBURGH (CZ1) Troll Lord Games, Chenault & Gray Publishing (Little Rock, AR) 2005.

24 WALKING BETWEEN THE WORLDS, Video with Gregg Braden (GAIAM Broomfield, CO) 1998.
25 THE PATH OF THE PRIESTESS. Sharron Rose, Inner Traditions, (Rochester, VT) 2003.