I’ve always liked Westerns and dragons, so when Dragon Grit launched on Kickstarter, I had to pledge.

The story follows dragon rider Vera, a courier for the postal service. Attacked on one of her routes by three bandits (also on dragons), she successfully fights them off. Upon landing, she’s distracted by a young man and his aging dragon before she delivers the mail to the post office. Vera makes her delivery only to discover she’s out of a job. But the surprise appearance of someone she once knew may have made her day even worse.

The story starts with a terrific air battle between Vera and three bandits which demonstrates how well Vera does her job. You feel like you’re in the action, and the artist does an excellent job with it; however, the attacking dragons were difficult to tell apart from Vera’s dragon, Blaze. I would have suggested adding a couple of subtle markings and/or coloring to better differentiate them in the future.

After the opening scene, the story slows down quite a bit, but offers interesting tidbits into dragon lore and history and introduces a character who will probably be important in the future. I think there were a couple of missed opportunities to dig a bit deeper into Vera’s character by showing us how the townspeople reacted to her. She must be a regular sight in this nameless town, and she probably lives there since it’s part of her route. Mail was a big deal back then, and people would be excited to see her. Also, the postal worker should have had some reaction to the news he gave her. This would have revealed what type of relationship she had with him, whether it was friendly, professional, or sympathetic.

Overall, the coloring and the art were spot on, giving us a sense of a dry Western town. I loved that special attention was given to the dust where Vera and Blaze walked. It was a nice touch. I also enjoyed how there were small reminders that dragons were part of this world’s everyday life, and I definitely wanted to know more.
It’s a promising start to what I think will be a fun series.

Creative Team: Lorelei Jonason and Caleb Palmquist (writers), Kay Woolhiser (artist), Karl Kesel (inker), Ryan Cody (colorist), Dave Lentz (letterer)
Publisher: Caleb Palmquist
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