For years, up until early last year, I've had an inflatable wall Red Dragon head (from Jeff Smith's excellent Bone comic book / graphic novel series) hanging up at my store. The picture on the left is the only image I could find of Red Dragon (other than images from the comic) as I looked everywhere online for a photo of the inflatable version with no luck. Anyway, sadly my inflatable Red Dragon started losing air, so I took him home, put it in a tub of water, only found one hole (which I taped up), but it was still losing air so he had to go to a landfill. Everyone loved the inflatable Red Dragon, even though some people who haven't read Bone would think it was a moose instead of a dragon (and I can see how they'd think that). No one loved the inflatable Red Dragon more than Julian (he's probably five or six years old), who's the son of Barney (a long time customer here at my store and a really great guy - but that probably describes all of my customers, except that they aren't all guys). Anyway, I didn't know how much Julian really liked Red Dragon until I no longer had the inflatable Red Dragon hanging at the store. Since Red Dragon has been gone, every time Julian comes into the store with his dad, he asks "where is Red Dragon?" and I just tell him that he's at my house because he's "sick".
Today Julian was at my store with his father, Barney, and asked me if Red Dragon was still sick and I told him yes he was. When Julian wasn't in earshot, I told his father the real reason I no longer have the inflatable Red Dragon at my store so it'll be interesting to see if Julian asks about the Red Dragon the next time they come to my store. Will I have to fess up to Julian about Red Dragon and will he think I'm a Red Dragon killer!?
It's certainly interesting what kids choose to remember (well even adults for that matter)! Thank you Jeff Smith for your excellent Bone saga (a great timeless, ageless, humorous, journey-quest) and for the inflatable Red Dragon which provided many years of great service here at my store!
6 comments:
That's pretty cute. :)
Man, you're not joking! Those Red Dragon images ARE hard to find. I poked around a bit and...wow...it was pretty slim pickin's.
I recall the red dragon head in your store and lament his (permanent?) sickness. <:(
Thanks for sharing, Ralph!
Ryan Claytor
Elephant Eater Comics
www.ElephantEater.com
I have so much more to add to this story but will keep it short. Julien fell in love with the Red Dragon the moment he entered Ralph's store. He is 4 now actually but always asks about the Great Red Dragon. When I went to the store to pick up my books I would always get 2 pieces of red licorice for him and tell him the Red Dragon told me to give them to him. His eyes would light up asking if the Red Dragon knew if he was a good boy that day and if that's why he sent them. I would always reply "of course". I have told countless bedtime stories to him with the Red Dragon involved in some way and he loved them all. One day I will read the Bone series to him. Or maybe they will still make the movie (fingers crossed). Thank you Ralph for always entertaining him with the Red Dragon legend and by the way...you are a pretty great guy yourself buddy. See you at the store.
Actually, I have a friend with one of those red dragon heads. He used to run a comic shop, and I was trying to find one, to see if they were in my price range, but the only one I found was on ebay. Here's a link if you're interested.
http://cgi.ebay.com/RED-DRAGON-INFLATABLE....BONE-COMICS..JEFF-SMITH..RARE_W0QQitemZ190370501414QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20100205?IMSfp=TL100205052015r1815
Here's the ebay link, in html link format.
Aw, i would have taken the leaky dragon head...
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