Carl Frank did his traditional Warlord paintings with acrylic on board. He is known for his foundational Warlord characters such as one of the original four demo Warlords Gnorrow Yaw, the first dragon Blackwind, and the first ever Medusan Lord Nassiral Hate. His work would come to be found on over 60 cards, most of them characters.

What got you interested in artwork in general and why was it gel pens? What was your first foray into illustration and how did that come about?

I seemed to have a bit of knack for drawing as a kid, which was before gel pens were even invented, probably. I remember thinking as early as 6th grade that maybe I could be one of those people who made art in and on books (aka, an illustrator). The original Star Wars was my first in-theatre movie experience, as a little kid, and that set my love of fantasy and sci-fi in stone. The concept art of Star Wars, the art of things like D&D, and illustrations by the likes of Michael Whelan in particular also had a hand hooking me on fantasy art. My first illustration was my high school yearbook cover in my senior year. I think I was paid like $500 for it. I did some non-fantasy illustration during and just after college, but my first fantasy illustration was Ogre Bushi for AEG's Legend of the Five Rings.

How did you come to hear about and work on Warlord? Were you black-mailed into it?

I was on-staff at AEG during the time Warlord was developed, so I had no choice but to be involved. Like the glutton for punishment that I am, I was glad of the opportunity to help create the look of that universe.

Did you get assigned specific races, factions, or classes? What kinds of images did you enjoy creating the most and why?

I seemed to do a preponderance of dwarves for some reason, possibly because I have always found them fun for some reason, and thus I guess did a good job on them, generally. They really did have me jumping around every faction, though.

What's it like rediscovering pieces you did decades ago - do you notice a significant change in your style then and now? Looking back over them, do any of your contributions to Warlord stick out as your favorite?

I do find some (especially some of the ones that were done quickly out of necessity) to be a bit cringe-worthy, but that is what happens when you get better. My favorite is probably Martyr. I still like it a great deal. it just clicked pretty well, and I had the chance to polish it up pretty well. I'd still do some things differently if I did it today, but overall, I think it's pretty good. And yes, it was shamelessly influenced by the LotR Helm's Deep scene, which came out the year before I did that painting. A lot of my work is digital these days, and may be flying below the radar in a lot of cases, but I still work traditionally on occasion. I'd like to think I have improved in all areas, particularly color use. I think I have gotten better at learning what to put into a piece, and what to leave out.

What's your best Warlord memory or story?

When some of us from AEG were at "Knott's Scary Farm" (the Halloween event at Knott's Berry Farm), one of the designers (Kevin Wilson) was wearing the Warlord shirt that said, "At my command, unleash hell!" on it. A group of the costumed monster performers at the park latched onto this, and kept pestering him, asking him, "Is it time to unleash hell yet? We are at your command. Can we please unleash hell now? How about now? ..."

We're doing a Warlord art colosseum style battle royale! Who's your champion and why?

I think I’m going to go with Nassiral Hate, because he was a very prominent character in the game, who was kind of a badass, being the first Medusan Lord. It was the largest piece I ever did for Warlord, intended from the beginning to be used on more than just the card. Zinser liked it enough to keep it on his office wall, so that says something.

Alright, thanks for answering these and engaging the community in this way! What's going on with you these days? Anything you want to plug?

I took a bit of a step back for a while, having suffered some burn-out, but I am currently working for a start up casual mobile game company called Monumental, who have a fantasy deck-building game called Storm Wars (no relation to Saga of the Storm, really!). In addition to some illustration, I am doing some UI design for them, as that is something I am branching out into.