Three different versions of the manga series by Blizzard Comics, The Chronicles of the Dragon Slayer, have been created since the first in 2003. The writing began early in the year 2003, when the BlizzCom team had just begun work on their third ever written series, The School of Hard Knocks.
“I was on a plane,” says Winter Shields, creator of The Chronicles of the Dragon Slayer, (A.K.A. ‘DS’) and the artist and writer of Blizzard Comics, “And it was a long flight. Since I had pencils and a sketchbook, I decided to draw some new characters. It started out as a manga that I called ‘Mage Slayers’*…the series didn’t go very far. I got to page 24 of volume one, and then I started to lose interest already. I needed to make more dynamic characters. And it all started with a single one.”

*Mage Slayers: 2003, what we call, a “rough draft” of the DS plotline. Mage Slayers was about a 17-year-old demon named Dash. His name was given to him because he was able to run very, very fast, but his real name was Kai Lanace, (though he was not aware of this). Dash had many scars on his face, and his right arm was permanently bandaged because of severe burns. He was a slave to the Dragon Master, Ando, who ruled over a portion of the kingdom. Soon enough, Master Ando commands Dash to murder Princess Serenity, who apparently is some kind of key to the kingdom’s future. However, Serenity’s older brother, Tyen, an impatient but loyal prince, gets in Dash’s way. Basically, Tyen kicks Dash’s …erm…yeah. Once Dash is unconscious, Tyen decides to throw him out into the cold, but Serenity, being a sympathetic 12 year old, protests stubbornly. When Dash wakes up in their home, Tyen asks him about the burns on his arm. Dash simply says he cant say, then leaves soon after. When he returns to Master Ando’s castle, he speaks with Saphira, a sly vampire. After Ando punishes Dash for not completing his mission, Dash runs away. Because he is so fast, no one can catch him. Soon enough, he runs into Tyen. (figures.) The two of them grab lunch and Dash reveals why his arm is burned. But that’s really not that important. Tyen is soon bitten by Saphira, via orders from Master Ando, and turns into a vampire. This is where the story falls apart…Saphira comes along and shows Dash a strange sword she has found. Dash takes the sword, and all of the sudden Saphira attacks him. Meanwhile, Tyen is who knows where… Dash beats Saphira with the help of a passerby. A demon named Rane, who seems to know a lot about the sword that Dash has obtained. And this, my friends, is where the plotline that I used for DS begins. Rane explains that the Sword is one of many; all of which created for the same purpose: to purify the world and rid it of all of the demons and witches (a.k.a. ‘mages’). As Tyen, Rane, and Dash set off on a trip, they run into a Fairy, named Reena, who is desperately seeking help to kill a large griffin that is attacking her companion, Akito. After defeating the Griffin, Rane is baffled when he obtains the Water Sword. For some odd reason, Reena seems to know that Dash is really someone named Kai Lanace…but who is Kai Lanace? The story is so old that I forgot. But apparently there are some mages looking for him. That is as far as I got…that’s a lot for only 24 pages, huh?!
“After losing interest in Mage Slayers, I started designing an all new cast of characters. I wanted to keep to the same type of Plot line as Mage Slayers, so I kept some of the characters quite similar.

It started with the first drawing of Akio Mansai and then, the first drawing of Aero Mii. Early on, I had decided that Akio was the main character and he would inherit the sword that would purify the world…I didn’t know what to call this sword. My half sister, who was there during the process of me writing out a plotline, just said ‘Call it the Dragon Sword’. I wasn’t too sure about this title of course, but then it helped me to develop the story a little. The sword is called The Dragon Sword because the magic that it has was made from energy that Cyrus extracted from powerful dragons. Because of this, Dragons had become quite scarce in Fujita.
Now that I had a plotline, I decided to start working on the manga. I started work on a long car ride, sitting in the back seat with my cousin Glenn. He leaned over and gave me a suggestion that would change the story forever. He said: ‘You should put an X-shaped scar on his cheek.’ I asked him how and he lightly sketched out an X on Akio’s cheek. I wanted to make the scar a big part of the plotline. So, anyone who is possessed by a demon has an X-shaped scar somewhere on his or her body. It was then that I wrote the back-story that he was possessed and killed his family and destroyed several villages and settlements when possessed by Lord Akari, the legendary demon of fire, who wished to steal Akio’s Magic. Because of what happened, Akio had to go into hiding, and to hide, he would have to go by a fake name. So I called him Rage. Like Dash, his name is a reflection of his attributes. Plus, I always liked the idea of naming someone a name like that. (Like Chaos in the Video Game series, XENOSAGA. I suppose that’s where I got the idea to call him Rage.)
Dragon Slayer was the first 30 page comic series created by Blizzard Comics
The series has over 30 recurring characters
Is four seasons long, if made into a television show, each episode would have to last an hour for the series to get anywhere. Even then, it would take about three years for the show to play all the way through.
The original version of Dragon Slayer was made back in 2003, and got up to the end of season one when Winter decided to restart, (because the animation sucked XD).
Akio Mansai's original design was a short 16 year old with spikey hair XD interesting, no?
In the original story plan, Aero was the less mature, innocent one. But it somehow evolved to where he was more mature, and became bossy and comedic.
One of our original ideas for Cyrus was that he would suddenly just...burst out laughing. That idea kind of......disappeared as the story progressed, but in the final product, I hope to include it :)
In the original 2nd season, you never saw Tania's face. She wore a long cloak.
In the original, I included many characters, but forgot to give them some sort of backstory!! So it was reeeaaaallly confusing. @_o ya know what I mean?

"The Chronicles of the Dragon Slayer was has been Blizzard Comics' signature series since June of 2003. The story was originally about Rage, Aero, and Cyrus trying to find the treasure of deception, which was stolen from the elves by Lord Akari, the legendary demon of fire.
Funny story here.
I was working on the third panel of the original version of Dragon Slayer in the back of my aunts car. My cousin Glenn looked over at a picture of Rage and said 'You should give him an X shaped scar on his cheek or something. It'd look cool."
And that's how it started. The scar became a huge part of Rage's backstory and because Rage is the main character, the scar became a huge part of the main conflict as well. You want to know more? Read the manga or the novel, silly!"
-Winter