Shifting Orcish Alignments

A brief history of Orcish Alignments I just posted in response to the query, 
"Shouldn't orcs be chaotic evil?":

"They were Chaotic Evil before they were Lawful Evil.

In the beginning (OD&D, 1974), when there were only three alignments, they were Neutral or Chaotic. This lasted for three years, until Holmes Basic (mid-1977), where they are Chaotic Evil. The Holmes Basic set uses the then-new five-point alignment system, and Holmes the editor may have just appended an "evil" on to the Chaotic from OD&D. By later that year (Monster Manual, Dec 1977), Gygax had changed them to Lawful Evil, possibly because they are tribal and will follow a strong leader, as mentioned above."

See also: Neutral Orcs in OD&D. 

Update: In the DF thread, Matthew looked up the alignment table from Strategic Review #6 (1976), and Orcs are listed as Chaotic Evil. I'd guess that Holmes went by this table, because other monsters in the Blue Book seem to follow this table. For example, monsters that were Chaotic in OD&D such as Goblins, Minotaur and Spectres are listed as Lawful Evil on both the SR table and in Holmes.

Monster Manual 1E artwork trivia

Chimeras - 1st print MM (left) vs 2nd print MM (right)

Over on the Acaeum, misterspock has documented several artwork changes that were made to the Monster Manual. The first is the Chimera; the original drawing by David C. Sutherland III (aka DCS III or just DCS) from the first print MM (Dec '77) is missing its wings, despite having an 18"/round flying move. The later drawing, also by DCS, from the 2nd print MM (May '78) has the wings added as well as other changes. Also altered were the Type III Demon and Nightmare.

An older post on Dragonsfoot by Paul Stormberg of the Collector's Trove provides some context for these changes:

"Dave (DCSIII) told me he didn't like some of the creatures he drew (Type III Demon, Chimera, Dinosaurs, and some others) as they had to be hastily done. DCS was a fast artist but it made his quality suffer. The Monster Manual was supposed to be done by Dave Trampier but he worked slowly and often quit and went home or to the local bar to blow off steam regardless of deadlines. Not so for DCS. He labored long into the night to get things done and sacrificed quality for speed when ordered to do so. Tramp was different, he was the golden boy for Gary and Gary did not push him on deadlines. Instead Dave was asked to pick up the slack.

When Dave got the Monster Manual blue lines from the printer he saw "this huge hole" in the document. There were no dinosaur illustrations, at all, just many blank pages. So that night Dave did all of the dinosaur drawings. He was supposed to be working on other things but crammed and speed drew things to pick up the slack. So a few pictures that had been hastily drawn by DCS, and that always bugged Dave were redrawn by him for later editions of the MM. It is the only book where he does this because it was never meant to be his project and the hastily drawn stuff bugged him so he just had to fix some things.

In the end, DCS was selected to be the Art Director for his work ethic and he slowly moved away from having time to create art. Ultimately he directed cartography at the company which you begin to see in fantastic maps like those in I6 Ravenloft."

Tom Wham is also listed in the credits, and contributed both classic "bestiary" drawings that blend well with the others (Beholder, Blink Dog, Herd Animal, Gynosphinx) as well as his signature cartoons (Giant Lynx, Mind Flayer, Giant Pike).

In addition to the altered artwork, later MM prints also added new art. Buried on the Acaeum's Monster Manual errata page is a list of the missing artwork in earlier printings:

First:  Ape (Gorilla), Centaur, Doppleganger, Dryad, Eye of the Deep, Fungi, Gar, Ghost, Hobgoblin, Intellect Devourer, Kobold, Men (Berserker), Merman, Mummy, Otyugh, Pegasus, Pixie, Purple Worm, Rat (Giant, Sumatran), Skeleton, Slug, Sprite

Second:  Ape (Gorilla), Eye of the Deep, Fungi, Otyugh, Rat (Giant, Sumatran)

Third:  Eye of the Deep, Fungi, Otyugh, Rat (Giant, Sumatran)

Fourth:  All pictures present.  Note that some monsters still do not have an accompanying illustration, but the Fourth print is as good as it gets.

[Note: the Ape (Gorilla) here should actually read Ape (Carnivorous)]

Most of these added illustrations are by DCS or Trampier, but the ones added to the fourth print are by Jean Wells (by herself or with DCS), whose name was also added to the credits on the title page.

Unpublished drawings also exist for several monsters that never received an illustration in the Monster Manual, including a Slithering Tracker and Giant Skunk by Bill Willingham, a Masher by Erol Otus, and an unattributed Shadow.

Update: Here's a screenshot of the DCS Chimera in the Blackmoor Supplement (Sep '75) that paleologos pointed out below:

Obscure Art Friday: Slithering Tracker by Bill Willingham

Slithering Tracker by Bill Willingham

     

Here's yet another piece of original artwork found along with the Masher, Drow Captain and Bugbear Chieftain. This one illustrates the Slithering Tracker from the Monster Manual, which is described as "transparent and almost impossible to discover" and having a "semi-fluid body" that can "flow through openings as small as a rat hole or a large crack under a door". I hadn't really thought of the Tracker as one of the "clean-up crew", but this illustration makes me think it's related to the oozes, jellies, and puddings. Like the Masher, this is another monster that might have gotten more attention with an illustration. I always assumed there was no illustration because it was invisible!

I hadn't seen this piece until recently when I happened across it on a page at Tome of Treasures. According to the original post on the Acaeum the ebay lot where these were found also included a Giant Skunk by Willingham and an unattributed Shadow, each of which was intended to be added to the Monster Manual (but never were). I haven't come across scans of the Giank Skunk or Shadow anywhere.

If you'd like to see more Willingham art, there's a recent thread over on the OD&D Discussion forums dedicated to his work that has some scans and links. In the first post of the second page I started compiling a bibliography of his work.

Updated Covers for 1E AD&D Re-Release

     As reported on the Acaeum by Metamorphosis Sigma, WOTC has released updated covers for the 1E re-releases, which now say Advanced D&D (rather than just D&D) and correct the spelling of "Players" and "Masters" to remove apostrophes, as per the originals. I stitched the three thumbnails together so we could see them side by side.

     They are better than I expected. WOTC found a nice way to update the covers yet use part of the old art. I'd prefer less squiggles/curlicues but it's ok. The color scheme (brown background with yellow and red) reminds me of the World of Greyhawk boxset cover.

     I have 2+ copies of the originals of each of these manuals, so I'll let others have first chance at these new ones.  I'll only buy them to send a message of support for reprints if they don't sell out immediately.