Jason Braun LL Original Cover Art

At the NTRPG con this weekend, I got to meet Jason Braun ( http://www.jasonbraun.com ) an artist that has done many "Old School" art pieces for various people.  Good stuff too, IMHO.   Jason is a great guy, very nice, and humble too!  Wish I could have done some gaming with him but we were not in any of the same games. 

I was at his vendor booth checking out his great art, and I saw the piece above on the wall, with a sales tag!  Now if you are new to Labyrinth Lord, like at about the time that Advanced Edition Companion was released, you may not know about the older covers.  This was the cover of the second or third release, the black and purple book that preceded the new black and white Steve Zieser cover (which is also great, I might add).  THAT book and this cover was the one that I found that got me getting back into the older games, down the path of retro clones, Ebay, and all other things that the OSR seems to make people do.

Needless to say, I had a little money burning a hole in my pocket (Hey, I saved for months just for some cash to blow at the con.  That is sorta sad since I spent only around 200 dollars on modules, rule books, a lunch with Marshall and Scalydemon, a Swords and Wizardy T-shirt, and the art; I'm not rolling in the dough needless to say).  I am now the owner of this, the original cover piece Jason did for the LL rule book!

Excited?  You bet!  Pretty cool to own a piece that "hooked" me.  Looking at it, it just makes me think about the fun that can be had with RPG's.  It has a story.  Alexandra the Elf and Niles the Halfling are featured in the rule book examples.  Is this them?  What is beyond the arch way besides more pig faced Orcs?  Only two party members left?  What happened to the rest?  And most importantly, what kind of a sadistic bastard of a DM drops a spider down on a poor Halfling and Elf already up to their armpits in Orcs??  :)

Now, Jason not only sold me that, but he also gave me the original sketch:

The original Ink:

And a "fix" ink that I will explain below:

As to the "fix" picture above of Alexandra's face, if you look closely at the ink and also the pencil sketch, you will see...well...there is no other way to put it.  She got hit by the ugly stick.  Or a shovel.  Right in the face. Hard.  ;) 

Jason explained that after it was done, and after he had sent the art to Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games, that he noticed the little issue with her mug.  Dan, being the good guy he is, didn't mention it and perhaps was going to use it as it was (Might have to ask Dan).  The "fix" ink was used to overlay the old, and make her look more like a decent looking Elf female.  :)  You can see that in the final piece at the top.

I am just pleased that he had it up on his vendor "wall", and that I had that little bit of scratch left over to buy it with.