Edit: so far Shuma Gorath (from Marvel’s Dr Strange in 1973) is the only example. Know another? Please let us know
According to Wikipedia, the Beholder is a Dungeons and Dragons original creation and it is copyrighted. Its first appearance was in 1975.
In case you are not familiar with these, a beholder is basically a floating eye with tentacles that also have eyes, often able to shoot rays off the eyes. You have probably seen some similar creature type in a myriad other media such as videogames, tv shows and whatnot.
Now I’m really surprised something like this only surfaced in the 70s. Is there anything similar in any type of media or culture prior to the 70’s? The only thing that pops to mind is the ancient biblical angels with abstract forms and many eyes, but I’m hoping someone here can show me more and better examples.
Or not. I don’t know.
I think that’s it, you’ve found it, it’s Shuma-Gorath. It’s really close chronologically, it’s in a very popular publication, and also in the oldest depictions I could find it also sports something like the “chitinous plates” the beholder description has. According to Wikipedia too, Shuma was/is one of the most popular kaiju-type villains in Marvel. It also says Shuma can levitate and shoot rays off his eye and tentacles.
Eyeballs on tentacles/eyestalks were much more popular back in the day than now, especially for alien or extraterrestrial designs. So there isn’t a huge leap from Shuma gorath to Beholder.
I was hoping for more sci fi or fantasy fans to crop up and point at other characters from 60’s or earlier novels, however, no luck so far. Someone pointed a beholder wouldn’t look out of place in a Lovecraft story and I agree but yours was the only concrete example so, congrats, enjoy your trophy!