Getting back to posting about my collection of dragons, I thought I would start with a pair that I had gotten some time during the 1990s. They are a rather spectacular pair, to be sure.
Michael Whelan had established himself as a leading cover artist for many fantasy and science fiction book covers, starting in the 1970s. He quickly made an impact. When it came to dragons, he made his first splash with the cover of Anne McCaffery’s The White Dragon.
Aesthetically, however, I wasn’t wowed by his Pern dragons. They seemed heavy and clunky to me.
Then, several years later, I started seeing ads from Franklin Mint, featuring lovely sculpted dragons. And they turned out to be designed by Michael Whelan!
I was caught by a couple of them.
They weren’t inexpensive. But I was making a reasonable income, so I got the first one I wanted: the green one called the Guardian of Raging Water.
Not long after purchasing that dragon, I also bought a second one, the intense fiery-looking one called the Guardian of Fire.
I felt the pair made a nice contrast: water and fire. I happily did not turn into an obsessive collector who needed to buy the rest of the dragons in the series. Instead, the pair found their homes on my sideboard. (At the moment, sideboard and Whelan dragons are in storage, but I hope to release them in the not distant future.)
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