Appearing in the 1981 Basic Rulebook on the title page, this piece by Bill Willingham is one of my personal favorites. Every magic-user character I ever played over the last thirty years (boy, that makes me feel old!) was based on this illustration, and the spell cast is a wonderful interpretation of Magic Missile. The female elf actually has effective armor (obviously she didn't go shopping at Queen Victoria's Secret) instead of a chainmail bikini, and the fighter is actually using a bow instead of a gigantic two-handed sword that even Ahrnold would have trouble wielding.
But then we get to the dwarf ( I assume he's a dwarf, being short, bearded, and sporting a hammer), and I've never been able to decide just which side he is on in this melee. He's facing the opposite direction of the other characters, and the dragon appears to be shielding him with it's leg. Even his armor matches the dragon's natural scales, like it was made from older shed scales that happened to be laying about the dragon's lair. It's always bothered me, and I've never been able to come up with a satisfactory conclusion. Anyone else ever thought along these lines, or am I just reading too much into the picture?
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