Comic Review : THE REASON FOR DRAGONS

The Reason for Dragons starts as a story of traditional opposites and conflicts. Wendell, the sensitive, bookish, teenager, has a disagreement with Ted, the biker stepdad. Wendell storms out of the garage and plows into another confrontation, this time with school bullies that dare him to enter the haunted Renaissance fairgrounds, King Henry’s Old Faire. Wendell meets there a Sir Habersham, whose duty is to slay a fire breathing dragon. As the setting is the United States in the 1980s, a time and place in which dragons are not believed to exist, on the face of it the good knight seems to be a fruitcake, and Wendell soon dubs him Sir Crazypants. However, when the dragon emerges, Wendell witnesses the age-old battle of knight and dragon, and learns how a man faces his fears as well,

The Reason for Dragons is yet another well-crafted fantasy tale on the Archaia bookshelf. It will resonate well with its audience, many of which, like Wendell, would prefer reading to almost anything else. The dialogue and characters are a little time-worn, to the point that these are archetypes we have seen before. For example, Ted wants Wendell to stop daydreaming and live in the real world, which is advice given from parents and parent stand-ins throughout fantasy literature, such as Owen and Beru Skywalker. Great poets steal, it is said, and Chris Northrop’s story hits all the harder for borrowing from these archetypes. The time-worn nature of the story helps it hit nostalgic notes, almost as if we are remembering it rather than reading it for the first time. Jeff Stokely’s art is also reminiscent of other fantasy comics art, calling to mind the “cartoon realism” of Jeff Smith’s Bone.

In addition to being a well-crafted story, the book itself is of the artisan-like quality that we have come to expect from Archaia. The hardback is an attractive addition to your bookshelf with, in addition to the graphic novella, a brochure mock-up for King Henry’s Old Faire, five short stories that further develop the themes of The Reason for Dragons, and several pin-up and sketch pages. It was released in comic shops on July 24th, and comes out in quality bookstores on August 6th. It is also available to order on Amazon.