A Cry For Help and A Request for Advice

Okay, so first, the Cry For Help.  About 10 years ago, I became aware of the existence of a certain thing.  As folks who have been to my house can attest, I am in possession of quite a few gaming related things, and by and large, if something shiny catches my eye, I pursue it with the unwavering focus of a starving bird of prey, until it's meaty bits rest safely within my clutched claws.  This particular thing, however, has eluded me for 10 years.  Literally.  I was okay with that, until Grognardia posted about white whales on Friday, which brought everything bubbling to the surface, and I have spent the weekend consumed with frustration at my inability to possess this thing. 

What is this thing, you might ask.  First, let me give you some background so that you might appreciate the dilligence with which I have pursued this thing.  About eight years ago, I set up a saved search on eBay.  For six years, it sat, silent and uncaring, sending me no notifications.  Two years ago, I was searching the googles when I came across a recently completed sale on eBay.  Why had my trusted hound not sniffed this out?  I had entered my search in quotation marks, and the sale had been listed slightly differently, and the blinders I had placed upon my hound had prevented it from seeing anything but exactly what I had set it to find.  Biting my knuckle in frustration, I set up a second saved search, this time using a different search string.  Just recently, as I'm sure many of you will recall, a number of Gary Gygax's personal items were put up for auction on eBay, and hark!  I received notification that my white whale was one of those items.  Consumed with excitement, I bid.  I literally came within seconds of owning it, but was sniped by someone at 10 seconds, and my phone picked that particular moment to reset it's data connection.  Damn you Verizon!  Damn you to hell!  At this point I began to get desperate.  Searching for completed sales, I found and contacted people who had purchased this thing on eBay in the past, and sent them messages through eBay, asking them if they were still in possession of the thing, and if so, were they interested in selling it.  Each responded, only to tell me in various forms that no, they were not interested in selling the thing.  One recend response, in particular, broke my heart, "I still have it. I love it. It embodies my dreams and delusions of youth. Sorry, but I won't part with it."

Gah!  The pain!

I've recently put up Wanted ad on rpg.net, and have joined the Acaeum, where I will be posting a similar plea.  But in the interest of casting as wide a net as possible, I am posting my entreaty here as well.

So, what is this thing of which I speak?  What item could possibly drive a man to a ten year long quest to possess it?

Only the finest bit of pop-art mastery ever laid to paper.  Only the most incredible, most evocative work of art ever to grace the cover of an RPG.  Only one of the few opportunities that exist to hang a piece of art done by one of the old-school masters on a wall.  Once, you could simply... mail TSR your address and two dollars, and they would send it to you.  Now, you must hunt.  Now, I must hunt.

What is this thing?

A poster, with the art of the legendary Dave Trampier, from the cover of TSR 3002, the Box Set of Gamma World, 1st edition.  Words cannot describe how I covet this item.  And my hope is that someone will read this post, and take pity upon this wretched, crooked soul, and aid me in bringing down my White Whale, that I may mount it upon my wall, a trophy of a hunt which has seemingly lasted a lifetime.

So I beg of you, if you possess this treasure, or if you know someone who does, and you or that person is interested in parting with it, contact me.  I am a VERY motivated buyer, and will make sure that you are paid more than fairly for the pain I am sure you would feel losing it.

Seriously, let me know.

....

Moving on.

The other, significantly less weighty request for this post is one that hopefully will garner some quick results.  I recently contributed to the Kickstarter campaign for Champions of Zed.  For those of you who are not familiar, click on that link.  It looks as though it will be very cool.  I was a big fan of Dragons at Dawn, which was done by the same guy, and the idea of using Arneson's notes to create an alternate timeline D&D is fascinating to me.  Hence my donation.  So the level of my contribution has gotten me the priviledge of selecting the subject of a quarter page piece of art.  I want to make it a good one, so I'm soliciting opinions from my readers.  The artist who will be creating my quarter page masterpiece is named Andres Canals, his picasa page is here - https://picasaweb.google.com/112556034220580566111/FantasyArt?noredirect=1.  That should give you an idea of his style. 

So, faithful readers, what should I have him draw?