Torg Pixaud’s Practical Grimoire & Cheval Noir #16 Cover and Prelim

May 12, 1991 I stopped by the local game store to pick up the latest Torg releases, High Lord of Earth and Pixaud’s Practical Grimoire. I was blown away by the cover of the latter, and not just because of my still-unidentified-at-the-time thing for redheads. It’s the first cover piece for Torg where the back cover art isn’t a fragment of what’s on the front cover. It’s the first, and as far as I know only, time a painting was truncated by West End Games for publication. For years I wonder what the rest of it looked like.

Years pass, and on this very site I see the full painting. I also learn it was the cover of issue 16 of Cheval Noir from Dark Horse, where I understand it was similarly truncated. I was surprised to later discover it hadn’t been commissioned by WEG for their book, as the spell the woman is casting in it perfectly depicts a spell in the book, and the creatures she’s fighting look somewhat like a critter introduced in the book. Whether it was a coincidence or they were added to the book to match the cover I will never know. I was similarly surprised to discover the Dorman painting used for Torg’s The Possibility Chalice was a Heavy Metal cover originally, as it fits a moment in the adventure perfectly.

When this painting went up for auction in November of ‘22 I had to have it. The story of how long it took to reach me is something to ask me about in person, even as parts of it will involve you asking questions and me saying “I have no idea.” But it’s got a good home now.