Gerald Brom (born March 9, 1965), known professionally as Brom, is an American

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

artist and illustrator, known for his work in

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

s, novels, and

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

Early life

Brom was born March 9, 1965, in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Geo ...

. As the son of a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

pilot he spent much of his early years on the move, living in other countries such as

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(he graduated from

Frankfurt American High School Frankfurt American High School (FAHS) was a Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) system school located on what was once known as the Abrams Complex in Frankfurt, Germany. One of DoDDS original six high schools in Germany, the school ...

), and in U.S. states including

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Brought up as a military dependent he was known by his last name only, and now signs his name as simply Brom: "I get that asked more than just about any other question. It's my real name, my last name. I got called Brom all the time as a kid, and it just stuck." Brom has been drawing and painting since childhood, although he had never taken any formal art classes. "I wouldn't exactly call myself self-taught, because I've always looked at the work of other artists and emulated what I liked about it. So you can say they taught me." Brom cites the work of

Frank Frazetta Frank Frazetta (born Frank Frazzetta ; February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010) was an American artist known for themes of Fantasy art, fantasy and science fiction, noted for comic books, mass market paperback, paperback book covers, paintings, p ...

N.C. Wyeth Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was a student of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...

, and

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

as influences on his style: "Okay... Rockwell isn't the kind of inspiration most people expect from me, but he just painted things so well. To me it's not so much the genre but the way it's done, and you have to admire his technique."

Career

At the age of 20, Brom started working full-time as a commercial illustrator. By age twenty-one, he had two national art representatives, and was doing work for such clients as

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, and

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

hired Brom on full-time in 1989 at the age of 24. Brom contributed to all of TSR's game and book lines, particularly the

Dark Sun ''Dark Sun'' is an original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. ''Dark Sun'' featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take ...

setting: "I pretty much designed the look and feel of the Dark Sun campaign. I was doing paintings before they were even writing about the setting. I'd do a painting or a sketch, and the designers wrote those characters and ideas into the story. I was very involved in the development process. I've been fortunate to be involved in the development end of a lot of projects I've worked on, from role-playing games to computer games." According to Shannon Appelcline, Brom "contributed the unique illustrations for ''Dark Sun'' that helped to set it apart from the other TSR games with their more typical fantasy drawings". His paintings have been published in

collectible card games A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with '' Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

such as

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

's '' Magic: The Gathering'' and

Last Unicorn Games Last Unicorn Games (or LUG) was a Pennsylvania based corporation with offices in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 1994 by Christian Moore, Owen Seyler, Greg Ormand, and Bernie Cahill to publish the role playing game ''ARIA: Canticle of t ...

' '' Heresy: Kingdom Come''. Brom's paintings, along with

's, were used in the development of the visual look of the game series

Warlords Warlords are individuals who exercise military, economic, and political control over a region, often one without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over local armed forces. Warlords have existed throug ...

. In 1993, after four years at TSR, Brom returned to the freelance market, still specializing in the darker side of the roleplaying game, card game, and comic book genres.

Shane Lacy Hensley Shane Lacy Hensley is an author, game designer, and CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and is a resident of Gilbert, Arizona. Career Shane Lacy Hensley is from Clintwood, Virginia, and began playing ''Dungeons & Dragons'' after seeing comic-str ...

came up with the idea for the game ''

Deadlands ''Deadlands'' is a genre-mixing alternate history role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group i ...

'' after he saw Brom's cover to '' Necropolis: Atlanta'' from

White Wolf The Arctic wolf (''Canis lupus arctos''), also known as the white wolf, polar wolf, and the Arctic grey wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesme ...

, and got Brom to do the cover for the initial release. His artwork also appeared on book covers from authors such as

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

Anne McCaffrey Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 1968) an ...

, and

Terry Brooks Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly high fantasy, epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times Best Seller List, ''New York Times'' ...

. Brom contributed conceptual work to computer games such as ''

Heretic II ''Heretic II'' is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in November 1998 continuing the story of Corvus, the main character from its predecessor, ''Heretic''. It is the fourth game in the '' ...

'', and several top creature houses for films such as

Stan Winston Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film special make-up effects artist, best known for his work in the ''Terminator'' series, the first three '' Jurassic Park'' films, '' Aliens'', '' The Thing'', ...

Studios; he also co-created, art directed, and illustrated the ''Dark Age'' collectible card game. He has since worked as a

movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

concept artist, and created illustrations for

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicat ...

s (by DC,

Chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Science, technology, and astronomy * '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick * Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company * ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae * ...

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

) and

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

s (for

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

Blizzard A blizzard is a severe Winter storm, snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow th ...

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

and

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

). Brom has also been active with a line of Brom fetish toys from ''Fewture'' and a series of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

s from the

Franklin Mint The Franklin Mint is a private mint founded by Joseph Segel in 1964 in Wawa, Pennsylvania. The building is in Middletown Township. The brand name was previously owned by Sequential Brands Group headquartered in New York City. It is currently ...

and paintings for novels (by Michael Moorcock, Terry Brooks, R.A. Salvatore,

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

). Brom returned to TSR in 1998, doing paintings for the ''

Alternity ''Alternity'' is a science fiction role-playing game (RPG) published by TSR, Inc., TSR in 1997 in games, 1997. Following the acquisition of TSR by Wizards of the Coast, the game was discontinued in 2000 as part of a broader rationalisation of T ...

'' game, the '' AD&D''

and its

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

and

Planescape ''Planescape'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, designed by David Cook (game designer), Zeb Cook, and published by TSR, Inc., TSR in 1994. Description ''Planescape'' encompasses numerous Plane (Dun ...

lines, and covers for ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' and ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (fr ...

'' magazines. His work is included in the book ''Masters of Dragonlance Art''. He has also returned to painting for book covers for TSR's successor

, including the covers for the ''

War of the Spider Queen ''War of the Spider Queen'' is a Fantasy fiction, fantasy series of novels set in the ''Forgotten Realms'' universe published by Wizards of the Coast. The series contains Hexalogy, six books focused on the Drow (Dungeons & Dragons), drow and thei ...

'' series and reprints of ''

The Avatar Series ''The Avatar Series'', originally ''The Avatar Trilogy'', is a series of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy novels in the ''Forgotten Realms'' setting, covering the event known as the Time of Troubles (Forgotten Realms), Time of Troubles. The book ...

''.

Reception

In 2014, Scott Taylor of '' Black Gate'', named Brom as #4 in a list of The Top 10 RPG Artists of the Past 40 Years, saying "Brom is arguably one of the greatest pure fantasy talents of his generation, and he still creates works just as sublime as he did in his 1990s glory." In 2019, Brom entered the

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

Hall of Fame. In his 2023 book ''Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground'', RPG historian Stu Horvath reviewed the fantasy role-playing game ''

'' and noted, "The art of fantasy illustrators Gerald Brom and

Tom Baxa Thomas M. Baxa is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Biography Tom Baxa grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. He enrolled at Northern Illinois University, where he studied under comic and fantasy artist Mark Nelson. Works To ...

tie together this aesthetic-first high concept ... the art of Brom and Baxa distills and transmits the themes of the setting without players having to read a single word of the boxed set. ... Brom's paintings, many of which were composed before the details of the setting were decided, evoke an alien landscape that seems dry, harsh, and strangely sexy."

Works

Books

* ''Brom's Little Black Book'' * ''Offerings'' * ''Darkwerks: The Art of Brom'' (2000) * '' The Plucker'' (2005) * ''Metamorphosis'' (2007) (beinArt) * ''The Devil's Rose'' (2007) * ''

The Child Thief ''The Child Thief'' is a 2009 dark fantasy novel by the artist and novelist Gerald Brom. A dark retelling of the stories of Peter Pan and The Lost Boys, Brom takes many liberties with the originals by J M Barrie. Brom incorporates monsters an ...

'' (2009) * ''Krampus the Yule Lord'' (2012) * ''The Art of Brom'' (2013) (Flesk) * ''Lost Gods'' (2016) * ''Slewfoot'' (2021) * ''Evil in Me'' (2024)

Novel covers

* '' War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution'' (2003) * '' War of the Spider Queen: Insurrection'' (2003) * '' War of the Spider Queen: Condemnation'' (2004) * '' War of the Spider Queen: Extinction'' (2005) * '' War of the Spider Queen: Annihilation'' (2005) * '' War of the Spider Queen: Resurrection'' (2005) * ''"...and Their Memory Was a Bitter Tree..."'' (2008)

Movies (as concept artist)

* ''

Galaxy Quest ''Galaxy Quest'' is a 1999 American satirical science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. It stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mit ...

'' (1999) * '' Sleepy Hollow'' (1999) (poster art) * ''

Bless the Child ''Bless the Child'' is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by Chuck Russell, and starring Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Angela Bettis, Rufus Sewell, Christina Ricci, and Holliston Coleman. Based on the 1993 novel by Cathy Cash Spellman, it ...

'' (2000) * ''

Ghosts of Mars ''Ghosts of Mars'' (titled onscreen as ''John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars'') is a 2001 American action horror film written, directed and scored by John Carpenter. It was produced by Screen Gems and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It sta ...

'' (2001) * ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...

'' (2002) (uncredited) * ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

'' (2002) * ''

Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the P ...

'' (2004)

Video game covers

* '' Dark Sun: Shattered Lands'' (1993) * '' Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom'' (1994) * '' Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager'' (1994) * '' Doom II: Hell on Earth'' (1994) * ''

Heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

'' (1994) * '' Skyborg: Into the Vortex'' (1995) * '' Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara'' (1996) * '' Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands'' (1996) * '' MageSlayer'' (1997) * ''

'' (1998) * ''

Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is a 2000 action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS X. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and des ...

'' (2000) * '' Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor'' (2001) * ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

'' (2004) * '' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes'' (2007) (concept artist) * ''

Diablo III ''Diablo III'' is a 2012 online-only action role-playing dungeon crawling game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment as the third installment in the ''Diablo'' franchise. It was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in May 2012, ...

'' (2012) * ''

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a 2014 Online game, online digital collectible card game, digital collectible card video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment, released under the free-to-play model. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthsto ...

'' (2014) * ''

Diablo IV ''Diablo IV'' is a 2023 Online game, online-only Action role-playing game, action role-playing dungeon crawling game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Diablo (series), Diablo'' series. ...

'' (2023)

Tabletop games

* '' Button Men:Brom'' (a series of 12 buttons for the

Cheapass Games Cheapass Games is a game company founded and run by game designer James Ernest, based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Cheapass Games operates on the philosophy that most game owners have plenty of dice, counters, play money, and othe ...

collectible game) * ''Dark Age'' (concept artist) * ''

'', 1st edition (cover artist) * ''

GURPS The ''Generic Universal Role Playing System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system published by Steve Jackson Games. The system is designed to run any genre using the same core mechanics. The core rules were first written by St ...

Magic Items 3'' (cover artist) * '' Magic: The Gathering'' (concept artist) * ''

Nightbane ''Nightbane'' is a dark fantasy role-playing game and setting created by C. J. Carella and published by Palladium Books. Description The game was originally published as a 240-page softcover book in 1995, designed by Carlos J. Martijena-Carella ...

'' (cover artist) * ''South America: Rifts World Book Six'' (cover & internal artist) * '' Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of'', (cover & internal artist)

References

External links

Brom's official website
* *
Interview with Brom at Wizards.com

2005 Podcast interview with Brom
* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brom, Gerald 1965 births 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters American fantasy artists American game artists American illustrators American male painters American role-playing game artists Artists from Georgia (U.S. state) Artists from Seattle Living people People from Albany, Georgia Writers who illustrated their own writing