Just because not everything aligned with the articles, doesn't make Easley work "a mountain of nothing." For every one of the things you site, I still recall Easley's awesomeness with skeletons, dragons (especially dragons), and wizards. I wouldn't say he did everything right. But to me, his work is evocative of the time when I was in D&D and stuff was literally being churned towards DMs and PCs with great aplomp.

I understand the appeal it just ran out for me. Easley's scaling boggled the vision once too often (check the BATTLESYSTEM and MONSTER MANUAL covers for a quick example of weird scaling). Games are mostly about scaling this or that don't forget. So it irked slowly at first then began gnawing...

I decided to dig out my Boris t-shirt (geez, I look old...):



Thats an exceptional Boris pic. You have to be very selective with him or its "body oil time".

BTW, speaking of background detail in pictures that piece of wood nailed to the wall does have a face on it. Its not just you...

Anyway that dragon in this Boris picture really cuts through whole "screw on head dragon" culture that has absorbed the Western mindset. Its somewhat reptilian and on the other hand subscribes to some medieval ideas of it being an amalgam of creatures which really is refreshing. (Thats the one thing that annoyed me to tears is that movie REIGN  OF FIRE they didn't even research the looks (as well as mythology) of dragons that well so it looked like they got the idea from a modern children's book or a flowery concession stand at the mall which is bizarre considering it was a violent film.) This Boris picture doesn't look anything like those standard dragons (of pewter & crystal, etc) and yet its compelling.

Like the way I brought it back to evolution of D&D monsters?

Anyway, the original dragon of the namesake originally was depicted as a monsterized mega-snake. It wasn't until later that comparative mythology started junking all dragon-like creatures into a universal mish mash to give the medieval dragon of heraldry some kind of pedigree. The original concept of a dragon from the greek called drakon makes them seem not so different from nagas and therefore cobras. The wings the ancient Greeks mention are obviously describing cobra hoods but tell that to the medieval European guy who has never seen a cobra as they were all killed off.

So the way I see it there is three evolutions:
A) classical drakon (monster head snake),
B) medieval dragon (amalgam of beasts from heraldry) and
C) modern slick screw-on-head dragon of the 80's pewter crystals (revised "realistic" interpretation)

"C" is probably the direct responsibility of Gary Gygax's attempts to diversify the dragons by breath in Chainmail for:

A)Future Product identity
B)Game variety
C) and last but not least to make up for naysayers who cite the effects of Beowulf's northern "dragon's"* nasty breath attack (which in a different way inspired Tolkien's black breath [not appearing in any film soon]) [*NOTE: My belief is that this creature was not a dragon but interpreted as such by the Christianization process of the work.]

Quote from: Gene Weigel;460326early Boris is good but a lot of his later stuff is bizarre. I think it was all the pumping iron that fried his "good fantasy gland" into a "bedroom fantasy penis".

The early Boris stuff is great. the one on Gene's tee-shirt and a bunch of other stuff from the late 70s early 80s.
Then he just gets obsessed with the whole erotic fantasy thing and no more use. He was always a lot more static than Frazetta though. Boris's interplay of light upon a surface though is remarkable. So there is a picture from that dire book he co-wrote with his wife Doris (I know you couldn't make it up) of a Bronze idol and the detail and colouring is peerless.
Has to be said his pencil work is also amazing.

That image of the trolls is definitely iconic for me.  It basically defined how I always imagine the D&D troll.

RPGPundit

Back to the daemons redefining that I mentioned.

If you want to note the redefining of their look it was:

VAULT OF THE DROW: Sutherland: cover for nyca; towards the back for nyca & mezzo
FIEND FOLIO: Russ: entry for each, heaps on his trademark too much, horned hands becomes horned body, nyca looks too fringed and picks up furrinessAD&D Monster cards: Otus: "de-russ-ification" sort of with nyca (not enough!)
2e Outer Planes Monstrous Compendium binder add-on: Baxa: ignores Otus "fix" and reinterprets Russ more dog-like. Daemon suffix changed to "loth"
2e Planescape Box (Planes of Conflict?): Diterlizzi: portrays the nyca as a chubby adorable bull dog and the mezzo as a Russ-sourced chicken-legged flat head humanoid who is at peace with himself it seems.
3e Manual of the Planes: Reynolds: depicts the nyca as a "manlier doggy" but with 4 arms and mezzo looks like a total beetle

Its totally weird that the Sutherland one remains the most defiining to me and I won't even use the Otus as an example.

Don't get me wrong about Sutherland either I don't like how his interpretations of orcs look piggish. Not that they do but it can be misjudged as such. (SEE D&D CARTOON). Trampier's interpretation is much more interesting as a weird snout.

Githyanki - If it weren't for the original Fiend Folio art, they would have been a completely forgettable vanilla race.  As with the Rakshasa, I wonder if the artist and the writer even spoke to each other, since nothing in their description suggests their appearance.

Quote from: Esgaldil;460800Githyanki - If it weren't for the original Fiend Folio art, they would have been a completely forgettable vanilla race.  As with the Rakshasa, I wonder if the artist and the writer even spoke to each other, since nothing in their description suggests their appearance.

More likely than not, they didn't, since most of the FF monsters were based on reader submission. The Githyanki, along with a few other creatures, were created by SF writer Charles Stross.

the Trampier Lizardman is exactly how I envision them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41584679@N00/3777964467/

love that pic.  i'm sure that there are fancier ones, executed with far more complexity, but that is my favorite.

Kuo-Toa:

Thats one of the things that continues to amaze me that I disliked the constant usage by DMs of the death knight (especially for nazgul), the githyanki, the slaad and the githzerai and later found out they were conceived by a 14 year old boy. In particular, the young Stross plagiarized the glossary of a 1977 George R.R. Martin book for the name and general idea of a "soul suck" slave race githyanki who were mistaken for demons.

NOTE: the artist Russ gave the Githyanki its distinctive mummy bandages as a mistaken identity for banded armor.

Thats just too weird not to mention.

Quote from: RPGPundit;438310When they started to illustrate Kobolds as little lizard-men, rather than little dog-men.  I wouldn't say that really changed my perspective though, since to me they're still dog-men.

To me they are still small dwarves that hang out in mines.

isnt that picture of suahagin not kuo toa?

Quote from: Cranewings;459800Cole, I'm not an expert on Celtic myth and I don't have my book handy, but I think there was a fairy race that fought with the Daoine Sidhe called Formorians or some such thing. Anyway, they were magic ogres that moved around in darkness.

The Fomhoire , often anglicized as "fomorians", were described in the Irish Book if Invasions as the primitive and brutal original inhabitants of the isle, one of two races that the Tuatha De Danann defeated. The other, the FirBolg, (lit. "bag-mean", described as giants), were completely subjugated. The Fomhoire, after the coming of the De Danann, set up outposts on a number of islands surrounding Ireland, most significantly Tory Island, where Balor, the one-eyed leader of the Fomhoire, had his crystal palace.

The Fomhoire were gods, like the De Danann, but most were mis-shapen, monstrous and cruel (but not all...Bres, Balor's son, was considered quite beautiful and seduced a De Danann princess or two). Metaphorically they represent the indigenous tribes of Pictii and proto-Norse raiders. The Fomorii were presented as civilized, if evil, and like the De Danann's, they had their own Druids or spellcasters, though I'd very much hesitate to use the term "magic ogres".

Modern fantasy tends to cast them in the role of demons that are a reoccurring threat to the "good" faeries. Warhammer Fantasy 1st Edition used them as the inspiration for the Fimir. In White Wolf, what a Fomor was depended entirely on what book you read, though they first showed up as genetic mutations in W:tA.

In the original legends, the Fomhoire are utterly defeated at the 2nd Battle of Magh Tuired and never heard from since. Then the humans come and defeat the Tuatha, driving them into the underground hills ("sith" or"sidhes" in Gaelic).

Regarding mythology specifically, I'd say Fomorians are the closest things to orcs to exist in folklore before Tolkien.

Quote from: TristramEvans;462421The Fomhoire , often anglicized as "fomorians", were described in the Irish Book if Invasions as the primitive and brutal original inhabitants of the isle, one of two races that the Tuatha De Danann defeated. The other, the FirBolg, (lit. "bag-mean", described as giants), were completely subjugated. The Fomhoire, after the coming of the De Danann, set up outposts on a number of islands surrounding Ireland, most significantly Tory Island, where Balor, the one-eyed leader of the Fomhoire, had his crystal palace.

The Fomhoire were gods, like the De Danann, but most were mis-shapen, monstrous and cruel (but not all...Bres, Balor's son, was considered quite beautiful and seduced a De Danann princess or two). Metaphorically they represent the indigenous tribes of Pictii and proto-Norse raiders. The Fomorii were presented as civilized, if evil, and like the De Danann's, they had their own Druids or spellcasters, though I'd very much hesitate to use the term "magic ogres".

Modern fantasy tends to cast them in the role of demons that are a reoccurring threat to the "good" faeries. Warhammer Fantasy 1st Edition used them as the inspiration for the Fimir. In White Wolf, what a Fomor was depended entirely on what book you read, though they first showed up as genetic mutations in W:tA.

In the original legends, the Fomhoire are utterly defeated at the 2nd Battle of Magh Tuired and never heard from since. Then the humans come and defeat the Tuatha, driving them into the underground hills ("sith" or"sidhes" in Gaelic).

Regarding mythology specifically, I'd say Fomorians are the closest things to orcs to exist in folklore before Tolkien.

Good stuff.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;462420isnt that picture of suahagin not kuo toa?

Nope, it's the cover from the Hidden Shrine of the Kuotoa and the lobster babe in the background is the Kuotoa goddess Biliboopip.  I think there was an earlier monochromatic version but I'm not sure.