Jim Roslof, R.I.P.

goodmangames · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:05 am

Jim Roslof was an outstanding artist whose legacy from the TSR days through the present inspired many gamers’ best D&D adventures. He passed away the morning of Sunday, March 20. I am personally very proud to have published many of his illustrations over the past few years, and I will forever remember his depictions of classic fantasy adventuring. From all of Goodman Games, our thoughts go out to his family. Rest in peace, Jim Roslof.

When I last spoke to him two weeks ago, Jim was finishing up his next set of assignments for DCC RPG. These will be published posthumously in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, which will be dedicated to Jim Roslof.

Here are a few of his illustrations that Goodman Games has published over the years. I have always loved his "skinny heroes" and "non-tank" warriors. Only Jim Roslof could create a dwarf that wasn't a gravity-defying hulk, and a warrior who was comfortable dungeon-crawling in a chain shirt and light steel helm, rather than the ponderous plate mail "tanks" of modern D&D imagery. His clerics look like they just walked out of a church, not a crusade, and his heroes fight with round shields: all subtle reminders of what D&D was like in 1974.

Stainless · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:40 pm **Posts:** 214

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Roslof

http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa ... =&aql=&oq=

mntnjeff · **Joined:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:59 pm **Posts:** 57

So sad to see another of the great luminaries pass... So sad.

smathis · **Joined:** Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 pm **Posts:** 937

mntnjeff wrote:

So sad to see another of the great luminaries pass... So sad.

Agreed.

GnomeBoy · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:58 pm

One of my favorite artists, primarily for the sake of all the color he could squeeze into a picture.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Roslof.

Ravenheart87 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:08 pm

Make this topic sticky, please...

Machpants · **Posted:** Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:10 pm

RIP and best wishes to his family and friends.

finarvyn · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:36 am

I've enjoyed seeing his work, even if I didn't know his name until recently when he got sick. Sad that such a person has to have bad things happen before his greatness gets talked about.

DCCfan · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2011 5:05 am

His art did inspire great adventures.
R.I.P.

JonHook · **Joined:** Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:22 pm **Posts:** 79

Wow. Very sad.

How many of us were first introduced to Jim with his cover art on "Keep on the Borderlands"?

Rest in peace.

Harley Stroh · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:02 am

JonHook wrote:

Wow. Very sad.

How many of us were first introduced to Jim with his cover art on "Keep on the Borderlands"?

Rest in peace.

Agreed. What might be the most played adventure of our generation, with Roslof gracing the cover. His pen-and-ink works are some of my favorite pieces. I'm thankful that we will be able to celebrate a little more of his art and hopefully add to the canon.

//H

Harley Stroh · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:17 am

Hamel™ · **Posted:** Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:14 am

That's pretty sad.. his was a very particular and suggestive art.

Ravenheart87 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:17 am

He made the most badass Thor illustration in the history of D&D:

He earned his place in Valhalla, I'm sure.

mike wilson · **Joined:** Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:29 am **Posts:** 123

Man, I don't know what to say. My heart is broken to hear this. I'll always treasure his work. I can't say that
I've nearly seen enough of it. I hope someone someday that we'll get to see all of his work, doodles included, published in a great of tome.

darjr · **Joined:** Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:09 pm **Posts:** 23

I loved his art. The world is a lesser place. Rest in peace.

Mrchoon · **Joined:** Wed Jan 16, 2013 1:48 pm **Posts:** 1

I have in my possession a piece of art by Jim Roslof entitled "Whaling on the High Seas". His signature on the bottom right seems legitimate and it's dated '74. It's behind a wood frame and under glass. It's nautical theme is pretty unique, since I know Roslof mostly did D&D related pieces. It also appears that Jim painted directly on the glass, as well as behind creating a sense of depth.

I would love to hear from anyone who can shed more light on this piece of art by Jim Roslof.

I have attached pictures below

goodmangames · **Posted:** Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:33 pm

Jim did a lot of non-D&D work. I visited his studio with his wife after he passed away. His studio is filled with the advertising work that he did for many years after his time working as an art director at TSR. I'm not as familiar with his work from before his TSR days but it sounds like you have come across some of it.

His wife, Laura, has some great stories about their time with TSR. She's the one who actually did the illustration that got Palace of the Silver Princess banned...on direction from her husband, who was TSR art director at the time!

DCCfan · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:02 am

goodmangames wrote:

Jim did a lot of non-D&D work. I visited his studio with his wife after he passed away. His studio is filled with the advertising work that he did for many years after his time working as an art director at TSR. I'm not as familiar with his work from before his TSR days but it sounds like you have come across some of it.

His wife, Laura, has some great stories about their time with TSR. She's the one who actually did the illustration that got Palace of the Silver Princess banned...on direction from her husband, who was TSR art director at the time!

He banned his own wife's art or he gave it the green light and it got banned later?

goodmangames · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:31 am

He gave it the green light...then it got banned later.

Ravenheart87 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:58 am

I'm a youngster and don't know these stories well. Which illustration are you talking about?

mythfish · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:49 pm

Wikipedia is enlightening on this story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_ ... on_history

Quote:

During the editorial process, Wells wanted to replace artwork by Erol Otus that had transformed her new three-headed monsters called "ubues" into hermaphrodites with the heads of TSR staffers and management. However, she was told that it was too late, since replacing the artwork would cause unreasonable printing delays.[8]

On the eve of publication, when the cartons of printed modules arrived at TSR headquarters ready for shipping, someone in TSR's upper management objected strongly to the module. Some sources state that the objectionable content was four pieces of artwork by Erol Otus and Laura Roslof that were too overtly sexual.[9][3] These included "The Illusion of the Decapus" by Laura Roslof, wife of Jim Roslof, in which a woman was tied up by her own hair. However, other sources point out that the "objectionable" art was rather tame compared to that released in some other products of the time, and that "sexual content" was only used as an excuse for the recall; the real reason was the Erol Otus caricatures of TSR executives in the illustration of the ubues.

I'd love to get my hand on a copy of the orange version...apparently there are PDFs of it out there...

headspice · **Posted:** Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:40 am

Quote:

I'd love to get my hand on a copy of the orange version...apparently there are PDFs of it out there...

I'm at work so I didn't download it, but there's a link to the banned pdf at the bottom of the wikipedia page you posted.

cthulhudarren · **Posted:** Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:26 pm

headspice wrote:

Quote:

I'd love to get my hand on a copy of the orange version...apparently there are PDFs of it out there...

I'm at work so I didn't download it, but there's a link to the banned pdf at the bottom of the wikipedia page you posted.

I declare it awesome. Too bad they didn't have a sense of humor. EO rules.

ragboy · **Joined:** Mon Jan 06, 2003 6:19 pm **Posts:** 393

Yep -- WOTC re-released it for free... Crap -- they used to have a bunch of the old stuff on their site for free (L2, etc). Guess they want to sell them now. The wikipedia link still works for B2, though.

That's funny -- I never realized that the module was completely re-written.

Goodman Games

Jim Roslof, R.I.P.

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