Screenshot from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad accessed at Where the Long Tail Ends here
[Commissioned by @glarnboudin. The dragon from 7th Voyage is referred to in Ray Harryhausen’s notes as Taro, even though the name is never spoken in the film. The name came from the tuatara, which inspired his design. This in turn inspired me to take it in the direction of an insular giant and a flightless drake, as there are plenty of giant reptiles and flightless birds on real world islands. It also inspired the adaptive defense ability. Tuataras, despite their morphological simplicity, have one of the fastest evolving genomes in the animal kingdom. Appearances can be deceptive.]
Drake, Island CR 13 LE Dragon This immense dragon has four legs and no wings, and a crest of low spines connected by skin running down the length of its back. Its tail ends in a triangular barb and its teeth include two prominent fangs. Ridged horns grow from its head.
Island drakes are massive drakes that have adapted to life on islands by becoming large and flightless. Whereas other drakes have to compete with true dragons and stay relatively small and mobile, island drakes have expanded to the role of apex predator, and rarely have to worry about true dragons. They have taken the adaptive nature of drakes to an extreme—they can become temporarily immune to energy damage, giving them an upper hand in fights if a dragon does come to attack them.
Although island drakes are just as malicious as most other drakes, they have more patient and orderly minds. This is taken advantage of by powerful sorcerers or monsters, and island drakes make better allies than a typical drake. The one exception to this are with cyclopes; island drakes hate all cyclopes with a passion and attempt to kill them on sight.
Few islands can support more than a single island drake, but the creatures can go without food for extended periods of time and survive on fruit, shellfish or other miscellaneous food items if large prey is unavailable. Island drakes may swim from island to island in search of food, treasure or mates. Island drakes lay a small clutch of large buoyant eggs into the ocean—these float like coconuts for potentially thousands of miles before coming ashore on a new island and hatching.
An island drake is about sixty feet long, standing around twenty feet high at the shoulder.
While I’m not a ‘Souls” style game fan (they’re just not my thing and I’ve tried), I have been eager to give Elden Ring a go. Given that my current pc is now 8 years old, that impulse will have to idle until this laptop is functionally a paperweight.
With that said, I came across this zoomed out and tilt-shifted version Elden Ring that’s reminiscent of isometric games like Baldur’s Gate, Planescape:Torment and Diablo (or more recent gaming fair like Disco Elysium). The low framerates involved give in game movement the impression of stop motion animation (think Ray Harryhausen or the Quay Brothers). The overall aesthetic affect is pleasing while highlighting the art and design elements. I dig what this person is doing here.
“Clash of the Titans” was one of the movies that got serious rotation in the early days of cable television. Largely a creation of Mr. Ray Harryhausen. Medusa (seen above) was one of the most horrifying scenes I can recall from my youth. Of course today it seems tame compared to Hollywood’s worst, but it is a masterful excersize in suspense.
This and many other monster icons can be found on the design weScare which is available as a t-shirt, poster or among 148 other icons of horror and fantasy on this limited edition screen print.
John Walsh’s ‘Harryhausen: The Lost Movies’ features a treasure trove of never-before-seen artwork, sketches, photos and test footage from the archives of special-effects groundbreaker Ray Harryhausen.
Here’s five to watch on TCM for the week of Oct. 18, 2021:
1. The King and I (1956) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Wednesday, Oct. 20: A night of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals starts out with this film about an English governess (Deborah Kerr) who travels to Siam (modern Thailand) to be a teacher to the king’s many children. R&H’s glorious score (“Getting to Know You,” “Shall We Dance,” “Hello, Young Lovers”) is more than reason enough to watch, but there’s also sumptuous production values and an Oscar-winning performance from Yul Brynner.
3. Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1950) at midnight ET/9 pm PT Thursday night/Friday morning: 16 years before they teamed up for the “L.A. at Last” episode of I Love Lucy, star-of-the-month Lucille Ball and William Holden made this delightful comedy about a naive secretary who starts working for a bookmaking operation. Miss Grant Takes Richmond was one of the few films that allowed Lucille to do slapstick (she was coached by Buster Keaton for the film).
4. Jason and the Argonauts (1963) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Friday, Oct. 22: There’s no better way to spend a Friday night at the movies than with this fantasy film featuring stop-motion animation from the legendary Ray Harryhausen. Jason and the Argonauts is part of a night of films about the new Academy Museum in Los Angeles, so viewers will probably get a glimpse at some of Harryhausen’s models.
5. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT Sunday, Oct. 24: Director Robert Aldrich and stars Joan Crawford and Bette Davis teamed up for this horror flick that deconstructs the nature of stardom and the second-place status of older women in Hollywood. It’s also one heck of a thrill ride with scares aplenty.
From outer space comes the unprecedented menace of… stop-motion animation! With effects by Master Ray Harryhausen, we proudly present one of the greatest alien invasion films ever made; the flying saucer film to end all flying saucer flicks. Don’t even dare to put a teacup on one of these suckers! They’re weird, they’re massive, and they have our planet in their sights. Behold the awesome battle of… “Earth vs. The Flying Saucers!”
All October long, I’ll be posting monster drawings on my Tumblr page. Here we have Medusa from the Ray Harryhausen-produced Clash of the Titans. Man… that movie freaked me out so much when I was a kid. I couldn’t look at Medusa for fear of turning to stone. She just terrified me.
My pal, good ol’ Matt Talbot. I’m retumbling this series of illustrations because he is awesome.
![Marquee #17Little Shop of Horrors [USA 1986, Frank Oz]Director’s CutJason and the Argonauts [GB / US](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e738254845c26378f3287a6032713919/tumblr_okyjvfr8Dw1trk2zco1_1280.jpg "Marquee #17Little Shop of Horrors [USA 1986, Frank Oz]Director’s CutJason and the Argonauts [GB / US")
