Old High School D&D Artwork (That Showed Up On eBay)

Kind of self-explanatory. 

I was fifteen when I did this, deep in my Tolkien-D&D-Star Wars-comics phase of youngster nerd-dom. As you can see, I always had more ambition than talent, but I least I improved quite a bit in the forty years since I drew this on the kitchen table watching T.V. Everything here is made up, nothing referenced, to the detriment of everything from wood textures to anatomy to keeping a goddamn fantasy fortress built upright instead of a collapsing cake. I'm assuming I barely penciled this, most likely inked it with a rapidograph and a cheap dip pen, and colored it with Dr. Martin's dyes. I read in a comic somewhere that Dr. Martin's was what they used to color comics, so I went to Pearl paint and bought a batch. I never learned how to use them, at 15 I didn't realize the process used to actually color the funnybooks, I didn't know much of anything. But I had fun, even if I eventually ripped up almost all my drawings back then. 

I don't remember drawing this, my memory wasn't jogged when it showed up on eBay. I wrote the seller to ask where it came from, the reply was that they were selling it for Mr. Gerard, a teacher I had in high school. I apparently gave it to him, or maybe he bought it in one of the art sales. I can't recall. 

I do know that I cursed Mr. Gerard out one day in class and somehow this didn't result in any disciplinary action or a lowering of my grade. I was a troublemaker in high school, but got away with pretty much everything. I wasn't a fighter (although I got into fights) or a moron, I cracked wise but most of the jokes landed, and while I did some really stupid things here and there I managed to weasel out of pretty much everything one way or another. I was well-read and fairly smart  for a high school kid and my personal magnetic charm got me through the trips to the dean(s), the principal's office, the hallway, etc. I got thrown out of several schools but became far less destructive and disruptive in high school (which mainly points to how messed up I was before then, landing me in a "special" class for the incorrigible fuck-ups and misfits of Roy H. Mann, which I dubbed "crazy class".). Let me not get into that because I have to get back to work on commissions, and I have a few stories. They aren't phenomenal, but I had my moments. Maybe those will end up in the memoir I'll never draw.

Anyway, this is proof that if you draw for forty years you might not become a master draftsman, but you'll improve from your magic missile days. 

I believe someone bought the drawing, which freaks me out a little. I'm working on another post about my old, olde art, I still have to find and scan something before I can put the entry together.

As always, more soon later.

P.S. Check out that ridiculous signature! I never had a good signature, something that still bugs me to this day. Not even a consistent one. Maybe there's something about writing "Evan Dorkin" that just defies a good signature. Maybe a handwriting expert could analyze my personality from this, but I don't want to know about it. I mean, I already know, you know?