Comment on Is there anything like a Beholder monster before 1975?
bryndos@fedia.io 2 weeks agoYeah I'm surprised no one has dug up any obscure faerie or troll creature.
So it does seem to be fairly original thing with maybe some medusa inspiration.
In the real world some of the drawings of beholders with toothy mouths make me think of angler fish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-eyed_creatures_in_mythology_and_fiction
There's some cool things in this list, but i don't see anything like it really similar enough.
Closest in appearance might be this listed as a 1973 comic, so close in time, but maybe too tentacleish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuma-Gorath
I can't get past this one though:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa-obake
They are generally umbrellas with one eye and jump around with one leg . . .
That should have been in D&D
Mothra@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
I think that’s it, you’ve found it, it’s Shuma-Gorath. It’s really close chronologically, it’s in a very popular publication, and also in the oldest depictions I could find it also sports something like the “chitinous plates” the beholder description has. According to Wikipedia too, Shuma was/is one of the most popular kaiju-type villains in Marvel. It also says Shuma can levitate and shoot rays off his eye and tentacles.
Eyeballs on tentacles/eyestalks were much more popular back in the day than now, especially for alien or extraterrestrial designs. So there isn’t a huge leap from Shuma gorath to Beholder.
I was hoping for more sci fi or fantasy fans to crop up and point at other characters from 60’s or earlier novels, however, no luck so far. Someone pointed a beholder wouldn’t look out of place in a Lovecraft story and I agree but yours was the only concrete example so, congrats, enjoy your trophy!