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| From left to right: Ernie Gygax, Scott Schwartz, Simon Todd, Andy |
Last night I was working my way through the blogs for this week's Best Reads of the Week when I came across this picture. +Alexis Smolensk of the Tao of D&D has been involved in an argument with another blogger (see The Real Deal for more) and published this picture with the individuals labeled as Gary Gygax, David Trampier, Aaron Aalston, and
Tom Moldvay. I think he got that impression after reading a post by +Jay Murphy from his blog The Vanishing Tower. In the post, The Health of Gaming Today, Jay was talking about the deaths of Gygax, Trampier, Aalston, and Moldvay and posted this picture which could easily lead to the misnomers.
See I know for a fact that the gentleman on the lower left side of the frame is +Ernie Gygax and that this photo was taken at Gary Con this year (Ernie Gygax has also confirmed that it is him in that picture). That means that Tom Moldvay could not be present since he died April 24, 2007. Similarly Aaron Aalston could not have been present for this picture as he passed in February, nearly a full month before this picture was taken. We also know that David Trampier did not attend this year's Gary Con as he died before the convention began. So who's in the picture with Ernie?
[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to Guy Fullerton and +Michael Curtis we now know that the gentlemen on the right, farthest back is illustrator Simon Todd. Next to him is his friend Andy. That leaves only the gentleman in the upper left next to +Ernie Gygax to discover.
[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to the eagle eyed Guy Fullerton we know the identity of the last gentleman. His name is Scott Schwartz! Thank you all for helping me fill in these names and for getting their identities correct! I really appreciate all of your help!
[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to Guy Fullerton and +Michael Curtis we now know that the gentlemen on the right, farthest back is illustrator Simon Todd. Next to him is his friend Andy. That leaves only the gentleman in the upper left next to +Ernie Gygax to discover.
[[Edit 6/14/2014]] Thanks to the eagle eyed Guy Fullerton we know the identity of the last gentleman. His name is Scott Schwartz! Thank you all for helping me fill in these names and for getting their identities correct! I really appreciate all of your help!
Simon Todd is the gentleman on the right side, furthest back. He illustrates for various games:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/eusabyus
The other gentleman on the right side is his friend, and fellow player in their home campaign. Both are from the UK, IIRC.
Thank you so much for the confirmation of their identities Guy! I really appreciate your help!
DeleteSo the argument began with concern over the obesity of many gamers because the founders of the hobby died from bad health. Then somebody called the founders of the hobby "fat do-nothings who got lucky." Then it turns out that the people in the picture aren't the founders of the hobby.
ReplyDeleteI'll just mark this up as of those "head scratchers" you were talking about on Thursday... lol
Ha!
DeleteI'm not involved in the argument. I just wanted to figure out who all was in the picture! :D
I'm fat and proud and a GAMER!
ReplyDeleteLive with it. :-P
Wish I could help with the picture. Sorry!
That's the way I feel about it too!
DeleteCharles---
ReplyDeleteI recognize the guy on the upper left from GaryCon (he's attended several years), but I don't know his name. Have you asked Ernie?
Allan.
I was about to ask Ernie but with Guy Fullerton's link I was able to get confirmation of the gentleman's name. He is Scott Schwartz!
DeleteAccording to MarkCGM's Gary Con VI photo album on Facebook, the gentleman on the left side rear is Scott Schwartz:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203448683560513&set=a.10203448680600439.1073741956.1315595608&type=3&theater
Guy you are just amazing! Thank you so much for all of your help!
Delete