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Artist of the outré Michael Bukowski cites Otus as the inspiration for his cover of this new edition of H.P. Lovecraft's commonplace book (a form of journal). Compare to the Otus cover to Dragon magazine #55.

Thanks to my dude sarkos for the tip!

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The Kuklapi, a fish monster resulting from drowning victims failing to reincarnate correctly. From Back to BasiX issue #7.

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Yesterday's new Otus piece, this time without the text, courtesy of the man himself.

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Check out this sweet Otus cover for the new 2nd edition of Jon Peterson's Playing at the World. You can pre-order a copy here.

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Ah, the Rogues Gallery. Page after page of NPC and monster stats. Why buy sheets for your own NPCs when you can just have TSR make the NPCs for you from whole cloth?

In fairness, this isn’t useless (I particularly approve of the pre-cooked lich stats), it’s just a bit dull, what with all the numbers (though compared to some of Chaosium’s similar early RuneQuest supplements, this is downright luxurious). Thank goodness there’s all this amazing art! Erol Otus has a solid cover (that horned helmet is groovy) and his lich/ki-rin/coutl combo on the back cover is another old school fave of mine (note the upside-down cross). Inside, he provides a great druid vs. mind flayer face-off and a ranger vs. owl bear fight. Jeff Dee also pops up to slay an impressive black dragon.

A final point of interest is the Personalities chapter, which details a collection of characters from actual D&D campaigns, including Gygax’s own (his famous mages, Bigby and Mordenkainen are included). Characters by TSR employees Zeb Cook, Erol Otus and Lawrence Schick jump out, but it’s the names I don’t recognize that I find most intriguing. Who were they? Are they still alive? What adventures did they have with these characters?

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Erol Otus

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From the Cthulhu Mythos chapter of the 1st edition AD&D Deities & Demigods manual (TSR, 1980).

Hastur is first mentioned in a short story by Ambrose Bierce (Haïta the Shepherd, 1891), and the name then reoccurs in Robert W. Chambers' short story collection The King in Yellow (1895).

HP Lovecraft mentions Hastur only in passing in his novella The Whisperer in Darkness (1931). It is only in numerous short stories by August Derleth that Hastur becomes a fully fleshed out entity of the Cthulhu Mythos.

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From the Cthulhu Mythos chapter of the 1st edition AD&D Deities & Demigods manual (TSR, 1980).

The Great Race of Yith (to give them their full name) first appeared in HP Lovecraft’s novella The Shadow Out of Time (1936). The above description neglects to mention the most notable feature of the Great Race - they are able to psychically swap bodies with any creatures throughout time and space.

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These minis are now available for pre-order.

Image for GaryCon 2024

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From the Cthulhu Mythos chapter of the 1st edition AD&D Deities & Demigods manual (TSR, 1980).

The Deep Ones first appeared in HP Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

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144. Various Authors - Dragon #55 (November 1981)

As we approach the end of 1981 we get the November issue of Dragon with a cool Erol Otus cover. The issue marks the return of an important part of the magazine and TSR in general, by bringing back Gygax's From the Sorcerer's Scroll column, which had been absent for over a year at this point. Gygax writes about the world of Greyhawk and again return to the issue of "race" in Greyhawk, a lot of talk about "pure" and "mixed" races which feels not only uncomfortable but unnecessary, also because he had already written this in #52 as an addendum to Lakofka's Tiny Hut. At least he promises to being new content in the next issues. But it's not all about returns, there is also someone new showing up here and that is Larry Elmore that contributes a new comic strip at the end of the magazine, but more importantly will be one of the most important (together with Clyde Caldwell) artists that will set the visual identity of AD&D for the rest of the 80s and beyond. 

However, the magazine starts off with a couple of reviews of the Fiend Folio by Ed Greenwood (who gives it a pretty negative review) and Alan Zumwalt (who gives it a middling one) as well as a reply by editor Don Turnbull. Turnbull explains, and he is right, that many of the problems pointed out are a result of a really difficult publishing history which made the book exist in a limbo for about 2 years before publication, making it outdated by the time it came out. 

We also get new stats for Dinos in AD&D, stats for Robin Hood and his Merry Men, a little adventure module and an article on how your characters can run away from danger in dungeons. We also get the usual bestiary and comic strips with the addition of Da Letter by Larry Elmore.

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I don't know who did this, but I salute you.

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75. TSR - Character Record Sheets (1979) 

Nothing too revolutionary but these were the Character Record Sheets that came out in 1979, you had different sheets for different classes and more importantly a  cover with an illustration by legendary D&D artist Erol Otus. Well, there isn't much more to say about it! 

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Image for GaryCon 2024

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Erol Otus