As mentioned before by Mark, fantasy books were not necessarily my D&D inspiration when I was young. I was not much of a reader to be honest. What did inspire we was the beautifully bizarre world of Heavy Metal magazine.Heavy Metal was still fairly new when I started playing D&D, and while my house was far too conservative for me to have copies around I did have friends with more lenient parents. Besides pouring over the images in the great old modules, I could gaze at Heavy Metal for hours on end. Sure, the Monster Manual and Deities & Demigods had their share of naked ladies, Heavy Metal was a treasure trove of my two great loves.
Aside from Heavy Metal was the equally inspiring art of Boris Vallejo. While Boris is no longer my favorite fantasy artist, there were always collections of his work around. A great thing about them, and perhaps something I never gave Boris credit for until right now, is how the paintings have a narrative to them. You may not make a story that Boris was perhaps thinking of, but their is more to it than the "naked chick with sword" factor. There is always something going on beyond a show of boobies, and you can easily see how different painting would fit into your game.
For me a big inspiration was the Conan comics books and black and white magazines of the time. Although as a kid I constantly worried about Conan's low armor class since he didn't wear armor.
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