Apr 29
Zycrow’s Art Direction: No. Dragons are overused. Draw something else. You have one second.
Published 1974
Today the swans fight back against a monarchy who ate them for so long!
Have a great bank holiday weekend!
Zycrow’s Art Direction: No. Dragons are overused. Draw something else. You have one second.
Published 1974
Today the swans fight back against a monarchy who ate them for so long!
Have a great bank holiday weekend!
April 29th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Hey, swans are no laughing matter…they’re nasty critters! They bite!
April 29th, 2011 at 9:57 am
“Fight, men! Fight for the Giant Fire-breathing Swan!”
“Nah, we’d rather fight for the Giant Fire-Breathing Chicken. It can barbecue itself for us!”
April 29th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Makes me wonder how good armor made from the feathers of a giant fire breathing swan would be. Nigh impregnable probably.
April 29th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Swan with heartburn swims past Joan of Arc on horseback carrying a flag showing a swan with heartburn. What’s not to like?
April 29th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
What would have put this cover over the top for me is if the fire breathing swan on the banner had another banner behind it with a fire breathing swan on it with another banner behind it featuring a fire breathing swan and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY.
April 29th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
“And that’s why halitosis was often called ‘swan breath’. Better not ask why we call that other affliction ‘Merlin’s Ring’.”
April 29th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
“Epic fantasy that spans the centuries between the loss of Atlantis and 1500 A.D.”
So that would be precisely when?
Or how about, “Epic fantasy that spans the centuries between the loss of Atlantis and 8:15 am on April 3, 1503.”
April 29th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Guys.. you’ve got it all wrong. That’s not fire! It’s a magical act swan. He’ll pull endless amounts of coloured napkins from its mouth one after each other.
Haven’t you heard of Englands great magician, Swan Daniels?
April 29th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
The Giant Fire-Breathing Random Animal Bubble burst in 1975, causing great losses and many ulcers in the publishing industry.
Not many remember today what caused the speculative bubble to burst: the cover to the novel MERLIN’S BASEBALL CAP, showing a giant fire-breathing rabbit.
April 29th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Incidentally, I purchased this book on account of having read H. Warner Munn’s sequel to it, “The Ship From Atlantis.” It was part of an Ace Double. Just how amazing this cover was didn’t strike me until I had it for a while…and, incidentally, I still have not read it.
April 30th, 2011 at 12:21 am
One of my earliest memories is being attacked by a swan as a two-year-old visiting Sea World in San Diego. I am glad it was saving its breath weapon for more formidable opponents.
April 30th, 2011 at 6:26 am
Dragon-Swans must important if they put one on the flag.
April 30th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
And the back cover? Michael Flanders on the piano.
April 30th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Sometimes my jokes are too obscure even for me!
May 3rd, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Wow, I remember that book when it came out. Think I actually read it too.
May 4th, 2011 at 12:48 am
But can the HORSE breath fire?
May 4th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
>>
That pun was awful. I gnuash my teeth at you!
January 12th, 2014 at 5:28 pm
Art direction: We need a way to demonstrate our heroine is assertive and capable, able to survive in a man’s world…and at the same time is undoubtedly a woman. I know! We’ll combine a traditional feminine symbol with a traditionally masculine symbol. Like a graceful bird with a powerful, fire-breathing dragon…
(Parenthetically, ‘Merlin’s Ring’ can be rearranged to spell ‘Lens Rim Grin’ or ‘Girl’s Inn REM’, but not a whale of a lot else.)
January 13th, 2014 at 9:02 am
It’s the caption at the very top that catches my attention:
“Ballantine Fantasy 24010.”
Fantasy set in the Year 24010 — now that I’d like to read.
January 13th, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Fire? Looks to me like that swan is being violently sick.
January 15th, 2016 at 11:03 am
*RRRINNG*
“Hello?”
“It’s Merlin.”
“What’s up?”
“Nuthin’.
“OK.”
“Bye then.”
“Bye.”
*CLICK*
February 13th, 2016 at 8:38 pm
Is this ‘Halitosis of the swan’? by some pretender to E.B. White’s throne?