The Gamesmaster: My Life in the '80s Geek Culture Trenches with G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and The Transformers

by Flint Dille

Overview

Flint Dille wrote your childhood. From his work on 80s cartoon classics like Transformers, G.I. Joe, the Garbage Pail Kids, and Inhumanoids to the interactive novels he wrote with Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, Flint had a hand in many pockets of 80s popular culture.

He's worked with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, and a raft of others as a writer, story editor, show runner, and/or producer of iconic entertainment in almost every medium.

The Gamesmaster is Dille's memoir looking through his own unique story, his blend of pop culture, social history, and reportage about the groundbreaking 1980s, and the parts he and his colleagues, collaborators, employers, and friends played in making it a genuine Golden Age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644280126
Publisher:	Rare Bird Books
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Throughout his decades-long career, Flint Dille has found himself on the forefront of storytelling landscape. From his work on Saturday morning cartoons and feature-length films, to video games and augmented reality mobile games, Dille has used is storytelling prowess to thrill fans of some of the largest entertainment franchises, including Transformers, G.I. Joe, James Bond, Batman, Superman, Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons, while working with some of the most-celebrated minds in entertainment, such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, and Gary Gygax. Along with John Zuur Platten of The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, which has been hailed as one of the preeminent books on the subject. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Interviews

Events in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, and the Bay Area, plus open to events in other areas that would like to have him

Panels at various conventions including Wondercon and San Diego Comic-Con

Excerpts in fan magazines

Outreach to specific fandoms, including Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, and more

Appearances at Trasformers conventions, and Gary Con (the role playing game convention)

Possible appearance on Critical Role

Podcast appearances

Editorial Reviews

"The Gamesmaster is a fond and honest firsthand assessment of a defining time in pop culture."
—Foreword Reviews

"The Gamesmaster is a delightful dungeon walk through Hollywood in the 1980s with a focus on how arcade games, Hasbro toys, Dungeons & Dragons, and Saturday morning cartoons commingled to bring on Geek Culture."
—Booklist

"Flint is a born yarn-spinner. Spending the 80's with him was to watch a man make an adventure of the era."
—Frank Miller, Eisner award winning-author of Sin City, 300, and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

"Reading The Gamesmaster, I laughed, cried, and remembered. What a crazy amazing time it was. I'm certain none of us have ever experienced anything quite like it since. And Flint Dille was the big shaggy beast at the center of it all."
—Linda Woolverton, screenwriter of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan

"As all great epics do, this one begins humbly, with an unlikely collection of squires and apprentices gathering their dice, raising their plastic lightsabers and shouldering their Macintosh 128Ks to answer adventure’s call. In a time yet to come, these young men and women will play significant roles in defining the popular culture of that era. But now draw close and hark ye well, for this is how it all began."
—Paul Dini, Emmy award-winning writer of Batman: The Animated Series

"I met Flint in 1983 at the mansion that served as the headquarters for nascent Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corp. I lived at the mansion with my Dad and brother. Dad was gone a lot traveling, so oftentimes I’d wander out to see what Flint was up to in the studio. For anyone that knows him, it’s no surprise that I managed to convince him to play games, swim and generally hang out. Flint is able to tap into the fantastic and create vivid stories that influenced generations because he remains a kid at heart no matter that he is 6’5” and bearded."
—Luke Gygax, son of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax

“I sometimes liken Flint to an imaginative cyclone ripping joyfully through the kaleidoscopic trailer park of pop culture. His creative impact on many of our most beloved fictional franchises still echoes across the decades.”
—Chris Metzen, creator of World of Warcraft

From the Publisher

2020-05-27
A veteran of 1980s animation recounts his days working on G.I. Joe, Transformers, and a host of other cartoon shows based on popular toy lines of the era.

Back when the Star Wars franchise was fresh and Saturday morning cartoons were relevant, Dille got a call from Lucasfilm to try out as a writer for a new children’s show they were developing. For the author, whose grandfather was John F. Dille, publisher of the original Buck Rogers, the opportunity to work on a George Lucas property was exhilarating. Though it didn’t work out, Dille went on to work for Ruby-Spears and Sunbow Productions. Neither of those companies were at the level of Lucasfilm, but both proved to be crucial in his career development, which involved “an all-access pass to the geek eighties and working with an amazing collection of people who laid the foundations for what would be popular culture decades later.” The nascent writer was making a living adding literary depth to the Transformers’ weekly adventures as well as chronicling the mythical exploits of a barbarian named Sagard alongside Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax. Although Dille led a fairly fast-paced Hollywood lifestyle, his narrative approach to those halcyon days is oddly dispassionate and disconnected. He foggily confesses to forgetting key elements of his story, and the attention he gives major industry figures, including Jack Kirby, Steve Gerber, and Frank Miller, is scant at best. The author also gives short shrift to such seminal events as the dissolution of Gygax’s piece of the D&D empire. Dille’s reaction to being fired from the Garbage Pail Kids and immediately hired on Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toons matches the overall tone of his memoir: “Who knows? Who cares? It didn’t, and doesn’t, matter.”

A middling memoir studded with a few interesting insights into 1980s Hollywood.

Kirkus Reviews