The early days of the hobby were influenced by the pulp stories of the 30's and 40's as well as the fantasy revival of the 60's and 70's. You can see it in the gritty and at times whimsical recollections, modules and articles of the time. It was an anything goes playing field.
1960's / 1970's fantasy cartoonist, Vaughn Bode created his erotic whimsical fantasy worlds with an unbridled creativity seldom seen these days. Creator of Cheech Wizard and the apocolyptic Cobolt 60 in a unique voluptuous cartoon style was seen by those who may have picked up the underground independent comics of the time.
One world he created in 1968 was called Deadbone:
"Back a billion years, before man, before the dinosaur, before the plankton, before life was thought to exist in even the most rudimentary state...life existed!...Life which belonged to a world as alien as those of a black star....life that cycled and orbited in an evil and insane universe that looked for, but never found, 'our' brand of sanity."What is interesting is the way he created his world; in a very visual style of world building (click image to embiggen):
What a fantastic way to create a world! A couple of the maps even look like city/underworld adventure maps. Some scribbled notes around the images with details to be filled in later.Of course, with the psychedelic mind of Vaughn Bode, this peculiar and weird world was populated as well with all manner of Lizard, Broads, and bizarre unique characters.
A whimsical twisted fantasy world. A great campaign world. A great world-building exercise.
Check out Vaughn Bode in action
(Very interesting video clips especially the Toronto ComiCon '74 clips)
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