Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan cover (1990) 🔗

Crusaders of Khazan was not only the sole CRPG adaption of the Tunnels & Trolls role-playing game in it’s time, but also a rare collaboration between US-based New World Computing and the Japanese CRPG publisher StarCraft. The cover was painted by Akira Komeda, who in his early career seems to have had a bit of a tendency to get overly inspired by famous artists. The cover for Crusaders of Khazan is a proper who's who of fantasy illustrators: A dwarf by Clyde Caldwell, a warrior by Michael Whelan, a kneeling rogue by Frank Frazetta, and a wizard by Larry Elmore. The towering sorceress they’re all facing is a Chimera cobbled together from various paintings - the wings come from Boris Vallejos Incubus, her left forearm from his Snake Women. The model for her overall posture seems to come from Frazetta's A Fighting Man on Mars illustration (including the positioning of her legs, although those have been modified just enough to make them not match close enough for an overlay), as well as her necklace. The origin of her staff arm (and possibly her hair) is still shrouded in mystery.

Some elements discovered by drpepperfan from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.