The dragon of Western culture was a chimera of parts with the body of a crocodile, the wings of a bat and the neck and head of snake. Usually it could breath fire. A good, strong knight like St. George was required to take care of this beast that rampaged across the country eating people.
Dragons are always fun, but they most often show up in Sword & Sorcery comics. Conan. Claw. Beowulf. Brak. The Warlord, you get the idea. I have not included any of these comics here. I also didn’t include the Flame-Dragon from Krypton from the Superman franchise. You can find them here. There was one story I skipped for that post. It is here. Science fiction and superheroes gave us the Space Dragon. You will also find no dinosaurs here. No T. rexes frozen in the Arctic to rise up and devour commuters. For the history of the dino, go here.
Most of the writers and artists of these stories are unknown. Those that are known have been indicated.
Golden Age
“The Dragon-Raiders of Atzla” (Planet Comics #29, March 1944) features two space heroes from this comic. Both Flint Baker and Reef Ryan started out in their own strips. For more on Planet Comics heroes, go here. Flint and Reef get a message that Professor Legong has been stranded on the legendary planet of Atzla. Using his directions, they go there and are attacked by winged space dragons. These are the mounts of the green-skinned Dragon Men.
“Captain Marvel and the Space Dragon” (Captain Marvel Adventures #104, January 1950) has Bozo Smith warn the Big Red Cheese that space eggs are headed for Earth. Cap flies out as the egg hatches. He evades the space dragon long enough to get earthly bombs and blow it up.
“The Merry Monster” (Super Duck #34, October 1950) begins when Super Duck decides to get rich by prospecting uranium. Instead of rocks, he finds a dragon that chases him around his camp then follows him home. He realizes later he lost a fortune when the dragon is sold to the circus for a million bucks.
“The Dragon From King Arthur’s Court” (Superman #86, January 1954) was written by Bill Woolfolk. During a reenactment of Medieval times, a real dragon shows up. Superman defeats the beast using knightly skills. The monster is discovered to have been frozen in an iceberg. I guess I was wrong. We do have prehistoric beasts frozen through time. But it’s not a dinosaur!
“Two Knights in a Daze” (Abbott & Costello Comics #29, March 1955) has Bud and Lou working as milkmen. Lou falls asleep and dreams of them being knights in the olden days. They have a number mishaps including an encounter with a dragon. The real threat is the unattractive girl seeking marriage. (Ick.)
Silver Age
“I Found Rro…The Thing From the Bottomless Pit” (Journey Into Mystery #58, May 1960) has a man hired for the excavation of a new building looking into what is causing the structure to fail. He finds Rro, a dragon, in the ground beneath the site. Rro goes on a rampage but is killed by the army and their atomic cannon. The dragon causing structural issues is an old idea that dates back to Merlin’s origin story.
“Nothing Can Save Us!” (Tales of Suspense #29, May 1962) was written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Men stranded on an alien world are threatened by a space dragon and then an asteroid that will crash into their planet. They are saved when the dragon destroys the falling rock with its fiery breath.
“The Fired-Up Dragon” (The Friendly Ghost, Casper #73, September 1964) has Casper helping his friend, Jasper, a knight, trying to win the king’s daughter’s hand. They come across a dragon. Jasper decides to capture it to impress the princess. Later, when they meet, Jasper sees that the princess is ugly (that always means they’re fat!) He escapes marriage just like Lou Costello. Man, I hate this trope!
“Hot Problem” (Devil Kids Starring Hot Stuff #32, September 1967) is a two-parter that has Hot Stuff stuck with a cute baby dragon when the egg hatches and the baby mistakes him for his mama. The real mother solves the problem for him at the end. It should be no surprise that there are dragons in Casper, Hot Stuff and Wendy’s world. For more on The Land of Harvey, go here.
“The Sleeping Dragon” (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #20, December 1967) starts with Helen and Dirk going to Kimo Mountain, the last resting place of the Sumbra Dragon. They climb the mountain and find a perfectly preserved beast there. Only it isn’t preserved, it’s sleeping. It wakes up and chases them. Dirk destroys it by causing an avalanche.
“The Braggin’ Dragon” (Text story) (Hot Stuff Sizzlers #35, November 1968) has Hot Stuff taking on Dreadful Dragon. The beat turns out to be Cedric Skunk in an elaborate disguise.
Bronze Age
“Dragon Eggs” (Spooky #123, April 1971) has the Three Witches sending Wendy out for dragon eggs. She goes to a dragon who gives her some old eggs. In return, Wendy fixes the dragon’s fire because it has gone out. After a few issues, Wendy gets the eggs home but they hatch! How will they get dragon eggs for the brew? Wendy points out that if they wait until the babies grow up, they can have all the eggs they want.
“Hot Stuff Hatches an Egg” (Hot Stuff the Little Devil #110, May 1972) has Hot Stuff speed up the hatching process.
“Flight of the Dragon” Part 1-3, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #392-394, May-July 1973) is a three-parter with Mickey and Minnie finding a dragon egg at the beach. They take it to Professor Duddley. (Dudley the Dragon fans are nodding their heads. yes….) The baby escapes and goes on an eating frenzy when more eggs show up on parachutes. (Shades of Captain Marvel thirty years later! Space eggs!)
The professor explains that throughout history dragon eggs have appeared this way when the Earth’s orbit intersects with a mysterious planetoid. Mickey goes to Gyro Gearloose to borrow a spaceship to take the dragon and the eggs to the other planet. This proves to be a giant nest with a mother dragon sitting on it. All the babies and their mom are reunited.
The dragon and her babies hole up in Dragon’s Cave until Mickey shows up in a suit of armor on a horse and frightens them off the planet. What a strange mix of Fantasy & Science Fiction elements! For me what makes this most interesting is the design of the dragon. The dragons look like the Reluctant Dragon from that Disney cartoon.
Conclusion
These four color dragons are a mixed bunch, crossing four decades and three ages of comics. The Space Dragon begins in the Golden Age mostly as a supervillain. Marvel and Gold Key used them in their “Mystery” (that means Horror, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone) comics in the Silver Age. By the Bronze Age, these beasts are a standard fantasy element. (I haven’t included all the Sword & Sorcery dragons from this time, so they aren’t all cute.)
The dragon really is one of the greatest opponents for the hero. It has all the advantages: flight, fire, thick skin and a cunning mind. It isn’t hard to see why the Beowulf poet used one back in the 6th Century. It isn’t hard to see why Tolkien had one in The Hobbit. (And Farmer Giles of Ham!) It isn’t hard to see why Kenneth Grahame wanted a friendly dragon for his classic “The Reluctant Dragon” (1898). Who wouldn’t want a pal that was scaly and breathed fire? Dragons have been with us for a long time and they aren’t going anywhere.
