One of the great fantasy artists, Keith Parkinson passed away due to complications from leukemia on October 26th. In the years he worked at TSR, Keith Parkinson set the tone for the Dungeons & Dragons line along with Larry Elmore, and in subsequent years continued to produce award-winning covers for fantasy and science fiction novels. Many online gamers would recognise his work from the EverQuest covers. In 2002, Parkinson co-founded and served as art director for Sigil Games Online. It cannot be emphasized enough how much influence Keith Parkinson’s work had on fantasy roleplaying, and he will be sorely missed.
A service for friends and family will be held on November 1st near his home in southern California. His widow Donna has asked that any donations in Keith’s memory be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
In this industry, almost like no other, artists help design the game. As RPG’s and boardgames provide pictures to illuminate players image of the story, early game artists have a mark of greatness as creators of this new, wonderfull, media.
We should honor the life and work of Keith Parkinson as being as much a trailblazer of the adventure media as other more well known writers.
My respects to Keith Parkinson’s family.
I met him at GenCon 2004.
🙁 🙁 🙁 RIP
Well my week is ruined . A great loss , indeed .
I used to be his neighbor, awesome guy, awesome family. RIP.
I still regret not meeting him. I will always remember him as a wonderful artist and a very kind person.
Now I must find the way to tell the news to a friend of mine – maybe one of his biggest fans.
Bye Keith, we’ll all miss you.