I can’t draw nor do anything as cool as my friend Lazz, but it’s his birthday and I would like to share with the world, okay, my other friends who read this site (knock on wood). Lazz, sorry, your package, a surprise, is obviously late since I’m easily distracted with Vegas on the brain (56 days to go) plus the first few days of a new month always can catch me off guard.
Lazz, whose name is Rob Lazaaretti, is a friend I made 14 years ago back at GDW. His career after GDW has been more illustrous than mine when it comes to art and gaming. He deserves it too. Lazz took the mundane job of making maps and turned it into an art. That was why TSR recruited him away from the terminally ill GDW. Last time we spoke, he is booked for a year doing maps for Dungeon and numerous other freelance work.
Our friendship hasn’t always been about GDW past and present. We’ve had many conversations about music, Macs, the ladies and others. Hopefully, the wife and I will get him and his family to visit us in Austin. I would like to see Seattle where he lives too.
Update, Oct. 5, 2006: I stupidly jumped the gun and made my friend a day older. I didn’t discover this until last night when I was actually paying attention to my Now Up2Date calendar. I don’t think he’d mind any pre-mature notice or greetings.
Happy birthday! Through Steve, I have heard a lot of nice stories about Lazz and I certainly appreciate his work in gaming. I dig maps. There is something about looking at a well-crafted game map that really sparks the ol’ DM imagination like nothing else. And Lazz’s work is certainly the tops, in my opinion. Glad to hear Dungeon will be continue to utilize his talent for some time to come.