Strange Dragons
Someone on Tumblr recently shared this illustration with me: Kinuko Y. Craft's 1990 cover art for The Malacia Tapestry, by Brian Aldiss (and posted on Tumblr by sweathome).
I'm sorry to say that I had to look a second time before I noticed the creature hidden within the town!
That illustration strongly reminds me of this delightful one by James Gurney, of Dinotopia fame.
It's a study that he did for his Dec 1984 cover to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, to illustrate "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule," a novelette by Lucius Shepard.
The final magazine cover is very similar, although it adds a cool staircase or aquaduct along the side.
Much as I'd love to do a "dragons merged with cities" post, this is no Giant Teeth – there just isn't enough art. Instead, let's look at the range of odd and offbeat dragons in speculative fiction: Stylish creatures designs or strange situations that go beyond the standard fantasy mold.
By way of example, there's "Lord of the Dragon" by Max Henkle, a 1995 poster from Meiklejohn Graphics that's an obvious M. C. Escher homage, but with a dragon literally crammed in.
Like any good 90s poster, this thing is packed with details, all of which might draw your extended attention, yet none of which will make a lot of sense.
Speaking of Escher and dragons, here's a 1970s-era blacklight version of M. C. Escher's "Dragon."
The original wood engraving print from 1952 was part of a series of "objects of ambiguous dimension."
This one's a dragon committing a train robbery. OldSchoolFRP has the citation: "Benoît Dufour, from AD&D scenario “Pour un Petit Tour de Manège en Plus” by Vincent Laluque, Dragon Radieux #17, September 1988"
Doug Beekman’s 1989 cover to Another Round at the Spaceport Bar, features a passed-out dragon-like alien on the lower left. Don't miss the pool shark in the back, either.
So far, we've been looking at classic dragons in offbeat situations. But a lot of artists chose to boldly go where no dragon design has gone before.
I'm not even sure if the creatures on this 1970 cover illustration by Jack Guaghan are dragons or not, but the book was Dean R. Koontz's Soft Come the Dragons, so I'm choosing to believe they are.
If so, it's an eerie interpretation: They look like silent airborne stingrays with search lights for eyes.
Leave it to Philippe Caza to thread the needle between a classic dragon and something you'd expect to drag out of a deep-sea fishing net.
Bob Pepper is another Caza-level iconoclast, so it's cool to see his take on a dragon with his 1968 cover art for A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay – an early entry in Betty Balantine's series of fantasy novels launched in the wake of Lord of the Rings’s success in the late '60s.
To be honest, I don't think these next ones are dragons at all! Cover art to Dragon Magazine #40, by Dave Trampier.
John Schoenherr's dinosaur-like dragons marked the earliest depictions of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern world.
Schoenherr's son Ian has a letter that McCaffrey sent John Schoenherr praising his art: "You did me and my dragons real proud and I spent a half an hour drooling over the new black and whites and the cover."
You can read the whole thing here – I think her response to this interior illustration was pretty fun: "Oh, that sleeping dragon...the look on the face...I guess, it’s F’lar striding by...that is marvelous...because they are like that, you know. Yeah, you know."
I guess it's not a surprise that Dragon magazine covers would show up multiple times in this post: Here's a Den Beauvais cover from the October 1983 issue.
I featured a few Kenneth Smith illustrations in my 2023 art collection – I think he's an underappreciated fantasy artist working in a satisfyingly chunky, caricatured mode. It's reminicent of Richard Corben's style.
You can take a look at these dragon-like Richard Corben aliens and see if you agree:
Gilbert Williams has a dragon with a unicorn horn, done in his trademark pastels and soft-lit glow.
Patrick Woodroffe's depiction of a tiny family of cherry enthusiasts feels like a snapshot from a fantasy-world nature camera, thanks to thoughtful details like back-lit wing veins.
That skinny snout in this 1987 Alan Clarke illustration manages to capture a dinosaur vibe while still remaining identifiably dragon-y.
Boris Vallejo's illustration often gain a strange otherworldliness whenever he strays from depicting buff, half-nude men and women. Here, a dragon with throat frills sits alone in an airbrushed haze.
Rodney Matthews painted "The Revenge" as an album cover for Russell Allen and Jørn Lande, depicting a steampunk dragon battle.
Finally, let's wrap up on a just-slightly more traditional dragon illustration, and the best example in this post of the classic colors and naturalistic details that go into a great 1970s fantasy/sci-fi artwork.
It's postcard and poster illustration by Tim White, titled "Dragon Dance."
Cool Links
Your Guide to the Best Retro Science Fiction Art Collections
This is a guest post from yours truly, for Science Fiction Ruminations! It's a list of my favorite old-school science fiction art books and why each one is so great.
Here are the heaviest hitters, although there are more at the link:
- Ian Summers’ Tomorrow and Beyond (1978)
- Stewart Cowley’s Terran Trade Authority series (1978-1980)
- Vincent Di Fate’s Infinite Worlds (1997)
- David A. Hardy’s Visions of Space (1989)
- Bob Shaw and David A. Hardy’s Galactic Tours: Thomas Cook Out of This World Vacations (1981)
I hope you check out the whole thing! It's probably the most in-depth writing on the topic that I've published since my 2023 art book came out, and a great guide for any collectors with an eBay account.
Army Man: America's Only Magazine - Kaleb Horton
A quick ode to the little-known joke zine that ran from 1988 to 1990 and was staffed by Simpsons writers and Jack Handy.
Music rec: Blast Off into Outer Space 🪐 Retro-Futurism Synthwave - Sovietwave Music Mix
Next Time: Cool Spaceships