Trampier Mural Ribbon Cutting

Members of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce stormed Castle Perilous Games and Books on Nov. 20, 2025 for a ribbon cutting celebrating the store's new mural honoring fantasy artist Dave "Tramp" Trampier. Painted by Jordan Murphy, the mural features the self-potrait of Trampier from the Dungeons and Dragons Gamemaster Screen and the dragon Wormy from Trampier's comic strip of the same name.  One of the first artists featured in the Dungeons & Dragons game, Trampier's art helped define fantasy art for an entire generation. Trampier moved to Carbondale in the late 1990s and passed away here in 2014

 

Cryer From the Castle 11/18

Hope you can attend the Dave Trampier mural ribbon cutting at noon this Thursday and ThanksGaming at 5 p.m.

Wormy Prototype book

David "Tramp" Trampier was one of the early artists who worked for TSR creating art for the early AD&D books and modules.  One of his signature pieces was the art for the 1st edition DM Screen which we had on display in the store for several years. He was also known for the Wormy strip, which ran in Dragon magazine for a number of years. In the 1980s, he prepared this prototype book to convince ICE to publish the collection after plans for TSR to do so fell through. Unfortunately, the planned ICE publication never happened. Trampier passed away back in 2014 and I only saw his wife a few times over the past years as she became quite a recluse. When she died last summer, her body was not found for 3 days and the owner of the trailer she rented contacted on of her brothers asking what he wanted to do with the items in the trailer. He told them to throw everything out. 

The men hired to clean everything out saved a few items, a box of panels of original Wormy art and this prototype book, which is on display at the store until we either return it to his sister or offer it for display to the Lake Geneva library.
 

Wormy

We purchased this prototype of a Wormy collection creator Dave Trampier put together back in the 1980s to generate interest in a collected books of the strips. Unfortunately, the collection never saw publication but we purchased the mock up and will have it in the store for you to look through for the remainder of 2024

 

Dave Trampier's Artwork

If you would like to see some of the store's collection of Trampier's artwork, we have posted photos of the color pieces we own, including the 1st edition DM Screen, on the Castle Perilous Games & Books website . We still have a few black and white pieces to get up and should have those posted by early next week.

I plan to work to find the executor of Trampier's estate and see what we can do regarding getting the Wormy collection published as he wanted.

Dave Trampier, Wormy Artist, Passes Away

Dave Trampier, best known in the gaming world as the creator of the strip Wormy, passed away last Monday at Helia Heathcare, here in Carbondale.

Trampier worked as a staff artist for TSR for almost a decade, painting the cover for the original Dungeon Master's Screen, as well as working on the company's Gamma World and Star Frontiers games, leaving the company in the late 80s, after he felt the company reneged on an agreement to publish the first volume of a collection of Wormy. I do not know what he did for the next several years, but about 1998, he started driving a cab for Yellow Taxi in Carbondale.

During this period, he adamantly refused to have anything to do with the gaming industry, politely rebuffing any inquiries from companies wanting to publish Wormy.  He only came into the store once, back about 2008, when Valley Games printed a new edition of Titan, which he co-designed (with Jason McAllister), in order to see a copy of the game.

I next heard from him a couple of months ago, after he had a stroke and Yellow Taxi shut down due to tax problems.  He wanted to sell some artwork in order to cover some expenses, so I bought several pieces from him and discussed the possibility of publishing the Wormy collection.  He was quite interested in doing so, asking about Kickstarter or companies that might be interested in working with him to bring the book into print.  I suggested Troll Lord Games, who had tried contacting him several years ago about re-publishing Wormy and he was interested, though he still harbored hard feelings towards TSR and WOTC, as he wanted to make certain that Troll Lord Games had no connection to either company. He never moved forward any further on that front though, understandable as his doctors detected cancer and his health deteriorated.

He thought he was getting better though, as about three weeks ago, he agreed to appear as a guest at Egypt Wars, a gaming convention in Carbondale, and display the Wormy collection mock-up he still had from 1988.  Since Troll Lord Games will appear at the same show, I hoped the two might talk and move the publication of Wormy forward. Unfortunately, that won't happen now.

Update:  If you would like to see them, we have posted photos of some of the artwork I bought from Trampier on the store's website

Dave Trampier Alive and Well Driving a Cab

As the article notes, Dave Trampier, creator of the Wormy strip that ran in early issues of Dragon magazines, has been living here in Carbondale, driving a cab.  He has no interest in the gaming industry any more and, to my knowlege, has only been in the store once, when a company re-released Titan, a game he designed.