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Apr 29

Year of the Demon

Good Show Sir Comments: Dragon Fail

Thanks to Ryan for sending this in!

Published 1984

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 6.20 out of 10)
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24 Responses to “Dragon Fall”

  1. Tor Mented Says:

    (Karloff voice:) I think I’ve created a mon-stair.

  2. MaxBathroom Says:

    The lad on the cover doesn’t seem to be wearing Lionels, so however did he win the flare competition?

  3. Tat Wood Says:

    @Max: that must be the plot – the dragons had been able to pass among us with the aid of Harry Hill shirt-collars, talon-obscuring Rupert Bear slacks and a hand-made waistcoat fashioned on the Ronco Flower Loom. This combination was so appalling that nobody looked at their faces but it was all over by 1979 (or, in America, 1983).

    In their bid to wrench us back to the Dark TImes, they’ve come to abduct Ali Campbell of UB40, which must be why the band stopped writing their own stuff and resorted to doing slightly naff Lover’s Rock covers of 70s songs.

  4. fred Says:

    I think it’s supposed to be Weird Science adjacent only with monsters instead of Kelly LeBrock. From his clothing I can’t decide which rock concert he’s returned from, but it probably wasn’t Black Sabbath.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/175744832336

  5. Ryan Says:

    Writing with a pencil on a carpet backing is going to be difficult enough, but that particular elbow-down posture will surely only make the task more challenging. To say nothing of the uncomfortable plastic shirt, someone firing a blue laser at his coiffure and the incoming horde of anthropomorphic demon-dragons.

    My guess is that his homework will be incomplete.

  6. Francis Boyle Says:

    Flare competition. Is that the one for the book with the cheesiest and most outdated cover art? Because I suspect that even in 1984 this was a worthy winner.

  7. Emster Says:

    Mom had already grounded him for damage to the rec room during the demon summoning incident (totally not his fault). He had better put an immediate kybosh on this game of “bannister tag” or he’d be sleeping out in the shed with the rest of them…

  8. Tor Mented Says:

    And he’s buy – yi -ying the stair-air way to
    drag … on.

  9. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Agreed that since no one on the cover is wearing bell-bottoms — nor holding a combustible light source found around car trouble — how could it win a flare contest?

    @Tat: They were over before 1983 here too. I had a friend with access to an industrial sewing machine who’d cut down and restitch her family’s and other people’s old bellbottoms to have a reasonable leg width. I certainly was in straight-leg jeans before then.

    @Ryan: Agreed about the improbability of his doing any writing, but there’s a small chance his hair is firing the laser.

    @Emster: Hee!

    @Tor: holds up lighter

  10. Verylstetotheparty Says:

    ‘No, it wasn’t the dog that ate my homework. I’m not exactly sure what ate it.’

  11. Bruce A Munro Says:

    When Airbnb goes terribly wrong.

  12. DaveM Says:

    @GSS ex-noob, While he isn’t wearing bell-bottoms, he’s definitely wearing flares (though slight ones). I can attest this by having lived through that era where style did not reign. The placement of his hand and the dragon things that appear to be erupting from his bottom I leave to others to explain…

  13. MaxBathroom Says:

    @DaveM
    My bad, then, I thought those were drainpipes not flares.

  14. fred Says:

    Avon books catalog. The horror…the horror.

    https://www.harpercollins.com/collections/avon-books

  15. Dr Bob Says:

    I misread the title as Dragon Fail.
    I blame the artwork for priming my subconscious to expect that title.

  16. B. Chiclitz Says:

    Every entity on this cover suffers from Buffalo Head Syndrome, and most of the other proportions are subtly off as well. That might explain the vertigo it induces. Either that or the kid’s really ugly pants.

  17. Bruce A Munro Says:

    “You need to do something about the toilet.”

  18. Tor Mented Says:

    What happen when dragon trip on stair?

  19. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @DaveM: Those aren’t wide enough at the bottom to be anything but drainpipe at most, as @Max said, and yet too wide to be stovepipe. He may be looking at them, trying to decide the proper description. Which he won’t be able to jot down, due to the position he’s in. But anyone who dresses like that in1983 to go to a rock (or even pop) concert isn’t concerned with fashion. The sleeves of his insanely-polyester shirt look beyond androgynous and into girly. Plus, he seems to be wearing white socks.

    How does he not hear an entire staircase of pointy-toed monsters descending upon him? Why aren’t they all leaping upon him at once instead of tippy-toeing down in single file?

    @Tor: Will happen; middle dragon leg over hand rail. THUD.

  20. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @GSS ex-noob: is he unaware? I interpreted his pose and expression as “Oh, great. It’s those monsters, again, isn’t it?”

    (Dragons, or monsters? Only the one in the middle really looks like a dragon, the bottom one looks like some sort of demon who’s wearing cutoff jeans, and the one on top seems to be wearing a suit. I get more a “Where the Wild Things Are” vibe than a “dragons” vibe.)

  21. MaxBathroom Says:

    “For crying out loud, Flare! The concert is starting soon and we’ll miss the support band if you don’t stop mithering with your homework and assume your true form right now. You can do that when we get back. Meatsuit off, along with those cords!”

  22. Tor Mented Says:

    What happen when dragon trip on stair?
    Dragon fall.

  23. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Tor M—GSS! And today’s laurel!

  24. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: So he’s doing the sedentary version of “cool guys walk away from explosions”?

    As I sort of said to @Tor and vice versa, the one actual dragon in the middle is going to justify the title, because it’s the only one with one leg over the handrail like a doofus. Dragon fall, dragon THUD.

    You’re entirely correct about the critters’ outfits. Taking into account @Max’s comment, it seems like they’re all cosplaying. It’s the most WTF combo of cosplay.

    I knew there was something familiar about the boy’s trousers, Just realized they look EXACTLY like a pair I owned at that time, which were polyester imitating velvet. And, as you all know, I’m a woman. So between that and the girly-shouldered blouse, I wonder. And I mostly used those trews for cosplay…

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