Dungeons, Dames & Gams

Bettie Page Magazines, Covers and Inserts, #182

Artist: Artists: Trillo, Maicas and Bernet

Source: Eros Comix

The five-volume Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander, began in 1964 with The Book of Three, and saw new entries — The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer — appear annually until finishing with The High King in 1968. They’re set in a fantasy version of Wales, and draw from Welsh mythology, but the story is very much the tale of an assistant pig-keeper named Taran who, as he grows from boy to man, seeks adventure, finds responsibility and learns the terrible cost of glory. It’s one of the first works of fantasy I read as a kid and honestly, I don’t think any others, except Earthsea, have measured up in terms of emotional weight (and their refusal to indulge in power fantasy or other cliché). I re-read them recently and that remains true. You ought to read them if you haven’t. They’ll change you, I bet.

The monster at the end of the book: After fighting past the fire giants and through the Wall of Tentacles, an adventurer confronts a drow curate wielding a tentacle rod (David Sutherland, AD&D module G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King, TSR, 1978)

Gary Gygax's text in G3 desribes the subterranean drow having black skin, pale hair, and delicate features, but Sutherland's illustrations seem to flip the colors:

Drow warriors with atlatls and poisoned javelins:

The combined 1980 module G1-2-3: Against the Giants reprints the first picture with no changes, but the 2nd was redrawn (below) and the 3rd was omitted: