"This is a super-intelligent, man-shaped creature with four tentacles by its mouth which it uses to strike its prey. If a tentacle hits it will then penetrate to the brain, draw it forth, and the monster will devour it."
Gary Gygax, Strategic Review Volume 1 Number 1
The mindflayer's skin glistens with slime. Its skin color is a nauseous mauve, its tentacles being purplish black, A mind flayer's eyes are a dead while, no pupil being evident. The long fingers of each hand are reddish, but the hands are mauve."
According to a 2005 interview Gyagax said he was inspired by the cover to Brian Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath while creating the mind flayer:
"The mind flayer I made up out of whole cloth using my imagination, but inspired by the cover of Brian Lumley's novel in paperback edition, The Burrowers Beneath."
The problem is, that he doesn't state which edition. There were two paperback editions out by the time Strategic Review Volume 1 Number 1 was released. The DAW edition (cover by Tim Kirk) and the German Vampir edition (cover by Bruce Pennington). While it's much less likely that Gygax came across the German one, it does bear a striking resemblance to what the mindflayer would look like.
Either way, these guys are very Cthuluh-esque. But the first illustration of them doesn't appear until a year later in Supplement III, Eldritch Wizardry drawn by Tracy Lesch. It gets a little more refined in David Sutherland's illustration from Monster Manual I (1977). I couldn't not include an Erol Otus drawing as well, this one from The Rogues Gallery (1980).
Obviously, I was a little loose in following the descriptions Gygax gave in the Monster Manual. There is mauve on my mind flayer but not as much as he suggested. Mine also has non-white eyes with pupils, but I'd point out that even the Sutherland illustration that accompanied his description had pupils.
This was such a Lovecraftian creature from conception and it was fun to draw. I liked going back and finding the original sources and illustrations.
We're back to more bizarre stuff tomorrow and kinda gross if you ask me.
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