After the publication of the three volumes compiling the rules for D&D and before the supplements that would add a lot to those rules the publication of The Strategic Review started. This short lived publication was the official newsletter of TSR (Tactical Studies Rules), the company founded by Gygax and friends to commercialize not only D&D (which wasn’t their main product of the time) but other games, like Chainmail, Warriors of Mars or Star Probe. The company  has a different name but the same initials as The Strategic Review (also TSR), get it? I bet they thought it was funny at the time, but it just becomes confusing after a while. 

However, even in this first issue you can tell that they are particularly excited by their new game, D&D, and this issue they introduce a new monster for Dungeons and Dragons which as bound to become a true classic of the game, The Mind Flayer, a truly nasty beastie which is still around messing players up today.

You also get an article for the lonely D&D player that teaches how to create solo adventures by developing a system of tables and dice rolls to randomize a map and possible encounters in that map. It sounds slightly tedious, but it would be a good way for new DMs to learn the basics of the game at the time. A fun little 6 page pamphlet, but it brought us the Mind Flayer, so if only for that it was a landmark in D&D history.