Uh, yeah. Admittedly most of the art isn't all that aesthetically pleasing to me but when viewed through the lens of nostalgia part of me still likes it. This is one of my favorite illustrations from the 1st edition PHB (I think it was from the PHB). Part of the reason I like it is because of the armored dude. I much prefer armor that looks like something people actually wore compared to the Dungeon Punk vibe of 3rd edition although a lot of what I see in 5E isn't too bad.
Big difference between OD&D and 1E, for that matter.
Yeah, the 1E artists weren't always the most accomplished -- the devil in the lower right is incredibly stiff, in particular -- but there was an "anything goes" flavor to much of it. Another good one, like A Paladin in Hell, from the 1E PHB, was the group of adventurers listening to a magic mouth spell on a dungeon wall. And the lips are incredibly realistic, going into weird David Cronenberg territory.
That's who -- off the edge of the page to the right -- all the devils are running away from.
Agreed! Most other artists portray D&D as "fantasy," but Erol Otus shows D&D practically as a whole quirky, over-the-top genre unto itself.
Provided you keep UA out of that running.
