DRAGON'S LAIR #1
© 2003 MVCreations/CrossGen

Mania Grade: C
Issue: 1
Authors: Andy Mangels, Fabio Laguna, Tony Washington
Publisher: MVCreations/CrossGen
Price: $2.95

Related Links

0

DRAGON'S LAIR #1

The great dragon Singe has captured the fair and plucky adventurer Princess Daphne, and it's up to Dirk the Daring, slayer of dragons, to rescue her from harm. But time is running out, as Singe has placed Daphne in the Bubble of Helotry, which will enslave her if she's not let out before the dawn of the next full moon - in two days. Can Dirk rescue the Princess? And can Daphne be saved before she becomes the dragon's plaything forever?

Those of us of a certain age remember DRAGON'S LAIR quite well: not only was it the first video game to use actual animation, done by none other than Don Bluth and company, it also used laser disc technology, something which at the time was completely revolutionary. It was also a hellishly expensive game at $1.00 a pop; it wasn't terribly forgiving of innovation - in other words, you had to play according to a pre-defined set of moves, for the most part; and it was way, way too easy to get killed in the very first screen. At least, those are my memories of it. My friends always said they got to highly advanced levels, but I suspect to this day that they were lying.

So my feelings about a comic based on DRAGON'S LAIR were mixed, to say the least - and sadly, they still are. The biggest problem is that the game itself was heavy on action and low on basic plot, as one would expect a video game should be, while a comic book should be a bit better balanced between the two. While this first issue manages to capture some feeling of the action of the game, it doesn't manage the exposition nearly as well, and almost gets bogged down in it. I don't remember DRAGON'S LAIR being a talky game, but it sure is a talky comic.

Just as unfortunately, the quirky visual humor of Bluth's animation doesn't translate all that well into dialogue - at least, not the dialogue that scriptwriter Andy Mangels is writing. Some of the witty repartee between Dirk and Daphne, for instance, just isn't all that witty - occasionally, it's downright confusing. And poor Singe seems to have some problems with English: "Why do you think, I, the Great Singe, wants revenge against you?" he snarls at Dirk at one point. Um, shouldn't that be, "Why do you think I, the Great Singe, want revenge against you?" Oh well, guess you can't expect decent English from a reptile - though you should be able to expect slightly better humor and dialogue. And why is it necessary to even hint that a strong female character other than the lead should be a lesbian (which seems to be a favorite trend in comics these days)? You'd think that such a plot element would never show up in this context, but it's pretty obvious that Leraene, the Captain of the Palace Guards, has more of an interest in helping Dirk rescue Daphne than simply ensuring her safety. If the none-too-subtle lesbian overtones are meant as a form of shorthand characterization, then they're too poorly executed, and if they're meant as a bit of humor, then it's not obvious or funny enough to work.

Thankfully, the artwork makes up for these problems, as Fabio Laguna, ably aided by colorist Tony Washington, has managed what may be the most faithful visual transcription of the Bluth Group's artistic style that has ever been printed. It's hard to say yet just how faithful Laguna's style will be to the actual game, as this first issue mostly sets up the narrative played out in the game, but he's pegged the two main characters perfectly. Even new creations such as the aforementioned Leraene and the "comic" character Halvern the wizard's apprentice look like they've leapt straight off a Bluth Group storyboard. The layouts are a tad bit too busy - there's a lot of exposition here to illustrate, after all - but the frenetic style closely mirrors in a static form what Bluth's films have always done in an animated form. In terms of the visuals, it's just what you'd hope from a comic adaptation of DRAGON'S LAIR. In terms of the scripting, however, it's a disappointment. Perhaps future issues will improve on this - after all, this quest has just begun. Lead on, adventurer...