News — Dragon Magazine

Dragon 121: Taking on the concept of Oriental Adventures

Dragon Magazine Jim Holloway TSR

Today I'm very pleased to take on the art of Dragon Magazine #121!  Why, you might ask?  Well, because it has a fantastic Jim Holloway cover, his 6th to that point for Dragon, and it features samurai! This particular issue was released in May 1987, art directed by Roger Raupp, and edited by Roger E. Moore. The cover, as mentioned above, was done by artist Jim Holloway who in 1987 was really hitting the sweet spot of his art career.  His work to that point seemed to lead him to a certain mastery of craft that could not only be...

Read more →


Dragon 95: When odd becomes cool

Den Beauvais Dragon Magazine TSR

There are certain issues of Dragon Magazine that resonate with me, and then there are others that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever. The latter had been the case for Issue #95 from March 1985 until I took it down from my collection to have a look for today’s AotG review.Now I probably had never read this issue because the cover doesn’t speak to me. It was always a rather odd and far too realistic cover concerning a 1970s thrift shop feel. Still, upon taking the time to really study Dean Morrissey’s work, entitled ‘Toad’s Cloak Armorsmith Shop’, I began to...

Read more →


Dragon 174: If you don't know it, you haven't missed much

Dragon Magazine Tom Baxa TSR

Today I’m going to take a look at Dragon #174 from October 1991. Now what was I doing in October 1991 you might ask? Hmmm, well, I was in my junior year at Indiana University, living in my first off campus apartment with two roommates, and probably playing WAY too many RPGs. At the time, I’m pretty sure I was doing a good deal of Shadowrun 2nd Edition, some Darksun, Dangerous Journey’s, and of course a bit of D&D in the Forgotten Realms. I was not, however, reading Dragon Magazine, which by that point had fallen off my radar because...

Read more →


Dragon 179: A trip to 1992 and the GenCon preview

Dragon Magazine Larry Elmore Tom Baxa

In my continuing series of Dragon Magazine reviews, I take a look at Issue #179 from March 1992. Published by James M. Ward and Edited by Roger E. Moore the magazine sure has the correct pedigree to give readers great content and hasn’t yet lost the edge in the market to the advent of the Internet and the decline of paper periodicals. Art direction comes from Larry W. Smith and he has secured a very intriguing Larry Elmore cover without title. To me, this Elmore holds a rather unique place because it looks to be a non-good adventuring party actually...

Read more →


Dragon #88: My very first glimpse at Dragon Magazine way back in 1984

Dragon Magazine Jeff Butler Jim Holloway Mark Nelson Roger Raupp TSR

Everyone has a ‘First Dragon’, and for me it was Dragon #88. Sure, I didn’t actually own it, as it was in the possession of a boy I didn’t get along with overly well, but he did sit across from me in art class and laid this issue on his desk one afternoon in middle-school. I was both amazed and intrigued by it, and when I actually got to flip through the pages I was blow away by the artwork I found [because of course at this time I had no idea how to actually play D&D] For that reason,...

Read more →