Fastner & Larson

Published: July 26th 2026 (week 30 of 2026)

Messrs Steve Fastner and Rich Larson have some wonderfully pulpy (the subtitle of their page is "New Pulp Art") on their website. Here's an excerpt from their self-description page:

There's been a lot of water under the bridge and a lot of art through the transom in the last 28 years. We continue to draw the occasional chubby, cleavage-free kid for corporate entities who'd just as soon they weren't mentioned by name, no offense.

But our hearts, as you've probably figured out by now, are with the strangely discomfiting melange of babes and monsters you see around you. That's not likely to change.

About F&L

It is clear where the focus of the art lies...

What can I say? I am an afficionado of pulpy art. There just something to this old-school artstyle that reminds me of the illustrations in second-edition Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks, or in books of sword-and-socrcery stories (that were exactly as pulpy as the artwork).

I also think it is great how most of the images paint a story, or invite you to think about a story that could be told based on them.

The cyclops above is a simple case, and a tale as cliche as it is exciting to tell and hear: a Hero and a Heroine were taken as slaves, and must fight their way to freedom through all kinds of obstacles and enemies.

The woman below may be a princess fleeing the barbarians who raided her kingdom's capital and are now pursuing her... or a bandit queen, always watching her back for bounty hunters... or a mercenary leader taking one last look at her band of battle-hardened men before charging whomever they stand against.

Even a picture as seemingly obvious as the one below could be spun into a quick adventure. Who is the woman undressing in front of the demon? Who are the women behind him? Why are they in what looks like hell? Onece you have a few locations (a cliff, a mountaintop), actors (the devil, the women), and events (the ritual, the ambush) you just need to let your imagination run free for a while to let you see how they may all be connected, and you have a scenario to run over an RPG session or two!

I think it is no accident that this style was used to illustrate pulp short stories in the sword-and-sandal, sword-and-sorcery, sword-and-etc genres, as well as fantasy role-playing books and magazines. It is direct, it is overexaggerated, it is suggestive, it gets in your face... and it is very effective tool to enhance or start a story.

I use the same principles in the fantasy role-playing adventures I write and run for my groups. As long as the story is fun to tell and experience, it does not really matter that the plot is simple, the actors in it a bit overexaggerated, and the events and locations a bit typical.

It is the same with art that Messrs Fastner and Larson create.

It is just fun.

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