If you played Dungeons & Dragons in the 80s, read the Dragonlance novels published by TSR or played Everquest, chances are you have seen artwork by Larry Elmore.

Just about a year ago Mr. Elmore launched a Kickstarter to publish most of his painted art from the last 40 years, and it was successfully funded on New Year’s Eve of 2012.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when the US Postal Service rang my doorbell and delivered my Kickstarter package. The Postal Service delivering on a Sunday?! (My wife is guessing that our local Post Office is running behind this year and may be working overtime to deliver on Sundays to catch up).

The book is absolutely gorgeous. Almost coffee table sized, I was expecting just his artwork, but it’s thankfully not. Filled with stories, remembrances, backgrounds on some of the paintings, and more.

Also included were the stretch goals: a Black and White Sketchbook (pictured above) and a number of 8×10 reproductions of the original Dungeons & Dragons box set and Dragonlance book covers (pictured below).

I’ve only had a chance to briefly flip through the book, but I’m looking forward to spending some quality time going through it in more detail. This was $49 well spent and in his last Kickstarter update, Mr. Elmore has hinted at a future Kickstarter featuring a matching hardback of his black and white art:

I am planning other Kickstarter Campaigns later on, some special books, like a NEW color Snarfquest graphic novel, and we are working on card games and board games, which I am greatly involved in. One of the most important projects, that may go up on Kickstarter next year, will be a large hardback black and white book. I wanted to get all my black and white work in this book, but there was no way…the book would be TOO thick. So, I want to do another hardback of all my black and white art, pencils and inks. The black and white book will be a matching book to this hard back color book. If you have purchased this color book and you purchase the black and white book, you will have a matching set of hardback books that cover around 95% of my life’s work.

I’ll definitely be buying that one, too.