Iconic AD&D art - Top 5
Jeff Dee, Paladin and Black Dragon, AD&D 1st edition Rogues Gallery
Russ Nicholson, Githyank and adventurers, AD&D 1st edition Fiend Folio
Erol Otus, Lolth, AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Module Q1
David C Sutherland III, ‘A Paladin in Hell’, AD&D 1st edition Players Handbook
David Trampier, ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’, AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide
Explanation below the cut.
Obviously a list like this is highly subjective, and I should probably make it clear that by “iconic” I mean “iconic to me”, as these were a handful of the AD&D 1st edition illustrations that had a big impact on my experience with the game, and by extension, how I design characters and write adventures (for Dungeons & Dragons and beyond) to this day.
Some of my admittedly arbitrary criteria:
I made my picks from the books, modules and supplements that were on my shelves back in the day. Which isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. To me, the canon is the core three hardbacks (to this day, I think of Unearthed Arcana as new-fangled and the Survival Guides as niche products we didn’t use) plus Fiend Folio and Deities & Demigods; that run of modules that included the A, B, D, G, and S-series, plus a few others like C1 and Q1; and accessories including Rogues Gallery and the booklet of character sheets. That list is as arbitrary as it is inexhaustive.
I limited myself to black & white interior illustrations, meaning David Trampier’s superb cover for the Players Handbook was disqualified. I did it this way mostly because I felt it would be unfair to compare color paintings to ink drawings. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but that’s how I did it. That said, had I allowed Tramp’s PH I’m actually thinking it might be the only color piece in there… The original Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual covers never resonated with me to the same degree. Of the modules I included, there are three covers I really like, and they’re all by Erol Otus: A4, ‘In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords’; C1, ‘Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan’; and S3, ‘Expedition to the Barrier Peaks’. But they’re not quite iconic, somehow, in the sense that they’re too specific to the adventures they illustrate. In contract, the Players Handbook cover doesn’t tell you about someone else’s adventure, it inspires yours.
In the interest of a varied selection, I decided no one artist could be chosen more than once. This was basically to make sure Trampier and Jeff Dee didn’t crowd out other worthy illustrators.
My choices, in alphabetical order by last name:
Jeff Dee, Paladin and Black Dragon, Rogues Gallery, page 22. Paladins were always cool, and this drawing made them double extra cool. A lot of my peers complained that Dee’s characters all looked like super-heroes, and that they belonged in the pages of his Villains & Vigilantes. And that’s arguably true. But as a life-long reader of comics and V&V gamemaster, I didn’t mind at all. And that style is on display here: skintight plate and chain mail, aerodynamic helmet, and floppy fold-over Musketeer boots. But the pose is perfect, the dragon is superb, and the emotion of the paladin’s triumph shines. Jeff Dee did other illustrations that vied for his spot here: the “sci-fi Mind Flayer” and the Intellect Devourer stalking the party (both from ‘Expedition to the Barrier Peaks’), Icar holding flaming grease (frontispiece from Dungeon Module A2), and assorted entries in Deities & Demigods too numerous to mention.
Russ Nicholson, Githyanki fighting adventurers, Fiend Folio, page 45. Compared to the Monster Manual, which included so many creatures recognizable from myth and folklore, the Fiend Folio was weird. But the monsters that were cool immediately rivaled the classics, and the ones Russ Nicholson drew became my favorites. The Gith races were awesome from the get-go, and this illustration, supplementing the individual entries for the Githyanki and Githzerai, went a long way to inspiring us to put them in our dungeons. (I was so enamored of the Gith that I worked them into the origin story of a player character in the Villains & Vigilantes campaign I ran.) The adventurers here look outmatched, maybe, but they haven’t given up. We wondered what spell the Magic User was casting.
Erol Otus, Lolth frontispiece, Dungeon Module Q1, ‘Queen of the Demonweb Pits’: I love Erol Otus, but compared to Trampier and David Sutherland, his drawings could get wonky. Intentionally, I’m sure, but often his costumes and anatomy and such are a little far-fetched even for Dungeon & Dragons. (He loved horned helmets and loincloths, often on the same character.) This drawing of Lolth is great, in that it sets the stage for the adventure (in a way that Jim Rosloff’s cover doesn’t, honestly) and depicts Lolth as vampy without being overtly “sexy” like all the topless goddesses in Deities & Demigods. The demons here are especially good, with solid anatomy and dramatic lighting. This drawing is “so Erol Otus” without being “too Erol Otus”.
David C Sutherland III, ‘A Paladin in Hell’, Players Handbook, page 23. Unlike Trampier, who rarely missed, DCS was uneven: some of his drawings are classics, and many of them were mediocre then and just as mediocre now. ‘A Paladin in Hell’ is a classic, for several reasons. Firstly, it’s just really well drawn. Absent is the scratchy hatching that mars some of Sutherland’s work. Second, the paladin is perfect in the sense that he is believable; then and now I appreciate that fact that his armor is historically accurate and looks like suits I’d seen in museums. And third, the collected devils are all drawn to scale, showing their size the way Monster Manual spot illustrations don’t. Finally, the glow of the paladin, and what is surely a +5 Holy Avenger, is dazzling.
David Trampier, ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’, Dungeon Masters Guide, page 193. It’s difficult to see this drawing and not want to run a campaign set in the bustling capitol city of the Flanaess’ mightiest empire in which a villain Magic User is on a crime spree. (It’s the same feeling you get when you read any of Fritz Leiber’s stories set in Lankhmar. In fact, you want to go get the map they made for the AD&D supplement, including those awesome city geomorphs.) If Emirikol is the errant NPC, maybe the PCs are the adventurers stumbling out of the tavern into the exquisitely rendered (that hatching!) street to protect the innocent townsfolk being Magic Missiled. So who is Emirikol? He looks enough like Trampier that he could be one of many self-portraits sneaked into his AD&D artwork. (I’ve always wondered if he was Tramp’s PC in Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk campaign, though I’ve never gotten any indication that they actually gamed together.) This really cements Trampier’s stature; the Dee and Sutherland illustrations on this list evoke a single character or moment, while ‘Emirikol the Chaotic’ evokes an entire campaign. You don’t get more iconic than that.
