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I am trying to identify this fantasy creature. It was used in an article about "D'N'D" in a polish magazine "Top Secret" #14 (February 1993)

enter image description here

After hours of googling I found a few similar images:

a Commodore-64 demoscene image by Cruise:

enter image description here

Lovecraft bestiary:

enter image description here

and something called Bullywug:

enter image description here

But can't find the magazine image. Any help would be appreciated!

TheLethalCarrot
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Tom
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    It looks like you found the Bullywug. What exactly is your question? – FuzzyBoots Nov 25 '22 at 11:41
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    @FuzzyBoots Bullywug has different feet – Tom Nov 25 '22 at 11:49
  • This "Top Secret"? – FuzzyBoots Nov 25 '22 at 15:22
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    Reminds me of some amphibious creatures from Andre Norton's post-apocalypse novel "No Night Without Stars" – Stanley Webb Nov 25 '22 at 15:51
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    @FuzzyBoots This: https://archive.org/details/TopSecret14/page/n3/mode/2up – Tom Nov 25 '22 at 16:15
  • You might have found two different versions of the same creature. Both bullywugs, just two different ideas for the feet. It’s possible that it’s an unlicensed copy of the bullywug art with some minor changes to avoid copyright infringement. Do you have any other parts of the Top Secret magazine? Or just this image? – Todd Wilcox Nov 25 '22 at 17:09
  • @ToddWilcox I have the whole magazine but there is nothing more about this create in that magazine. The bullywug image I posted is quite recent, the magazine is very old. So magazine's version would seem like the original. But all other images of bullywugs on the internet have frog-like feet. Hence I believe it could be something else, not a bullywug. – Tom Nov 25 '22 at 17:15
  • There are many creatures from D&D and other games that have changed over the years. – Todd Wilcox Nov 25 '22 at 17:20
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    @Giter Yes. This creature is just a "generic fantasy image" for the article. – Tom Nov 25 '22 at 17:32
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    The C64 demoscene image definitely seems to be the same image - note the cloven hooves. The creator, Cruise, is Polish - just as the magazine is. So it's highly likely the source is Polish. (Or else one of the magazine or Cruise copied the other). – Showsni Nov 26 '22 at 15:20

2 Answers2

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Found it! This monster is from a 1982 artwork by Boris Vallejo called "The Witch and her Familiar".

enter image description here

The monster, then, is meant to be the familiar of a witch. The artwork was used as the cover art for the December 1982 edition of Marvel's Epic Illustrated magazine.

After tracking down the Commodore 64 demo mentioned in the OP, I started by trying to find any of the images in the slideshow. Eventually a google image search for "Barbarian fantasy cover art poland" had one of the images in the demo as the first result, which showed me that the image was from an art by Boris Vallejo. After searching through artwork by Boris Vallejo, I quickly realised that all of the images in the demo were by him, so then it was a case of trawling through every repository of Boris' art I could find online until I stumbled across the image with the creature in question - eventually tracked it down on a website where all the thumbnails were broken, so I had to go into each larger image one by one to check them!

Showsni
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    Speaking of Top Secret magazine, don't forget that we've still got these to find https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/245646/can-you-identify-this-spaceship + https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/246244/can-you-identify-this-indiana-jones-like-hero – Valorum Nov 26 '22 at 16:16
  • That is some amazing detective work! Thank you very much! – Tom Nov 26 '22 at 16:26
  • @Valorum I keep them in the back of my head, every once in a while try finding again, but still didn't find anything helpful. – Tom Nov 26 '22 at 16:27
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(Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons has had a variety of piscine humanoids since 1st edition at least. You can see the menagerie below, and take your pick, but I think your first green image looks most like a Locathah (especially the 1st edition AD&D spear wielders) or Kuo-Toa (1st edition AD&D likewise wielding spears):

Could be a Locathah

1e Monster Manual Locathah
5e Ghosts of Saltmarsh Locathah

Could be be a Nixie

1e Monster Manual Nixie

Could be a Sahaugin

1e Monster Manual Sahaugin

Could be a Kuo-Toa

1e Fiend Folio Kuo-Toa 1e D1-D2 Kuo-Toa
5e Monster Manual Kuo-Toa

It is probably not a Merman, Morkoth, or Triton since the image you share has legs, and not fish tails (split or not) or tentacles:

1e Monster Manual Merman
1e Monster Manual Morkoth
1e Monster Manual Triton

Also, Dungeons & Dragons has had a few amphibious humanoids, notably the Bullywugs, Gripili, Grung, and, arguably, Salamanders (although the latter are fire creatures):

1e I6 Bullywug
1e Monster Manual II Gripili
5e One Grung Above Grung
1e Monster Manual Salamander

Lexible
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  • Very informative, thank you, but someone found the exact image so I gotta accept the other answer. – Tom Nov 26 '22 at 16:24
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    @Tom Oh! You were not asking "what is this creature," but "what is this artwork". Got it. :) – Lexible Nov 26 '22 at 23:04