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| Cover Illustration Once Upon a Time #63, 25 April 1970
(The full story of this cover illustration can be found here)
This week's post continues the fairytale theme I started with Fabulous Fairies on 22 July and includes a selection of Delightful Dragons. As before these wonderful illustrations were all taken from copies of Once Upon a Time magazine published between 1969 and 1973.
When I was very young I didn't want a puppy or a pony for a pet - I wanted a miniature dragon (possibly a wyvern) that would sit on my wrist like a falcon tethered with a fine gold chain. Unfortunately my mom never bought into the idea!
(More dragons can also be found in one of my earliest posts Here Be Dragons which contains the story of the Last Dragons illustrated by Ron Embleton.)
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| The Tiny Dragon |
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| The Tiny Dragon |
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| The Tiny Dragon |
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| A True Young Knight |
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| A True Young Knight |
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| The Gentle Dragon |
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| Hans and the Dragon |
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| Hans and the Dragon |
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| The Fiery Dragon |
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| Land of the Dragon |
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| Land of the Dragon |
And to finish this wonderfully elegant Chinese dragon. I love the golden colour.
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| The Dragon's Tooth
Many years ago I memorised this poem. I may not have it word perfect as it is a long time since I last saw it in print. If anyone recognises it and knows the name of the poet please leave a comment and let me know - I would love to be able to include a proper acknowledgement. I guess it goes without saying that King Arthur was one of my favourite childhood heroes.
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Cross Stitch Project
My cross stitch is progressing at quite a good pace. Most evenings I manage to get a bit done after I come home from work. There is a strange new mixed cross in the parts I'm working on now - white underneath and pale blue on top. It ends up at times looking like the stitch is incomplete but these mixed stitches are a very clever way of getting the colours to blend in.
Copy Cat Couple
I always used to wonder what bothered me about this picture when I looked at it before. When I was choosing the illustrations for this post it struck me - I realised the prince in this story called The Fiery Dragon (1971) is almost identical to the well known depiction of the prince in Beauty and the Beast (1969) by Ron Embleton. I didn't realise until I put these illustrations side by side that the female figures are essentially the same as well. (Apologies that the quality of the Embleton picture shown here is not very good.) The Fiery Dragon appears to be the work of Jose Ortiz. As both artists contributed extensively to Once Upon a Time I can only assume that Ron Embleton knew his earlier work was being copied and it was done with his blessing. (Imitation is after all the greatest form of flattery.)
This illustrations was previously included in my post of Handsome Heroes .
2 comments:
I love that dragon book and that poem was great wow to remember that all this time.I must get back into my cross stitch I should do a cross stitch along with you that may motivate me and now I have my glasses I may be able to see it better.xxx
I've never thought dragons were particularly scary either...they're usually rather sweet and charming in fairy tales and helpful, they're nearly always helpful...
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