''d8'' was a magazine that was published out of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1995-1996 and targeted fans of

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal ac ...

. The name referred to an eight-sided polyhedral die common in such games. Unlike other gaming magazines, ''d8''’s focus was not on gaming systems and rules, but rather the art of role playing and the cultural, pop-cultural, and subcultural interests of the people who played games. ''d8'' styled itself “the magazine of role-playing culture”. This editorial mission was conceived of by Founder and Creative Director David DeCheser. The magazine was financed by Frank Slattery IV, an avid gamer who wanted to be involved in the field.

Contributors

Edited by

Holly Black Holly Black (''née'' Riggenbach; born November 10, 1971) is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the ''New York Times'' bestselling young adult ''Folk of the Air'' series. ...

and Joe Cirillo, the magazine had a host of eclectic and regular contributors that included author

Steve Berman Steve Berman is an American editor, novelist and short story writer. He writes in the field of queer speculative fiction. Biography Berman was born on August 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in southern New Jersey. Berman realized i ...

GWAR Gwar, often stylized as GWAR, is an American heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984, composed of and operated by a frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc. After th ...

member Hunter Jackson, illustrators Joseph Hasenauer and Theo Black, ''Yamara'' creators Barbara Manui and Chris Adams, and former ''

Shadis ''Shadis'' is an independent gaming magazine that was published in 1990–1998 by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). It initially focused on role-playing games. Publication history Shadis was conceived and started by Jolly Blackburn as an indepe ...

'' editor Jolly R. Blackburn. Articles on

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

s were placed side-by-side with interviews with

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artists such as

Dave McKean David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpt ...

, reviews of authentic

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

restaurants, and caffeinated tips on how to game all night. One of ''d8''’s stand-out regular features was its fashion spread which, coordinated by stylist Deanna Stull and photographed by Director of Photography Michael Amper, showcased shoots that included

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

garb, neo-gothic vampires in latex, and leather plated armor. The magazine is credited as introducing Holly Black to artist

Tony DiTerlizzi Tony M. DiTerlizzi (born September 6, 1969) is an American fantasy artist, children's book creator, and motion picture producer. In the gaming industry, he is best known for his work in the collectible card game '' Magic: The Gathering'' and on ...

, who would later go on to co-author ''

The Spiderwick Chronicles ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spid ...

''. Black’s first published work, "Ahremon/City of the Sun: Garden of Ghosts", appeared in the second issue of ''d8''. At that time she was writing under the name Holly Riggenbach.

Art direction and graphic style

The magazine was both highly praised and criticized for its

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

. The design was very influenced by then-famous ''

Ray Gun A raygun is a science-fiction directed-energy weapon that releases energy, usually with destructive effect.Jeff Prucher, '' Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction,'' Oxford University Press, 2007, page 162 They have variou ...

'' designer David Carson, and the “grunge” style typefaces being produced by font foundries such as T26. Critics cited the grid-less expressive design as difficult to read. Conversely the design is what attracted the less traditional, more alternative artistic contributors that Creative Director David DeCheser sought, such as:

, Eric Dinyer, and John K. Snyder III.

Public Relations & Marketing

Managed internally by Deanna Stull, quirky internal advertisements for subscriptions and a raw marketing style well suited the industry. Launched at a time when

collectible card games A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in 1993. Genera ...

such as ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

'' were infiltrating the gaming market, ''d8''’s audience proved to be too niche to continue past its fourteen-month run. It was successful however in attracting a cross-over audience of fans of gothic subculture.

References

{{reflist

Contributors

Art direction and graphic style

Public Relations & Marketing

References

External links