Obscure Art Friday: Drow Captain by Erol Otus

Drow Captain by Erol Otus

     Following up from last week, this is another original drawing by Otus that was sold along with the Masher. Again, I grabbed the auction photo so the image is low-res. I looked into some of the old threads on the Acaeum, and it seems that the drawings were auctioned on Ebay in 2004, and were bought by the Burntwire Brothers. They later sold the Masher drawing, but still own the Drow Captain - you can it in their gallery here. This drawing came with a "detailed description page" by Kevin Hendryx for the artist to reference.

     According to the original auctioneer, "Believe it or not this stuff came from the estate of a 96 year old woman who lived in Lake Como, WI and once operated a resale shop in Sharon, WI".  The auctioneer speculated she got it from a dumpster, which wouldn't surprise me given what I've heard about TSR throwing out original art.

    As far as I know, the Drow Captain art was never published, but instead used for a Grenadier mini in the Action Art Set (8002), 1980. As indicated below in the insert, Gygax selected the figures to include in the set. He discussed here in his Q&A thread at Enworld in 2007: "About all I did was suggest what figure types I thought would be appealing to consumers, give vague discriptions of what some of the figures should look like. Then the miniature figuring people would consult with another person or persona at TSR that could help them--artists and model makers".

Drow Captain mini, Grenadier Action Art set Monsters 8002, image from the Lost Minis Wiki

Grenadier Action Art set Monsters 8002, insert, image from the Lost Minis Wiki

Grenadier Action Art set Monsters 8002, front cover, image from the Lost Minis Wiki