Greyhawk Mapper Darlene Speaks!

Darlene Pekul, TSR illustrator and map maker, began answering questions to fans today over at The Piazza D&D Worlds Forum. Perhaps best known for the first published versions of the World of Greyhawk maps, Darlene is happy to get back in touch with her fans after decades: "I feel like I'm a comet in an elliptical orbit on a return journey after 30-years" says the 58 year old artist.

Parts of The Darlene Greyhawk Map

In the Piazza discussion forum thread, she talks about her friendship with other well known former TSR employees such as Joe Orlowski, Dave Sutherland,Jon Pickens, Kenneth Reek and Tim Kask as well as her relationship to game designer and Blackmoor alumni, Mike Carr.

In her first batch of answers to curious fans, she also talks about her first jobs for TSR:

"Among the first jobs I was given to do was to design and produce an outdoor sign for TSR's Williams Street building. I made the sign in the shape of a shield and painted The Dragon on one side and TSR on the other. Although I had earned my BA degree in Art, nobody initially associated me with illustration. I was first and foremost associated with graphics design, happy to receive any freelance work I was given..."

It is going to be interesting to follow this discussion with Darlene and listen to her experiences and see what they tell us about the early days of TSR and the early development of Greyhawk.

Also, make sure to visit Darlene's Facebook Fan Page and her website.


-Havard