Year of the Dragon: Issue 04

On 01/30/2015 at 02:13 AM by KnightDriver

Concerning Dragon Magazine 81, January 1984, the year Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) was given the Pulitzer Prize. He also published The Butter Battle Book, a tale metaphorical of The Cold War arms race. In ’89, a TV special was made of it directed by famous animator Ralph Bakshi! There were a couple of Dr. Seuss video games made based on the movies. There was The Grinch on PS1, which also got ported to DS. It looks pretty average but at least they give you a jet pack. Then, there was Cat in the Hat for PS2/Xbox that looks a little bit better. Here’s a commercial for it:

Aaaaaaand back to Dragon 81.

armory

Free dice pouch! A nerd’s best friend. I’d wear one on my belt. It'd be my bag of bones to determine the future. “Roll the bones”, as the band Rush sing. And speaking of bones. . .

dragonbone

In 1984, it was the next generation of dice pouches. Remember that PS2 game Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff? I always wanted to play that. Is the Dragon Bone Staff a dice wand I wonder?

Dammit! It’s just some kind of giant dragon tooth with a gem in it. I was so hoping for a dice wand.

stamp

I want an Orc stamp with the saying, “ORC SMASH!”

I really love Dave Trampier’s comic Wormy at the end of a lot of these Dragon Magazines. He did the cover of the D&D Player’s Handbook and various art inside the Monster Manual, DM guide and Deities and Demigods books. He also co-created the wargame Titan. Unfortunately, he died in March of last year. The art of Wormy is so colorful and the character drawing so earthy – like they were made of clay. You can read the one in this issue here. Its setting is in a bar full of goblins and ogres playing pool and cards (someone needs to make a painting of this on velvet). I like that the ogre says he’s a collector, and then a goblin jumps in to say he collects beer cans, and then asks the ogre what he collects. It seems right for a bunch of gold-chasing goblins and ogres to be obsessed with collecting. I think I should ask anyone I meet now in this materialist, capitalist driven world, “What do you collect?”.

Cary Woodham

01/30/2015 at 07:26 AM

Back when I used to write for The Dallas Morning News, I reviewed The Grinch video game and I wrote my review entirely in rhyme!

KnightDriver

01/30/2015 at 03:52 PM

Ah that's cool! You should post it somewhere. I want to read it.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/30/2015 at 09:51 AM

dude man, I have a shitload of dragon magazines now that i got this month. I have a huge pile on my coffee table in my room that I need to go through. It just pleases me to have them. I might scan some of the video game reviews/sections for BaD

01/30/2015 at 04:05 PM

Awesome, I want to read them! After the first few issues I read with VG reviews, I haven't come across another one yet. Seems the magazine's features change pretty frequently.

01/30/2015 at 04:11 PM

they did change frequently, but also the game content was thin back then. As the magazine aged, there were more games to talk about. You're in pretty early issues right now.

rmsk8r05

01/30/2015 at 08:17 PM

20 sided dies, never held one in my hands.

01/31/2015 at 04:14 AM

Ah, there's nothing better. I got this giant one that I surprised my friend with last time I played D&D. It got a laugh. It's like the size of a baseball.

Aboboisdaman

01/30/2015 at 08:50 PM

Did you ever see the animated Lord of the Rings movie that Ralph Bakashi directed? It only goes through half of The Two Towers before ending abruptly. Kind of a bummer. There was one for Return of the King too, but I don't know if Bakashi was involved.

01/31/2015 at 04:18 AM

Yea, I saw those. The Return of the King was done by Rankin/Bass who did the animated The Hobbit after Bakshi left the project. I'm not sure I liked the mix of animation and live action in the Bakshi LOTRs, but it was certainly interesting.

NSonic79

02/10/2015 at 01:41 PM

Wait? You we don't wear out dice on our belts right now?

....

Excuse me for I need to go take something off my belt....

What? Stop looking at me like that! It's a change pouch!

02/13/2015 at 01:55 AM

Fanny packs do NOT count. Only genuine dice pouches.

PixlBit