The Outer Planes Appendix (1991) was my jam, man. When D&D 2E came out, the extraplanar monsters, particularly the devils and demons, were removed. This was in response to headaches caused by Satanic Panic ding-dongs; TSR during this time was keen to not make the mothers of their increasingly younger player base angry. Devils and demons wouldn’t stay gone forever though! It only took two years for them to reappear, albeit with silly fantasy names like Baatezu and Tanar’ri instead of devil and demon. Whatever, they had horns and pitchforks and were cool as hell. I feel like I had this folder of monsters in my bag for most of eighth grade. No wonder I was such a sucker for Planescape when it came out a couple years later.

Tom Baxa did all the interiors. So many cool monster illustrations. That cambion is tops. I dig his Githyanki and Githzerai a lot too. Lemure, Piscoloth, Slaadi, Larvae. I really like how he does the “school photo inset” for the bar-lgura and the babau. Baxa’s…unusual sense of physiology serves him well drawing these outsiders.

This is one of my very favorite Easley Compendium covers (maybe only rivaled by Ravenloft II, which I don’t currently have the folder for, argh). I like the selection of monsters — they’re out there without being devils or demons, which speaks to the wider range the planes have to offer. That’s the voporighu of Gehenna, a maelephant and a bebilith.