Comments on: Retroview: Black Dragon

By: William Petree

William Petree — Tue, 18 May 2010 01:07:43 +0000

I’m not sure if this will even reach you, or if you even remember your critique, but I must show my appreciation for your coverage of this work. Something made me think of this the other night, why I have no idea. I couldn’t even remember the proper name of the comic. What I couldn’t forget was the way the story line became so dark, with the main knight and a maiden being bewitched and turning into dragons after much horniness. I was eleven when it came out, and after being completely mortified, I then felt a sort of possessiveness towards The Black Knight, a secret between the author, the artist, and myself. I really dug the gritty luminosity of the art, and the word balloons were no worse than those of Prince Valiant.

By: The Imp

The Imp — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:09:01 +0000

Now I wanna read it again. Unfortunately, my copies burned up in a car fire a few years back. (Don’t ask.)

Maybe I’ll take a jaunt over to Amazon and see if anyone’s selling…

By: Jeff Hebert

Jeff Hebert — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:08:43 +0000

Thanks for the input, Imp, I’m very glad to hear from someone who read it when it came out. I do get the sense that it had to be appreciated in its time to come across as well as it needs to. Maybe it’s just that 20 years of development have come through that makes me a bit askew on this one.

By: The Imp

The Imp — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:58:01 +0000

While I agree with you in some respects, especially the poor layout of the word bubbles, overall I’ve got to disagree. I was 13 when this series came out, and it was actually one of the first comics that I eagerly awaited for every issue to hit the stands (the first was Moore’s Swamp Thing).

Maybe it’s just because it was a breath of fresh air in a market that seemed to think Conan was the end-all and be-all of the fantasy comic genre, and maybe it wasn’t actually all that special, but it left an idelible mark on me. Black Dragon was one of the formative influences of my teen years, and I can still see glimpses of its power influencing my own work today.

And come on, ya gotta love those undead nuns…