Basement Whatever

It wasn’t Erol Otis (he designed the cover). It was John Dee, who came from a comics background and thus drew lean, muscular heroes and heroines. And as this article points out, he drew halflings really well:

Jeff liked to show Halflings in actions other than picking pockets or running scared.  His Halflings were fighters first and thieves second, more inspired by the rules of Basic D&D than Advanced, and therefore came off as a more valuable addition to a party.

As a guy who loved the illustrations in the red book, this is a neat fact.