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| On the left, Spanish edition; on the right, original US one |
We have already written (in Italian, but Google Translator will be happy to help) about the first Soanish edition of Dragon magazine, published by Zinco to support its translation of the AD&D second edition line. But that was not the only release of a Spanish (or better, Castillan) language version of TSR/WotC magazine: in 2003 Devir Iberia (the Spanish subisidiary of the Brazilian giant) launched another local edition to support D&D 3.0 and then 3.5 for what it got a license from WotC.
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| The first nine issues of Devir's Dragon magazine |
The Devir Dragon magazine was something impressive: 96 full colour pages, bimonthly schedule of publication and 100% D&D content. No space whatsoever was allotted to any other game, including Devir ones (such as Star Wars d20). More, there were no columns, no news and reviews, no reportages, no interviews...: just solid gaming content. The only two exceptions were the Editorial and the News (this being announcements of Devir's new D&D releases...). It seems that Devir studied the market and decided that the best shot at having the magazine prosper (or at least survive) was giving maximum 'useful' content and nothing else to readers.
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| Devir's Dragon magazine was graphically top notch |
Graphically Devir's Dragon magazine was very well done and followed closely the original US edition - sometimes too much. Issue 8 published the translation of the article series about the history of D&D originally appeared in Dragon 320, but the Spanish magazine printed nothing, absolutely nothing, about the game's rich history in Spain. But it must be said that Devir's policy was "no original articles, only translations", perhaps to avoid long approval times. Nonetheless, a real mishap in our eyes.
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| In Devir's Dragon magazine, the only News worth reporting are Devir's ones... |
The life of Dragon magazine ended in 2006 but the magazine had started suffering from the Curse of Lateness since 2005: issue 10 was released five months after issue 9, in September 2005, issue 11 in November 2005, issue 12 in February 2006 and issue 13 (the last one) in Novenber 2006. The magazine was stopped due perhaps to poor sales, but Devir kept publishing D&D till the fourth edition.