Product Description: For 30 years, Dragon magazine has published genre-defining fantasy masterpieces. This beautiful treasury features classic pieces by undisputed masters such as Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Jeff Easley, Wayne Reynolds, Brom, Todd Lockwood, Tony DiTerlizzi, Tim Hildebrandt, Daniel Horne, Denis Beauvais, Clyde Caldwell and more!
160 pages for 30 years of coolness? I jumped when I first saw this, mainly because covers and artwork inserts from the magazines adorned my bedroom and office when I was younger. Larry Elmore was my favorite at the time, but then Todd Lockwood came along and changed everything.
I for one agreed with another reviewer: Not enough sauce. Dragon was a staple of RPG fandom for 30 years, and I felt the collection was a little light. Several of my more favorite artists were scarcely mentioned, and I thought a lot more attention was paid to the more recent 3rd edition art than earlier works from the 80s and 90s. For God's sake, add another hundred pages and give it some meat!
Unexpected, and Highly Enjoyable for All Fans of Fantasy Art I've always been impressed with the high quality of the artwork in my D&D books - especially with the new generation of artists, like Wayne Reynolds and Todd Lockwood. The Art of Dragon Magazine holds to that standard.
A nice retrospective of 30 years of Dragon magazine cover and interior art, The Art of Dragon Magazine includes work from Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Brom, and many others, chronicling not only how D&D fantasy artwork has ebbed and flowed over the years, but how tastes and interpretations of classic characters have changed. Also, this book is chock-full of art. Neatly separated into broad categories (such as "magic" and "dragons") you'll find artistic interpretations of daring rogues, fiendish liches, gruff dwarves, and many other characters and settings that will fire your imagination. All of the art is well reproduced and clear - not blurry, and the book is put together well.
There are only two items that I feel keep this book from getting a five-star rating: first, it is too brief; while there is a large selection of art, one can't help but feel there are more gems out there (I hope a second collection is in the works!). Second, some of my favorite artists (most notably Todd Lockwood) are not as well-represented as I might have liked. Overall, however, fans of D&D, as well as fantasy art enthusiasts in general (including those who enjoy the annual Spectrum collections) will be pleased to add this to their libraries.
Good, but could be better. While many of the picures within are visually stunning, I felt they left out some of the best artwork in favor of some rather crude ones. All in all I'd say I liked about 30% of the artwork in the book, and I wish the other 70% could have been exchanged for better works I've seen in past issues of Dragon. Maybe there will be a volume 2.
Dragon Magazine I bought this as a gift and my wife was very pleased. She was a avid reader of Dragon magazine and loved the art!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
