Dungeons & Drawings

If you're a geek of a certain age and inclination, you remember the Monster Manual -- a compendium of monsters for Dungeons & Dragons, including vital statistics (does the monster breathe fire, resist acid, turn you into stone with its gaze, etc.) and creative illustrations. Depending on your age, you probably have a single edition of the Manual that "seems right" -- for me it's the 1983 Monster Manual II, though I also had the Fiend Folio. In any case, two enterprising illustrators going by "Blanca M." and "Joe S." have created a blog in which they re-imagine the monsters. Their work is called Dungeons and Drawings (though for the record, I think they're really missing out by not using an ampersand). Pictured above, a few Kobolds, which Blanca describe, in part, like so:

Kobolds are a pretty common early-level encounter. They're small and have a very low challenge rating, which means you can throw a whole pack of them at the players without worrying too much about murdering them too early in the game. Even the Monster Manual goes to some lengths to describe how pathetic they are. "Kobolds speak Draconic with a voice that sounds like that of a yapping dog," says the Manual. They're the chihuahuas of the D&D world.

The pair describe their blog as follows:

Two crazy young illustrators take it upon themselves to bring some new creative juice to the multiplicitous monsters of Dungeons and Dragons. Each Sunday we'll be taking it upon ourselves to create and post an image of a monster of our choice, with a brief description of the creature in question. All the monsters are taken from any one of the so-called Monster Manuals, with a particular emphasis on everyone's favourite 3.5 Edition. As such all content is technically the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast, but it's all done in good fun and I don't really see how you can copyright a dragon, anyway.

Well, maybe your favorite 3.5 Edition, ya whippersnappers! Enjoy the illustrations at Dungeons and Drawings -- the latest entry even includes a brief video!

(Via @brainpicker.)