That is one lamp of a question, for I cannot for the life of me think what
inspired me to love D&D. The game was sort of thrown on me one day and then I loved it, so it wasn't a piece of art that did it. In fact, it was art that almost made me never play the game as a matter of principle. Yes, DCS III, that's you (No worries, I've come to respect him in recent years, so there's no need to get excited).
Artist: Tonke Dragt
Source: Tonke Dragt,
De Brief voor de Koning (Uitgeverij Leopold, 1962) and Tonke Dragt,
Geheimen van het Wilde Woud (Uitgeverij Leopold, 1965)
Depicting: Tiuri and the Red Riders; Tiuri and Ristridin Castle
Glad we were allowed to put up two pieces of art, for one cannot go without the other. The pieces are on the front covers of the first editions of
De Brief voor de Koning and
Geheimen van het Wilde Woud, respectively.
So why, then, these pictures? Well, because they are one and the same with the books that made me love fantasy, with its knights and knighthood, castles and quests in woods and medieval realms, elves and treefolk, and which, of course, provided the names for Tehalon and Rivalin, my first two D&D characters of ever.
And now for the tricky bit, for I cannot actually say why I love these pieces - and that is
exactly why I love them. They have a certain
je ne sais quoi; they are simple yet evocative; they are both naive and have a distinct style; the colors are exactly right for what the pictures are about - everything conspires to make them perfect.
In fact, I love them so much that I have never bought the books after I read them (from the library) because I only wanted versions with these covers and these were no longer available when I finally had the money to go looking for them. Come to think of it, I may as well start trying to find them again one of these days, for I believe there's something called the interwebs these days.