I’m not a gamer, not really.  I enjoyed Final Fantasy X on the Playstation and I’ve been known to dabble in Fallout, but the real gaming, that happens between flesh and blood competitors with a master running the show … I’ve never done it.  But I have had the pleasure of illustrating some of it.

Courtney Campbell released Perdition this month and I’ve been holding off on blogging about my experience until the release was complete.  I started working with Campbell in 2014 and had no substantial illustration experience at that point.  I was a super NOOB and ready to be suckered into anything to get to participate.  Fortunately, Campbell is a professional and schooled me proper on how much I really should get paid.  I continue to be shocked and pleased at his level of professionalism.  He’s one of the good ones.

The world is creepy and amazing, the monsters and characters even more so.  Campbell pushed me.  He encouraged me to let my freak flag fly … and it was hard for me.  There was a constant battle between what I wanted to do and what I thought HE wanted.  Looking back at some of the pictures I see flaws, I see things I would have done differently … but it is the perfect documentation of where I was at the time.  It captures my hesitancy and growth just as it captures his fundamentally flexible notions about reality and desire to create a world filled with bureaucratic chaos.

As I said, I can’t speak to the gameplay, but I remember looking at my brother’s D&D books when I was a kid (too young to read) and being transported by the illustrations to another reality.  It was magic to me and this book has a magic all it’s own.

For more information on the book and purchasing links, you can see Campbell’s blog here:  http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2016/07/on-hell-unleashed.html