The Mystery of the Missing Fiend Folio Cover

Wherein I take a look at the Fiend Folio that never was.

By R. Nelson Bailey

In 1983, TSR updated its Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hardcover books with new cover art and the iconic orange-spine design. However, they did so for only four of the five books available at the time: Monster Manual, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Deities & Demigods (the latter of which was retitled Legends & Lore). The Fiend Folio never received the redesigned format to match its fellow hardcover rulebooks. Yet new cover art for the Fiend Folio was created by house artist Jeff Easley, who also provided cover illustrations for all the other updated books. Easley’s illustration depicts a group of githyanki warriors in a reddish astral void.

Jeff Easly's githyanki illustration.

Although Easley’s artwork was never used as the Fiend Folio cover, the piece appeared in The Art of the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Game (TSR, 1985), bearing the caption “Fiend Folio Tome.” The same picture later resurfaced in OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes (1988) and in the D&D boxed set The Goblin’s Lair (1992). For reasons that were never officially explained, TSR chose not to update the Fiend Folio cover, leaving fans of the game to wonder why it was omitted. Former TSR employees have suggested that the company skipped it because the Fiend Folio was the poorest-selling of the five hardcover books. While this explanation cannot be verified with certainty, it seems plausible.

Since the updated cover was never completed, I undertook a project to imagine how it might have looked and created one myself.

Conclusion

The missing Fiend Folio cover stands as a curious footnote in Dungeons & Dragons history. TSR’s decision to exclude it from the orange-spine redesign highlights the book’s mixed legacy — cherished by fans for its unique monsters but commercially overshadowed by the other AD&D hardcovers. Easley’s unused githyanki illustration serves as a reminder of what might have been, offering gamers a glimpse into the game’s evolving visual identity during the 1980s.

The original Fiend Folio Cover.

How the new Fiend Folio cover probably would have looked.