Jan 13
Tom Noir’s Ari Direction: Right, it’s called, “Chess With A Dragon.” Here’s my cover idea: there’s a bloke playing chess… wait for it… with a dragon. Tell me what I’m paying you people for again?!
Published 1988
Tom Noir’s Ari Direction: Right, it’s called, “Chess With A Dragon.” Here’s my cover idea: there’s a bloke playing chess… wait for it… with a dragon. Tell me what I’m paying you people for again?!
Published 1988
January 13th, 2012 at 9:18 am
Looks like the dragon’s already eaten the guy’s feet. That sucker’s dangerous!
January 13th, 2012 at 9:57 am
The dragon obviously has the advantage, how is its opponent supposed to pick up and move the larger pieces? Result? We’re doomed again.
January 13th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Ah and the great follow ups that came after:
Checkers with a minotaur
Yathzee with a yeti
and of course
Guess Who with a Hyper Intelligent race of Ferret People.
Who could forget such classics.
January 13th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Well, what would *you* suggest for a cover? 🙂 And at least it wasn’t some piece of generic on-spec dragon art cheaply composited with a photo of a chessboard.
January 13th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
30 years ago I’d’ve bought this based on this cover. Even if the human is footless. Seriously, that’s bizarre. Did no one look this over after the artist handed it in?
January 13th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
I think he should have made the dragon play with a chessboard that was to his scale. Then see how the dragon got on. ‘Oh dear you’ve knocked your king over. I take it you concede?’
January 13th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Editor: for the record I have never directed ‘Ari’ in my life!
Although certainly some of my best friends are Jewish.
January 13th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Looking at the cover text, the author also wrote the self-explanatory “Encounter at Far Point”…which, if memory serves, was about an encounter which took place at a far-off point called Far Point. I expect his autobiography to be titled some like, “David Gerrold’s Autobiography”.
Question: is that the dragon’s wing in a different shade of green at top left? Back cover, please?
January 13th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
I knew Roger Moore starred in lots of Bond films, but I don’t even remember this one.
January 13th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
That’s not his wing. There’s a sexy cat woman fanning him with a giant palm leaf off to the left.
OK, I made that up. Sadly I don’t own this book and can’t check the back cover.
January 13th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I think the idea is that he’s in some sort of holographic communication device, so his footlessness is due to the level of the chessboard being slightly above the level of his actual floor. The artist could have made this clearer by having a chess piece intersecting the guy’s leg or something, though.
January 13th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
The chess pieces look like old deactivated brass robots. Isn’t that Dot Matrix from Spaceballs?
January 13th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
If the C in SPECTRE stood for chess then I have an idea for the greatest James Bond movie ever. And that dome really should be a stadium filled with spectators.
January 13th, 2012 at 6:37 pm
He has got feet. You can see the back of his shoe on his forward leg; it looks like a black suede chukka, a strange contrast to his faded grey formal uniform. But his right leg is really, really short. Judging from the pants wrinkles on his left leg, the knee there is at a normal level, so it’s just his right leg.
The gold chess pieces look like robots clutching their heads in dismay.
January 13th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
I have to confess that I love this cover. The ridiculous juxtaposition of the monstrous dragon and the comparatively tiny human hero on a chess board is wonderful. It’s quite nice that the dragon has agreed to settle their differences with a board game rather than by, say, gobbling up the man in one bite. The sardonic expression on the dragon’s face suggests that he appreciates the irony.
This is likely the best cover a book called “Chess With A Dragon” could possibly have.
But would I take it on the bus? NO.
January 13th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
Now re-released under the title THE CHESS WITH A DRAGON TATTOO.
January 13th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
One wrong move and the human race will be clueless as how to win a game of chess with a dragon… forever?
January 13th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
I see what you mean, Alessandra, that the shoe’s going behind the chess piece. But the way the piece blocks it right at the edge of his pants, combined with the fact that his right leg looks really short if that’s his shoe (as you point out as well), made it look to me like the cuff of his pants rather than his shoe.
PS: A.R.Yngve at #16 wins the comments thread.
January 15th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
At least when he loses the man will be able to dress one of the pawns in his clothes and hide while the drag— you know what that’s just dumb. This cover is making me dumb.
Goodness knows what the book would do.
January 18th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Unbeknown to the human he didn’t realize that he was playing according to dragon rules, which state that anyone stepping on the board automatically becomes a pawn in the game…
January 24th, 2012 at 6:20 am
Should I admit I own this book with this cover? It’s an okay read. The wing on the front is actually in bright light. When you see the back cover it makes it clear that the underside of the dragon is darker. The back cover also shows two giant rats in hooded cloaks and a pair of over-sized praying mantises. For some reason they left out the ammonia slug creatures.
July 2nd, 2015 at 10:42 am
Why does that fellow even have a sword? In the event of a checkmate I doubt sticking a pin in a beast of that size will have much of an effect.
August 25th, 2015 at 3:50 am
I bet you if the dragon starts losing he’ll incinerate that guy. Seriously, don’t play chess with dragons as bad-tempered as that one looks.
August 25th, 2015 at 4:22 am
@Anna T: always let the dragon win.
July 9th, 2021 at 3:17 pm
“A game of chess? I’m on board.”
July 9th, 2021 at 3:57 pm
Artist must be a big fan of Gorgo. The first link is this cover, the second if it was BAEN.
https://culttvman.com/main/bob-schullers-gorgo/
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32950019606.html
July 10th, 2021 at 1:34 am
This — apart from the “Feet Are Hard To Draw” issue — is really okay.
Although I’m not keen on the title font.
July 10th, 2021 at 2:18 am
It’s a metaphor, you idiots! What are they paying you for?
July 10th, 2021 at 3:01 am
@Yamamanama :It’s a good thing the artist didn’t do the poster for “Man and Superman”, which would have featured a cubicle worker with an outsized coffee cup and Kal-El in the cape and tights, or “Grapes of Wrath”, which would be angry fruit.
July 10th, 2021 at 6:57 am
“Hhhisssss—fork you, human—hhhisssss”
July 10th, 2021 at 3:57 pm
@ Yamamanama: ♪ Doot doot-doot doot ♪
July 10th, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Never bet your species on a chess game, especially if you’re likely to put your back out moving the pieces.
July 10th, 2021 at 10:54 pm
BAKE-OFF WITH A DRAGON
Earth’s future depends on who can make the perfect soufflé in a cosmic kitchen battle…
July 11th, 2021 at 6:14 am
@Tor: “thanks” for the earworm.
@Bruce: HERNIA WITH A DRAGON.