Russ Nicholson RIP

Some sad news: the amazing artist Russ Nicholson has passed away. 

Nicholson probably is best known for his art in the Fiend Folio (1e AD&D), as well as his work in many of the classic “Fighting Fantasy” gamebooks, including the first one, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. 

Fellow fans of Mythras may recognize his work from Monster Isle. 

One brilliantly disturbing example:

Back in 2011, I identified Nicholson as my 5th favourite FRPG artist of all time – and Nicholson was kind enough to post a “thank you” comment.

Many great works by Nicholson can found at his blog, The Gallery: Art of Russ Nicholson. (All of the illustrations in this post, except for the one of the Githyanki [which is from my PDF of the Fiend Folio], were taken from Nicholson's blog.)

RIP.