News — Larry Elmore

There is always a vast wealth of behind the scenes stuff going on in each and every Dragon Magazine.  Seriously, if you take a look at the inner workings of Dragon, much like layers of sedimentation on an archaeological dig, you’ll find a wealth of information about the industry as a whole. Dragon #285 is a perfect example of this.  Published by Wizards of the Coast in July of 2001, it is a time-capsule of a dying era of art in the RPG industry. Art Directed by Peter Whitley, this magazine shows just what art was becoming before the full...

Dragon Magazine 108 truly fails to impress me on almost every level.  To me, this is an almost throw away issue, but nonetheless I’ll review it today for what little content inspires and also the lackluster artwork inside. Produced in April 1986, and unabashedly claiming to be an ‘April Fools’ on all those who don’t like April Fools this issue is truly a joke.  I mean nothing against Len Lakofka and his ‘Lemond’s Tiny Hut’ articles, but if you’ve got to lead with one, then you know the issue is in trouble.  Really, other than the Gamma World 3rd Edition...

There was a time when I fell in love with D&D… well, perhaps that’s not entirely true.  There were actually a dozen times I fell in love with D&D, but the time I fell in love with Aleena was the first time I fell romantically in love with D&D. For all you Grognards out there who remember the Red Box, I have to wonder if you fell in love with Aleena too, and if a part of you died with here in that first intro adventure penned by Frank Mentzer [curse you Frank, and curse you Larry Elmore for creating...

Again, I bring you my weekly Dragon review, this time with number 101.  The issue in question is one of those magazines I actually owned first-hand as a teen, and so I know it rather well, even if it doesn’t resonate with me.First, let me go a bit into content, but it came out in September 1985 and had an editorial note from Gary Gygax that has some incredibly interesting things in it.  Gary speaks first about a D&D movie that would come from DDEC, the entertainment arm of TSR that he’d been spearheading in Hollywood for a couple of...

When you go back this far, back to September 1982, it is nearly impossible as a lifelong gamer not to review the entire magazine and just stick to the artwork.  In this case, I’m going to have to give some more detail on the issue, because it is absolutely too good to pass up. It begins with an incredible article tag on the front cover called ‘Fantasy Football’!  I kid you not, 1982 and someone at TSR had trademarked the name before it spilled from the lips of every beer swilling NFL fan or bored office staffer in America.  But...