The gruff, bearded, hardened ex-con
vowed to change his life when he was released
from the Kentucky chain gang. “Ah
have paid mah debt to society,” said Cool
Hand Larry, “and now ah want to devote
mahself to mah art.” His murder conviction
recently overturned by, the Kentucky Supreme
Court, Larry set out to become an
artist.

“Well, it didn’t happen that way,” said
Larry Elmore, “but it makes a good story. In
reality, I was born in Louisville, Kentucky,
on Aug. 5, 1948. and grew up in Grayson
County, in the midwestern part of the state.

As a child, I was fascinated by old people
telling ghost stories. From them, I became
interested in fantasy.

“You’d think that people who live nearest
to nature would be least scared of it, but the
opposite is true. They create mystery about
it.”

As a teenager, Larry was into hot rods and
the Beach Boys. “The rural school I attended
didn’t have any art program, so I
spent my time drawing-and daydreaming. I
was a pretty bad student. If I didn’t bring
home any D’s on my report card, it was
okay, but when I did, look out! ‘D’ stood for
Dead in my household,” Larry said. “I was
always getting into trouble for drawing in
class. I wish I had a quarter for every drawing
of mine a teacher destroyed.

"After school, I played around with hot 
rods, and was once grounded for 3 
months for drag racing.  I didn't know it at 
the time, but my future wife, Betty, used to 
watch the boys drag race on Sundays." 

After graduation, Larry went to Western
Kentucky University. “I majored in art, because
I didn’t think I could do anything
else. My first art class was a shock. The in-
party invitations. We were participating in
wargames, and I was an APC driver in the
field.” After Larry got out of the service, he
got a job as a civilian artist for the Ft. Knox
Training Aids Department, and married Betty.

“We were working in the same building
as the print shop, so I learned a lot about
printing, photography, and all the mechanics
of the trade. It was a valuable experience.”

After three years with the government,
Larry turned to freelance work. His first
published work was in National Lampoon,
and shortly thereafter he sold some work to
Heavy Metal. “Then I started selling work at
science-fiction conventions in Louisville,”
he said.

A friend introduced Larry to the D&D®
game around this time. Larry’s friend was
planning to send in some art submissions
to DRAGON® Magazine, and badgered
Larry to submit something as well. “I had
enough freelance work at the time, and
wasn’t really interested, but the guy kept it
up, and finally I sent a few pieces along
with his submission. Well, they took mine
and didn’t take his. He was kind of
annoyed. Then TSR offered me a job, but I
had just bought a house in Kentucky and
said no. They flew me up for an interview,
but I said I’d still rather freelance.

“But they kept asking me, and I decided I
was pretty bored with what I was
doing. The government

kept trying to get me to do
supervisory work, which I hated, so
finally I agreed to come to TSR. And you
know, coming here was the smartest career
move I ever made.”

Larry joined the TSR staff in November
1981, and has done module and game covers,
posters, book covers, calendar paintings,
pen and ink work, and much more,
including the Snarfquest saga currently
running in DRAGON Magazine. He was the
artist in charge of creating a look for the
DRAGONLANCE® saga, and did much of
the early sketches for the series.

“I want to say something special to all
the people who have written me letters. I really
want to answer all the mail I get, and I
feel bad when I don’t, but this job keeps me
too busy. I really do enjoy hearing from you,
though, and I’m sorry that I haven’t written
back,” Larry said.