Moby happened to be in Sacramento, California recently (the birthplace of Silverwolf Comics) and was able to get in touch with Tim Foster. Tim worked for Kris Silver way back at the start of Silverwolf, doing the art for The Dungeoneers, which lasted four (4) issues total.
The Dungeoneers was based on a party of fantasy role-playing characters, a la Dungeons & Dragons or such.
This title follows the adventures of a ragtag band consisting of a hippy ninja, an ugly dwarf, an Amazon warrior babe, a skinny werewolf, a crusty old wizard, and a rock with legs, feet and tennis shoes as they make their way down through many realms…down, down, down across levels and dimensions to Hell itself. But hold on to your seats: their journey doesn’t stop there. Witness the terror of infinity as it takes this group below Hell and beyond! – Atomic Avenue
I had contacted Mr. Foster to ask if he possibly had any of the original art or such to share or sell since I was in town, just hoping but not expecting much. Of course there was no original published art from the series to be had, but he did have some great insights to share. Tim Foster was very kind and took being asked about his work on a small comic book 20+ yrs ago in very good humor.
These are edited excerpts from our chat (used here with permission):
Probably my biggest contribution to Silverwolf was introducing Tim Vigil to Kris- that’s how he got hired for Grips…Tim Vigil went to my high school- a few grades ahead of me, but I was aware of his art. I ran into him after graduation and we kept in touch since comic nerds were pretty rare then. My pal Dane McCart (Eradicators) got hired first, introduced me and then I introduced Vigil. Dane took over Eradicators from Ron Lim and Anton and Benson Jew…
Dane McCart, Tim Vigil, (Gary Amaro), and I were most of the Silverwolf locals- he started getting art submissions via the mail after the first books came out, so later books had artists from all over. There were some ‘floaters’ too- my friend Stan Tindall was a painter so I had him color all my covers.”
It was a short conversation, just few messages back and forth. There was some interesting stuff about the actual drawing of the books though, like this part:
By #4…I took my time and put in a lot of work on that issue, but I was too slow for Kris so I got fired halfway through! If you have that issue you’ll see that it’s a total mess with a totally different artist finishing the book.”
Unfortunately his contract, like most others it seems, stipulated that the art would be kept by Kris. He did have something for us after all though, a sort of goodbye illustration of the Dungeoneers:
Silverwolf was an amazing experience for a comics nerd like me- I didn’t take full advantage of the opportunity, but the chance to draw nearly four issues of a book taught me a lot. About a year after all was said and done and Silver was out of business I did one page of the Dungeoneers in limbo – sort of my way of saying goodbye to the characters. I just found it recently- I’ll try to scan it and send to you.”
Tim was so kind and sent the scan (with permission to share), so here it is:
The Dungeoneers in Limbo
I cannot thank Tim enough for sharing this with us. If you’ve read this far, you might also check out Anton, a comic strip from his days at UC Davis.
He also pointed out a Silverwolf related landmark in Sacramento, the Crest Theater at 10th and K Street. He noted that Tim Vigil put part of the historic sign on the cover of Grips #1. I hope to get by there and take a picture myself soon, but for now here is as good a reference pic as I could find.
Again, HUGE thank you to Tim Foster for sharing this page with us. Tim, I truly cannot thank you enough.
Interesting. Vigil once told me (back in ’89) that Tim Foster was actually a writer but Kris did not want any writers so he asked Foster to DRAW Dungeoneers.
Yes, Tim did mention that “I applied for a job as a writer but he gave me an art job.”
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