Over on the Drawmycharacter Facebook page, former Origin Systems artist Denis Loubet has posted a brief account of how he met — and came to work for — Richard Garriott:

I first met Richard Garriott, aka Lord British, while I was working for Steve Jackson Games. Richard was also in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and dropped by to show Steve his new game, Ultima. While Steve was showing him around the house/office, Richard saw my artwork and apparently liked it enough to ask me to create the start-up screen for Ultima.

He darted outside and came back with an AppleII Graphics Tablet. It was a metal monstrosity with a wire that led to a metal pen that rattled if you shook it. He set it up on the Apple II he had used to show off Ultima, and had me draw a rampant lion, and then trace it off on the tablet.

It was an interesting challenge. As I drew the lines they would literally spike in response to power spikes in the wall current. I had to continually erase spiked portions of the line and re-draw them. As strange as it was, it was my first time using a graphics tablet, and my first commercial piece of computer graphics!

Thanks Richard!

He uploaded the image above alongside this little story, although it’s apparently got nothing to do with the actual tale itself. Rather, it’s a work-in-progress image for Vigilance Press.