If you missed the last one…
Like humorous dragons? You can’t do any better than T. Neil Thomas’ The Masterless Assassin , which features a “Dracon” seen on the cover. The adventures of Tin the necromancer have been called “a rollicking adventure”. This is the sequel to The Masterless Apprentice. The trilogy will end in 2025 with Masterless Apex.
I have written a little on Dragon Stories in the different ages of comics including the Golden and Silver Age Dragons of Krypton, the Bronze Age’s 1970s and 1980s. There was even Beowulf and Siegfried Comics and the mini-series of Dragonsword. During these I skipped the Archie Comics knowing they had enough dragons for their own post. Archie, like many humor comics, can jump to any time to play out their familiar tropes. Archie as a caveman has been done. Jughead as a private detective, cowboy, space captain or barbarian, etc. The schtick is transferable to any scenario just like when Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis had comics. Monster chasing one day, off on a rocket ship the next. It is part of the reason why Archie, who first appeared eighty-three years ago in Pep Comics #22, December 1941 is still producing new comics today.
The writers at Archie Comics tried this first with a comic dedicated to Judghead’s imaginary life called Jughead’s Fantasy. It only ran three issues with knights and dragons, private detectives and superheroes. This comic set the pattern for much of what would follow. The types of dragons and scenarios will vary in the Silver Age with some tales set in the past while others happen in Archie and Jughead’s usual school-dominated life. It is only as the comics made it to the Bronze Age that we see Sword & Sorcery style adventures that will eventually lead to Archie the Barbarian (next post).
The Silver Age
“Sir Jugalot and the Dragon” (Jughead’s Fantasy #1, August 1960) was written by Sy Reit. Jughead is babysitting Little Melvin Mudge. Juggy reads him a book about King Arthur and dragons at bedtime and gets hooked. He keeps reading but falls into a dream where all the regular cast are characters in an Arthurian romance: Mr. Weatherbee is Merlin, Mr. Lodge is Arthur, etc. Jughead is thrown in jail where he meets Sir Archibald, who is in love with Princess Veronica. Jughead is dubbed Sir Jugalot and sent to kill a dragon. He is chased up an apple tree by the monster. Juggy throws two apples at him, plugging his nostrils. The dragon almost explodes, knocking it out. He leads the monster back to the king, who says he shall marry the princess. Jughead panics, and helps Archie and Veronica to escape on the dragon now named Melvin. Jughead wakes up because Melvin’s parents have arrived home. Mr. Mudge finds an object that looks like a dragon tooth. Jughead runs out of the house, screaming.
The idea of a dream story of this sort is not new, not even to Silver Age comics. The dragon, Melvin, is drawn with a very large belly far from Disney’s The Reluctant Dragon as so many old comics did. Jughead’s dragon is meaner looking.
“Myth America” (Archie’s Pal Jughead #80, January 1962) was written by an unknown author. Jughead gets a small dragon from an uncle in South America. He names it Myth America. The beast burns Reggie’s backside when he calls him a “freak alligator”. The creature also burns Professor Flutesnoot, who tells Mr. Weathrbee. The principal doesn’t believe him but looks into it. He finds Jughead cooking in the kitchen. What he doesn’t realize is the dragon is in the oven making the heat. The story ends there.
This miniature dragon resembles a T. rex but has flame breath. He looks like Godzilla in miniature at times. That character was created in 1954 so the resemblance may have been partially intentional.
The Bronze Age
“Dragon of the Deep” (Life With Archie #188, December 1977) was written by an unknown author. This Scooby-Doo like adventure has the gang uncover a fraudulent water dragon. The dragon is more of a Loch Ness Monster with no legs or wings. It turns out to be a machine (of course).
“A Mad House Maddy” (Mad House Comics #123, February 1981) was written by an unknown author.
“Bagging the Dragon” (Madhouse Comics #130, October 1982) was written and drawn by Joe Edwards. This three pager did not feature the Archie gang but Sir Crumb of Bun. Crumb wants to find the dragon so he can marry the princess and get ten percent of the kingdom. The dragon has recently been kicked out of his house and the two join forces. The dragon gets a job of stoking the king’s furnace. Edwards’ dragon is cute but not Disney cute.
“The Flashlight Zone” (Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #95, June 1984) was written by Ed Berdej. This TV parody with Jughead in the Rod Serling role, has Archie travel back in time to the Middle Ages. He finds Reggie is king. King Reggie sends Archie to kill a dragon. He does this with a sword struck by lightning. Archie wakes up in his car. It has all been a dream, except he still has the sword. Again, not new for Fantasy and not even for comics. This comic was done a few years after a Dungeons & Dragons parody where Sir Reggie is very similar.
The Modern Age
“A Novel Idea” (Betty #96, April 2001) was written by Kathleen Webb. This comic features Betty trying to decide which genre she wants to write a novel in. One page is given over to Fantasy and dragons.
“A Knight to Remember” (Archie #546, May 2004) was written by George Gladir. The next two stories feature the Archie gang in a Medieval setting but do it without the use of a dream. By 2004, Archie Comic readers are so familiar with the genre jumping within the comic that no frame is needed. Archie and Jughead are in jail. To get out they are offered Knight School, to become knights. They fail horribly at archery, jousting and the final test, rescuing a damsel from a dragon. Archie defeats the beast with his music. He is offered a knighthood but turns it down. He gets all the chicks as a bard.
“Dragons Are a Drag!” (Archie & Friends #91, July 2005) was written by George Gladir. Archie and his band of minstrels get a gig playing for Lady Veronica. At the party, she is attacked by a dragon but Sir Reggie tries to kill it. He gets his butt burnt like all the other characters in these comics. Archie and his band scare the dragon with their music, causing it to run into a wall, knocking itself out. Reggie claims the victory. Archie doesn’t care because he gets the groupies. Stan Goldberg drew these later comics. His dragons don’t usually have wings and look a lot like giant lizards.
Conclusion
The Dragons of Archie are a varied bunch with several portal fantasies with characters going into dreams with dragons. Most of the monsters are of the animal level without any real personality. There are exceptions, of course. The focus is always on the human characters with the dragons offering dangerous adventure. There are two more dragons coming up in our next post when we look at Sword & Sorcery tales in the Complete Archie the Barbarian!
Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books
