Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume 2 (published in 1995, but containing monsters that appeared over the course of 1994) see the switch over to the new black-heavy 2.5 trade dress. I like this everywhere else in the line, but I think it is a step down for the monster books. The white was cleaner.  

The art here is pretty uniformly good, though there is no clear credit. Walter Velez is apparently in here somewhere, but it isn’t jumping out at me, which is strange (that Curst might be him?). Arnie Swekel is easy to spot, love that Aboleth. He’s got some color pieces in here too (maybe the Squealer?).

I’ve not troubled you with too many illustrations for the dumb monsters, but there are plenty. The Flumph and the Zorbo are charming in their way, but did we need Gnoats (gnome centaurs) and Ha’ponies (halfling centaurs)? Why is Swamp Thing in D&D? I don’t know the answers. But I do know that these sillier monsters stand out because they lack the single-artist camouflage I was talking about yesterday. This is going to get worse.