Dave "Wormy" Trampier Interviewed . . .

sckeener

First Post
the Wiki of him says the article is from 2002.

here's the text from the wiki

Dave A. Trampier is an early Dungeons & Dragons artist and writer.

He is best known as the creator of the "Wormy" comic strip that ran in The Dragon Magazine. From its inception in issue #9 until its abrupt end in issue #132, Trampier's Wormy comic was a popular feature of Dragon Magazine. It featured a title character in the form of a cigar-chomping, pool-sharking, wargame-playing dragon (and his friends), the comic's storylines were cleverly plotted and the art carefully penciled and colored. Each issue of Dragon would have anywhere from 1-4 pages of "Wormy". The comic suddenly stopped appearing after issue #132, in the middle of a storyline.

A few issues later there was a brief note from the editors stating that "Wormy" would never be appearing again. No explanation was given. Artist and writer Trampier pretty much vanished and has never been reliably heard from since. In a casual conversation with fellow Dragon artist Phil Foglio at the 2000 Origins Game Convention, Mr. Foglio stated that at some point the "Wormy" strips just stopped coming into Dragon magazine and all checks mailed to Trampier were returned as undeliverable. Inquiries by TSR at his residence showed that he had moved with no forwarding address.

Rumours that he had died were denied by Tom Wham, who was for a while Trampier's brother-in-law. Wham stated in the 1990s that he had actually had some contact with Tramp and that he was fine. He gave no further details. A February 15, 2002 article in the Daily Egyptian newspaper in southern Illinois featured a taxi-driving David Trampier in Carbondale, including a photograph. Gary Gygax and other TSR staff of the time confirm it is the same David Trampier who drew Wormy [1]

Trampier also provided much of the black and white interior art in many of the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules and manuals, such as the original Monster Manual and Deities & Demigods. His 1979 cover art for the original monochromatic version of the module The Village of Hommlet is widely recognized among fans of earlier D&D materials and has become a collectors item.​
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Ghendar

First Post
The truly sad thing for us fans is that such a talented artist just gave up. I'm not criticizing him for his decision, he's free to live his life however he wishes, but why is it always the talented ones who stop and the producers of dreck just keep churning out crap. Lots of similarities to the comic book hobby. What would Wormy have turned into had Tramp not given up?
 

Back in the Day, Wormy (and Fineous Fingers) was always what I turned to first in The Dragon.

It's really sad that he's given up being an artist... I can only imagine what he'd be doing with 25 years to have further developed his craft.

Ken
 

Alzrius

The EN World kitten
I can't site a source for this (so take it with a grain of salt), but I saw a discussion somewhere that mentioned that shortly before he up and left TSR, there was some sort of conflict with him and some other staff members regarding a Wormy trade paperback, and that that somehow contributed to him leaving the industry.
 

Archade

Azer Paladin
Hey! I'm more interested in James Nicoll's livejournal, if it's the same James Nicoll I've known many years ago.

Can you send me a link to his LJ?
 

sckeener

First Post
Alzrius said:
I can't site a source for this (so take it with a grain of salt), but I saw a discussion somewhere that mentioned that shortly before he up and left TSR, there was some sort of conflict with him and some other staff members regarding a Wormy trade paperback, and that that somehow contributed to him leaving the industry.

If that is the case, that is really sad. Industry, media, and people change.

Heck, we're talking about TSR, not WotC, nor Hasbro. There wasn't even a PDF market back then....heck outside of the government and college students the Internet wasn't even popular.

He doesn't even have to come back to the new companies...just doing a website similar to OOTS, Goblins, Nodwick, or Dork Tower would be great.
 


SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
Dave's the basis for my avatar over on the left, so you can see that I'm a fan.

There was a time...

Back in the late 70's, and if I remember correctly, into the early 80's, I'd pick up Dragon every month and check out What's New and Wormy. The rest of the mag could have nothing in it that I was even remotely interested in, but I had my monthly chuckly from those two pages.

Good times.

Best of luck to Dave...I wish him well.

--Steve
 


buzz

Adventurer
I'm glad to know he's alive and well, but this article makes me sad as hell. Carbondale... ugh.

I remember the ad for the Wormy TPB in the back of Dragon all those years ago. I sent in an order way too late and got a letter back explaining that the product was a no-go. Now, all I have is the Dragon CD archive and the middlingly-scanned pages of his work.

Dammit, Dave! I want to know how it ends! :(
 

Remove ads

Top