Slowing it down this week with some Dragon Magazines. First up, Dragon Magazine 11, from December 1977, currently the oldest in my collection.

I can’t find anything on the artist, Elrohir (his nom de plume is the name of one of Elrond’s sons, and thus, any info on the artist is entirely buried by Tolkien stuff on the Google machine). It’s sort of a weird cover, but I think it mostly speaks for itself. I dig it.

The issue is the usual weird assortment of stuff you see in early Dragons. Of particular note is Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story “Sea Magic,” and of particular note of the particular note is that sweet illustration of the shark witch. I guess she’s a real…man-eater (no, I will not apologize for that terrible joke).

Tom Wham’s second board game insert also appears in this issue: Snit’s Revenge, a sequel to Snit Smashing, which appeared in the prior issue. Wham (who illustrated the Beholder in the Monster Manual) would go on to design a number of board games, including Awful Green Things From Outer Space, which also appeared in Dragon Magazine (number 28).

There’s also a sweet two page spread/advertisement thing for some miniatures and the back cover is a Dave Trampier illustrated holiday greeting to the readership.

I usually find very old Dragons to be pretty anemic once you get past the cover but this one is pretty packed!