Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing a map of an imaginary world for over 50 years.

Long before imaginary worlds were popularized by Dungeons and Dragons, The Sims, Minecraft, Second Life and so on, this guy started something he would continue working for on each day for the upcoming 50 years.

Nearly half a century ago Jerry Gretzinger started drawing by hand the world that was forming inside his mind. He started painting one city, but soon after that it evolved into countless territories divided into oceans, countries, land, railway systems, walls, barriers and so much more. Jerry kept drawing and drawing using a special palette of colors and a strange daily ritual, according to which his world could evolve or get torn apart. Each morning Jerry draws a card out of a pack of special cards, which decide the fate of his world. According to the cards, Jerry has to build up a new city, bring down a huge defensive wall or sink down an entire land.
Up until recently nobody knew about Jerry’s project. Even he wasn’t aware of the vast world he had created. A short video of his life’s work surfaced on the web showing that he had created a 2,000 square feet large map with tons of detailed drawings done on more than 2,600 8.5” x 11“ paper sheets.