Something Awful has a post about the original D&D supplement from way back when.

Steve: Yo, this is OG D&D style right here. Name randomly jammed in there and ridiculous old lady with no pants riding a horse.

Zack: Somebody, presumably a human, looked at this image and said, "Yes, that's good. Let's put it in the front of our book."

Steve: Maybe that sort of quality control explains why there are multiple pages of naval combat rules and minimal character creation information.

Zack: Poor quality control can't explain why they decided to devote nearly an entire page to egotistical swords.

I laughed a lot. Worth reading.