Gerald Brom

Last updated
Gerald Brom
Born (1965-03-09) March 9, 1965 (age 59)
Albany, Georgia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesBrom
Known for Fantasy art, illustration

Gerald Brom (born March 9, 1965), known professionally as Brom, is an American gothic fantasy artist and illustrator, known for his work in role-playing games, novels, and comics. [1]

Contents

Early life

Brom was born March 9, 1965, in Albany, Georgia. [2] As the son of a U.S. Army pilot he spent much of his early years on the move, living in other countries such as Japan and Germany (he graduated from Frankfurt American High School), and in U.S. states including Alabama and Hawaii. Brought up as a military dependent he was known by his last name only, and now signs his name as simply Brom: "I get that asked more than just about any other question. It's my real name, my last name. I got called Brom all the time as a kid, and it just stuck." [2]

Brom has been drawing and painting since childhood, although he had never taken any formal art classes. "I wouldn't exactly call myself self-taught, because I've always looked at the work of other artists and emulated what I liked about it. So you can say they taught me." Brom cites the work of Frank Frazetta, N.C. Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell as influences on his style: "Okay... Rockwell isn't the kind of inspiration most people expect from me, but he just painted things so well. To me it's not so much the genre but the way it's done, and you have to admire his technique." [2]

Career

At the age of 20, Brom started working full-time as a commercial illustrator. By age twenty-one, he had two national art representatives, and was doing work for such clients as Coca-Cola, IBM, CNN, and Columbia Pictures. [3] TSR, Inc. hired Brom on full-time in 1989 at the age of 24. [2] Brom contributed to all of TSR's game and book lines, particularly the Dark Sun setting: "I pretty much designed the look and feel of the Dark Sun campaign. I was doing paintings before they were even writing about the setting. I'd do a painting or a sketch, and the designers wrote those characters and ideas into the story. I was very involved in the development process. I've been fortunate to be involved in the development end of a lot of projects I've worked on, from role-playing games to computer games." [2] According to Shannon Appelcline, Brom "contributed the unique illustrations for Dark Sun that helped to set it apart from the other TSR games with their more typical fantasy drawings". [4] : 26  His paintings have been published in collectible card games such as Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering and Last Unicorn Games' Heresy: Kingdom Come . [5] Brom's paintings, along with Frank Frazetta's, were used in the development of the visual look of the game series Warlords. [6]

In 1993, after four years at TSR, Brom returned to the freelance market, still specializing in the darker side of the roleplaying game, card game, and comic book genres. [2] Shane Lacy Hensley came up with the idea for the game Deadlands after he saw Brom's cover to Necropolis: Atlanta from White Wolf, and got Brom to do the cover for the initial release. [4] : 325  His artwork also appeared on book covers from authors such as Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, and Terry Brooks. Brom contributed conceptual work to computer games such as Heretic II , and several top creature houses for films such as Stan Winston Studios; he also co-created, art directed, and illustrated the Dark Age collectible card game. [2] He has since worked as a movie concept artist, and created illustrations for comics (by DC, Chaos, Dark Horse) and computer games (for id Software, Blizzard, Sega and Activision). Brom has also been active with a line of Brom fetish toys from Fewture and a series of bronzes from the Franklin Mint and paintings for novels (by Michael Moorcock, Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore, Edgar Rice Burroughs). [3]

Brom returned to TSR in 1998, doing paintings for the Alternity game, the AD&D role-playing game and its Forgotten Realms and Planescape lines, and covers for Dragon and Dungeon magazines. [2] His work is included in the book Masters of Dragonlance Art. [7] He has also returned to painting for book covers for TSR's successor Wizards of the Coast, including the covers for the War of the Spider Queen series and reprints of The Avatar Series .

In 2014, Scott Taylor of Black Gate , named Brom as #4 in a list of The Top 10 RPG Artists of the Past 40 Years, saying "Brom is arguably one of the greatest pure fantasy talents of his generation, and he still creates works just as sublime as he did in his 1990s glory." [8]

In 2019, he entered the Origins Award Hall of Fame. [9]

Works

Books

Novel covers

Movies (as concept artist)

Video game covers

Tabletop games

Related Research Articles

Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job interview. Tracy Hickman met his future writing partner Margaret Weis at TSR, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.

Jeff Grubb is an author of novels, short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).

<i>Ravenloft</i> (module) 1983 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons game

Ravenloft is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. The American game publishing company TSR, Inc. released it as a standalone adventure booklet in 1983 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. It was written by Tracy and Laura Hickman, and includes art by Clyde Caldwell with maps by David Sutherland III. The plot of Ravenloft focuses on the villain Strahd von Zarovich, a vampire who pines for his lost love. Various story elements, including Strahd's motivation and the locations of magical weapons, are randomly determined by drawing cards. The player characters attempt to defeat Strahd and, if successful, the adventure ends.

<i>Dragonlance Adventures</i>

Dragonlance Adventures is a 128-page hardcover book for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Elmore</span> American fantasy artist (born 1948)

Larry Elmore is an American fantasy artist whose work includes creating illustrations for video games, comics, magazines, and fantasy books. His list of work includes illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonlance, and his own comic strip series SnarfQuest. He is author of the book Reflections of Myth.

Clyde Caldwell is an American artist. Self-described as a fantasy illustrator, he is best known for his portrayals of strong, sexy female characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Easley</span> American artist (born 1954)

Jeff Easley is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Parkinson</span> American artist (1958–2005)

Keith A. Parkinson was an American fantasy artist and illustrator known for book covers and artwork for games such as EverQuest, Guardians, Magic: The Gathering, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. After designing book and magazine covers for TSR, Parkinson moved into game design in the 1990s, and co-designed the collectible card game Guardians. Parkinson died of leukemia in 2005, just four days after his 47th birthday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy Post</span> American illustrator

Randy "rk" Post is an illustrator of fantasy publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Lockwood</span> American fantasy and science fiction artist (born 1957)

Todd Wills Lockwood is an American artist specializing in fantasy and science fiction illustration. He is best known for his work on the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and for his covers for the books of R. A. Salvatore. His art has also appeared in books from Tor Books, DAW Books, and on magazine covers, including Satellite Orbit magazine in 1984–1985, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact, Realms of Fantasy, Dragon Magazine, and Dungeon Magazine.

Susan Van Camp is a fantasy artist, best known for her work on various role playing games.

The DL series is a series of adventures and some supplementary material for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. These modules along with the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels, which follow one possible adventure series through the modules, were the first published items that established the Dragonlance fictional universe. The original DL series was released from 1984 to 1986, with the final two modules added to it in 1988. In the 1990s these roleplaying adventures from the original series were collected and revised for 2nd Edition AD&D as the three DLC Dragonlance Classics modules. There were also versions of the module series released in 1999, 2000 and 2006.

<i>Dragons of Despair</i> 1984 book by Tracy Hickman

Dragons of Despair is the first in a series of 16 Dragonlance adventures published by TSR, Inc. (TSR) between 1984 and 1988. It is the start of the first major story arc in the Dragonlance series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game modules, a series of ready-to-play adventures for use by Dungeon Masters in the game. This series provides a game version of the original Dragonlance storyline later told in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels. This module corresponds to the events told in the first half of the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Its module code is DL1, which is used to designate it as the first part of the Dragonlance adventure series.

<i>Dragons of Triumph</i>

Dragons of Triumph is the fourth and final module in the third story arc of the 14-module Dragonlance (DL) series of the Dungeons & Dragons adventure role-playing game. The series was published by TSR between 1984 and 1986. The game's cover art work by Clyde Caldwell features Laurana Kanan chained on a platform before the goddess of evil, Takhisis.

Mark Zug is an artist and illustrator who is known for his work with the Septimus Heap series and Harlan Ellison's adaptation of I, Robot. Zug has illustrated many collectible card games, including Magic: The Gathering and Dune, as well as books and magazines. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Jeff Butler is an American illustrator and comic book artist. He worked with the art department of TSR, Inc. for five years, illustrating products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game and the Marvel Super Heroes role playing game, as well as Dragonlance novels.

<i>Dark Sun</i> Dungeons & Dragons fictional campaign setting

Dark Sun is an original Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. Dark Sun featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take on traditional fantasy role-playing. The product line began with the original Dark Sun Boxed Set released for D&D's 2nd edition in 1991, originally ran until 1996, and was one of TSR's most successful releases.

References

  1. ↑ Miller, Stanley A. III (August 4, 2002). "Gen Con offerings still magical", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , p. E1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kenson, Stephen (October 1999). "Profiles: Brom". Dragon (#264): 112.
  3. 1 2 "Brom". Archived from the original on February 24, 2009.
  4. 1 2 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  5. ↑ "Heresy Cards by Artist". The Sendai Bubble. Archived from the original on 2003-12-10. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  6. ↑ Fawkner, Steve (September 2007). "Infinite Interactive's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords", Game Developer 14 (8): 42.
  7. ↑ D'Ammassa, Don (January 2003). "Masters of Dragonlance Art", Chronicle 25 (1): 30.
  8. ↑ "Art of the Genre: The Top 10 RPG Artists of the Past 40 Years – Black Gate". 12 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "Academy - Hall of Fame". www.originsawards.net.
  10. ↑ "Black Gate » Articles » Art Evolution 16: Brom". 29 December 2010.
  11. ↑ "Brom".
  12. ↑ "Lilith at a BlizzCon 2019 Dark Gallery Tour".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.