The first appearance of the cavalier character class in issue #72 of Dragon (April 1983) is something I remember very acutely, in large part because I loved the idea of a knightly AD&D character class. For that reason, I can also remember the three illustrations, all by Keith Parkinson, that accompanied it. Here's the first one, which has a blue background for some reason. Perhaps Dragon was experimenting with color interiors at the time?
Here's the second illustration, featuring what appears to be the same cavalier, possibly fighting kobolds. I say "appears," because the cavalier in this piece holds his sword in his right hand, whereas the one above holds it in his left. At first, I thought that maybe one or the other images had been reversed by accident – this happens a lot in publications – but Parkinson's signature looks correct in both of them, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe the cavalier is ambidextrous?
Finally, we get this depiction of a female elven cavalier astride a unicorn. One of the cavalier's abilities is horsemanship. As he levels, the cavalier gains greater skill with his mount, as well as a wider range of possible beasts he can ride. In the case of female elves, unicorns become a mount option for them starting at 4th level, which is cool, I suppose. On the other hand, I'm an obnoxious purist about unicorns. To my mind, they're not just white horse with horns but hybrid creatures with aspects of horses, deer, goats, and lions, so I'm not especially keen about this particular unicorn, but whatever. I still remember this piece more than four decades later, so I guess that's what counts.
I like Parkinson's work well enough, though I'm heavily influenced in this by his golden age CCG Guardians, which I have always had a huge crush on. :-)
ReplyDeleteI never really dealt with mounted combat in any of my D&D games; if my players had horses, I treated them basically as a movement speed buff with an upkeep cost. Probably just because I'm garbage, but I had a difficult time of even understanding how mounted combat should work.
Parkinson is likely my favorite D&D artist of the TSR Silver Age
ReplyDeleteThe Dragon magazine art in articles that were later collected in Monster Manual II, World of Greyhawk boxed set, and Unearthed Arcana is much better than the art in the products.
ReplyDeleteCompare the three cavalier pieces shared by James with the cavalier art in Unearthed Arcana. Compare Dragon's art of devas and fungoid monsters with that in Monster Manual II. Compare Dragon's art of the Greyhawk deities with the absence of art in the World of Greyhawk boxed set. It's weird that the magazine stuff is so much better than the finished products.
I completely agree...I wonder if it was some licensing issue, maybe also why the Dragon Magazine Archive was never re-released?
DeleteI love his similar gamma world illustrations
ReplyDeleteYour comment about unicorns made me think of the opening of Peter Beagle's classic novel, The Last Unicorn:
ReplyDelete"She did not look anything like a horned horse, as unicorns are often pictured, being smaller and cloven-hoofed, and possessing that oldest, wildest grace that horses have never had, that deer have only in a shy, thin imitation and goats in dancing mockery. Her neck was long and slender, making her head seem smaller than it was, and the mane that fell almost to the middle of her back was as soft as dandelion fluff and as fine as cirrus. She had pointed ears and thin legs, with feathers of white hair at the ankles; and the long horn above her eyes shone and shivered with its own seashell light even in the deepest midnight. She had killed dragons with it, and healed a king whose poisoned wound would not close, and knocked down ripe chestnuts for bear cubs."
The cavalier's shield design is flipped between the two illustrations, which suggests that one of them (probably the mounted one, as it is more "directional") was deliberately reversed, and then the signature adjusted.
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