News — Dragon Magazine

The first thing that strikes me about Dragon #67 is the cover, which is a bit of a divergence from the standard stuff people were growing used to from Dragon.  Instead of the basic adventure fantasy and S&S images, we are greeted with a fantasy dinner party complete with sword-wielding Viking slicing a turkey down the center.   What exactly does this mean?  I guess you’d have to ask the artist, Jack Crane, or perhaps the Kim Mohan who was the Editor-in-Chief.  Whatever the case, I’ll accept it for face value, a bit of old school tongue-in-cheek humor for the...

Now, I think each of you know that Dragon Magazine had certain ‘ages’, meaning that there are plateaus of greatness involved in the magazine.  First and foremost, you had the inception issues, the first two dozen that helped define a budding RPG industry, and afterward, from issue 25-100, you had what could arguably be considered the Golden Age of Dragon, where the magazine was nearing the pinnacle of everything it could be and TSR ruled over the RPG universe. Today’s issue hits within the wheelhouse of the Golden Age, as Dragon #89 is an absolute masterwork.  I mean, if you...

I feel like, as I do a Dragon Magazine review each week, I’m getting too late in the magazine’s run for the bulk of my readers to remember them, as though, sometime around 1990, everyone stopped reading Dragon.  In truth, that is probably very true, but nonetheless, I’ll keep reviewing whatever random issue I pull out of my collection each week. This week brings Dragon #173 from September 1991.  It is a Dark Sun dedicated issue and therefore is chocked full of both Brom and Tom Baxa artwork.  Edited by Roger E. Moore, the top articles in this particular volume...

Today I’m taking a look at Dragon Magazine #167 from March 1991.  The volume was edited by Roger E. Moore and art directed by Larry W. Smith. First off, I’m going to go over content.  The issue doesn’t have a specifically central theme, which is usually something I enjoy.  That lack of cohesion makes the issue seem fragmented and random, and the art layout does nothing to help with this. Articles of interest include an intriguing piece for Oriental Adventures called ‘Lords of the Warring States’ by Thomas Kane.  Odd, since TSR was two full years into the release of...

To be honest, I’m not completely ‘taken’ with Dragon Magazine #147.  Sure, it provides one of artist Clyde Caldwell’s trademark half-naked women, and she’s as lovely as can be expected, but somewhere along the way the issue tends to get lost and never recovers. Brought out in July 1989, I’m initially caught by the fact that for me the advertising seems ‘off’.  Now granted, my memory of the events of 1989 are a tad foggy by this point, but to feature an advertisement on the inside cover for the ‘All new 2nd Edition DMG’ that is available in June confuses...