Back to the 80s: TSR’s D&D comic advertisements

A short while back, I waxed nostalgic about “the good old days” of D&D licensing in the 1980s, but I left out one very important thing – the advertising.

In 1981 through 1982, TSR took out advertisements in Marvel (both their regular books and Epic Magazine), DC, and Fleetway (then home to 2000 A.D.) comics to promote their Dungeons & Dragons game.

The first series (which were ran in not only color, but also in black & white) kicked off with a strip drawn by Keenan Powell (famed for art in the early D&D releases) while subsequent strips were written and drawn by the prolific Bill Willingham, staff artist for TSR.

The main characters featured in this “story” are: Valerius (a human warrior), Indel (a human rogue), Saren (a human cleric), and Grimslade (a human mage):

The 2nd series, featuring Auric (a human fighter), Khellek (a human wizard) and Tirra (no class is given, but she’s an elf):

The 3rd and final series introduces Rory Gellan (a human ranger), and Shadrak (a gnome rogue):

Now, I really don’t know if these ads actually got someone to play D&D. Then, like now, it was very much either you did or you didn’t, thanks to your social network. I had already been playing for 3 or 4 years myself, so the only effect that these ads had on me was that they just screamed “play me”.

I’d love to see a return to these types of advertising.