Archive for the 'D&D Art' Category



D&D Cover Art: The Ghost Tower of Inverness (1980)

The front cover art is by Jim Roslof, who passed away last year. From his obituary at Wizards of the Coast,

As an illustrator in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Roslof had a major influence on the developing visual style of the Dungeons & Dragons game. His cover illustration for adventure B2, The Keep on the Borderlands, is one of the most iconic and widely-recognized D&D images from that period.

As art director, Roslof’s guiding hand was less apparent to players, but his influence was even more profound and far-reaching. It was Roslof who hired and shaped TSR’s famous “pit” of color illustrators: Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Jim Holloway, Keith Parkinson, Tim Truman, and Clyde Caldwell. Under Roslof’s direction, their paintings defined Dungeons & Dragons for a generation of players and DMs.

The back cover is by Jeff Dee, who did the front cover of the first Isle of Dread module, among other classics.

Grognardia reviews The Ghost Tower of Inverness (killer title, yes?) here. The module is currently available for download at dndclassics.com.

D&D Cover Art: The Lost City (1982)

Front cover art is by Jim Holloway. Back cover art is by H. Joseph Quinn.

You’ll find some interior art at A Paladin in Citadel, and you can read a review of the module itself (a classic, by all accounts) at Grognardia.

View the whole module here. Download it at dndclassics.com.

D&D Cover Art: The Isle of Dread (1981, 1983)

Cover art for the first edition (blue) is by Jeff Dee (front) and Bill Willingham (back). Cover art for the orange second edition is by Timothy Truman.

More details at Tome of Treasures. Grognardia reviews The Isle of Dread here.

Sears D&D Poster by Larry Elmore (1984)

Elmore Poster Sears

(Via Grognardia)

TSR’s Endless Quest Books, 1982 – 1987

Dungeon 1982

Mountain 1982

Pillars 1982

Return 1982

TSR’s Endless Quest series came out in 1982, and was promptly lapped up by D&D-heads everywhere. The “Pick-A-Path to Adventure” tag was a direct rip-off of the hugely successful Choose Your Own Adventure line, which I also loved, but Endless Quest was grittier and had cooler cover art (the covers above are by Larry Elmore).

Thanks to Demian Katz for the book cover images, and for providing a comprehensive database of the series, including a summary and review of each volume. Some ads below.

Endless Quest 1982

Endless Quest 1984

Endless Quest Ad-3


Pages

Archives

Categories

Donate Button

Join 1,117 other subscribers