I found an obscure illustration of a dragon by Larry Elmore in a 1982 TSR-licensed product that is clearly in the vein of the Sutherland Red Dragon ---
https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2018/11/elmores-take-on-sutherland-dragon.html
https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2018/11/elmores-take-on-sutherland-dragon.html
Never seen that one before. Usually TSR recycled art to death.
ReplyDeleteWayne's Books Yes, I'm really surprised this wasn't used anywhere else. It looks just like it could be in one of the Mentzer Basic books.
ReplyDeleteIn the blog comments, John L. pointed out another example of this style of dragon, from the title page of the Moldvay Basic Set (1981). Definitely a Red Dragon, as it is breathing fire. The most telling detail is the cheek "whiskers".
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And the dragon's pose here is even similar to the one in Elmore's.
ReplyDelete"Cheek whiskers" may have also got a jump-start via Rankin & Bass's Smaug circa 1976
ReplyDeleteThe tentacle-ly ones do seem rather distinct though.
ReplyDeleteI did consider that but I believe the Hobbit first aired Thanksgiving weekend in 1977, so four months or so after Holmes was released
ReplyDeleteGreat finds! All 3 dragons share the "uni" brow ridge, also!
ReplyDeleteYes, the scaly unibrow! Guess who else has this? Tiamat's Red Dragon head from the D&D cartoon. She has the triple whiskers too, although they are hairy here, more like Smaug in the D&D cartoon.
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/X1VdfEpsw8evCtKW-vHEx8DrzDTPHtq9fxWbm3QJPe9HQhTm-sNdtHpmRKCxajkttdpKJEvFYag4u3YxbcvKvXhI8tMZz6h27So=s0