The Uniqueness of Early (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons Color Cover Art

When Dungeons and Dragons was released in 1974, the presentation was very hobbyist-oriented. The box containing the three little brown books was serviceable enough but the woodgrain pattern and the less than professional artwork on the cover or inside the booklets, combined with the near-inscrutability of the early rules and limited distribution undoubtedly limited its appeal. Further products would have to stand out beyond what might be expected in a hobby shop or wargaming bookshelf in order to have broader appeal. Let's see how TSR accomplished this goal.

At this time TSR employed two major artists, David C. Sutherland III and David Trampier. They were responsible for the bulk of the artwork produced for TSR products from 1977-1980. Sutherland received the assignment to make an illustration for TSR's introductory D&D product, the Basic Set, released in July 1977. This product was designed to be sold in bookstores, toy stores, department store and whatever retailer TSR could convince to stock the product. It had to grab the customer's attention, convey something about the game and there was no room for amateur hour artwork. He would produce a color painting which would be transferred to the box in full color. The artwork would wrap around the four sides of the top box, and this was the result:

Taken from TSR Archive

Regardless of one's opinions about the technical skill of the artist, the most striking feature about this piece is how many elements it gets across. You have a red dragon in a lair sitting on top of a pile of gold and treasure. There are two adventurers on the other side of the arch ready to engage the dragon. The fighting man is in full armor but wisely decides to strike with an arrow at range. The wizard holds a torch in one hand and a magic wand in the other. Even though the wizard may look a little silly today with the pointy hat, it was something that people would have been familiar with and was helpful to communicate that the man is a wizard. The torch, the large arch and stone wall and floor tell you that this is a dungeon and and the dragon's lair. The dragon looks large and powerful, with a rather serpentine neck. Only his wings look too small. The gold and the dragon's scale both shine with glints of white light (or those are the ends of the arrows previously fired by the fighting man, who would be a lousy shot if he only hit the dragon twice at point blank range)

The cover has a bit of irony to it. The Basic Rules only cover character levels one to three. Unless the red dragon shown is one of the younger members of its species, there is little likelihood that a pair of third level characters will be able to defeat it. The entry on dragons in the rulebook which comes with the Basic Set states as much. Maybe the small wings are a suggestion that the dragon is youthful and thus potentially can be overcome. Pictures of the original painting and a recreation of the box with the artwork wrapped around on the sides can be found on Zenopus Archives. In another blog article on that site, it is speculated that Sutherland's painting was inspired by previous paintings of the dragon Smaug from The Hobbit.

The next D&D product to sport a full cover color would be the Advanced Dungeon and Dragons Monster Manual released in December 1977. The assignment was again given to Sutherland, and here is what he produced:

The scope of the painting is extremely ambitious as it gives samples of monsters which may be found above ground and underground. The back cover says "over 350 monsters" and the whole cover really wants to impress that fact on you. No other Monster Manual until 2024 shows nearly as many monsters on the cover. In the wilderness you have a centaur, red dragon, unicorn, giant spider, pixie, griffon and manticore. The caverns below show a purple worm, three goblins, a carrion crawler, troll, owl bear and roper. Thirteen distinct monsters are shown and while some are similar looking there is plenty of variety on display. The illustration gets the point across that this book has a lot of of monsters in it. Sutherland's red dragon in this image has much larger wings, a definite improvement, although he looks smaller relative to the other monsters than the one on the Basic Set did to the adventurers and wears a less fierce expression. The 2025 Edition of the Monster Manual may have taken inspiration from the 1977 original, it shows many more types of monsters than any edition of the Monster Manual between the two.

The next year (June 1978) saw the release of the Players Handbook, and for the first time Trampier earns the cover art. His artwork has been deemed iconic:

That idol with its menacing gems for eyes and toothy mouth, was particularly inspired. Sitting cross-legged with upturned palms it looks like a devilish buddha. Ironically it does not look much like a lizard man, but those appear to be the two monsters lying on the shrine. The statute has been evoked many times in other illustrations, including the fold out illustration for the AD&D Dungeon Masters' Screen (also by Trampier) and the 3.5e Players Handbook II. The whole piece shows various things player characters do. The people shown have just finished what appears to be a battle. The individuals who have climbed onto the idol are busy prying the gems out of it. One warrior is cleaning his sword, two more are consulting a map. The men on the back cover are gathering the loot or dead bodies while one stands watch at a large door. Eleven men are shown on the cover, a large party to be sure. The painting seems to ask the question "what will the party do next?"

While the previous covers had something of a comic book cover-like quality to them, Trampier's use of shading really helped make this image stand out. The temple looks old, the idol has variable light and shadow from the brazier and the people do not look especially cartoonish. There is a texture to the artwork, which is laid underneath the texture of the book's cover, giving it an aged look.

For the final book in the core rulebook set, Sutherland is back with a more sophisticated piece than his 1977 efforts:

The giant efreet, huge with well-defined musculature and yellow suns for pupils, looks positively terrifying. His sword looks like it could cleave all three adventurers with one swing. The scale makes the efreet look like the King Kong of AD&D. An efreet is on the cover of the 3.5e Dungeon Masters Guide II. The adventurers on the ground look similar to those shown on the Basic Set but mercifully the mage no longer wears a pointy hat. For the first time a (rather attractive) woman is shown on the cover and while caught in the elemental fiend's hand she is shown not to be helpless.

Inside the Dungeon Masters Guide on page 2 under the Foreword are are two sentences which describe cover image: "Cover: The book cover painting shows an encounter between three adventurers and an efreet on the Elemental Plane of Fire. The fabled City of Brass can be seen floating over a flame-swept sea of oil." The city does look like one which you might imagine would be within the Elemental Plane of Fire. The architecture is alien, often byzantine and very shiny. Spires and peaks abound, suggesting jets of flame even when there are none visible. The sea of oil, the little dragon-like creature wrapped around the banister and a Viking-inspired ship on it helps sell the idea that this place is rather hostile to humans.

Wraparound artwork in RPGs is uncommon but always impressive when done. There are difficulties with it, care must be taken that the important parts of the art is not lost within the folds before the spine or the edges of the book. The most important features of the art are usually left or right of the center. Cover titles may also be hard to read against colors which offer poor contrast to text. This means that the yellow in the cover text is big and bright. Two more wraparound AD&D hardcovers in the form of Deities and Demigods and Fiend Folio would be produced. The 2014 5e Rulebooks would come closest to wraparound covers but even those obstructed the artwork on the spine with black.

The original AD&D covers would be used from 1977, 1978 and 1979 until 1983 when they were replaced by different artwork, all by Jeff Easley. Easley would handle all the other 1st Edition Rulebooks, including the reissue of Deities and Demigods (as Legends and Lore). The contents were virtually unchanged from the earlier rulebooks. These covers were no longer wrap-around and the books had a much more uniform look. The spines are- a uniform orange, which will be shared by all 1st Edition rulebooks produced going forward. The backs of the orange spine 1st Edition Rulebooks have no artwork and use a single color gradient. Easley was also responsible for most of the cover art for the 2nd Edition rulebooks.

The early covers were designed to be attractive and get across what this new game was trying to be. They were designed to inspire the imagination, critical for a game which relied so heavy on imaginative game play. The player could not see themselves fighting orcs except in their mind's eye. The did this by drawing on familiar conventions but also (with the AD&D books) inserting a touch of weirdness. These covers did their job and introduced years' worth of people who would never go near a wargame to try a role playing game. I have not even talked about the interior artwork, which is in black and white but interesting in its own right. Maybe there will be a follow-up to this blog post.