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Graphic Novels

Bobby DerieBobby Derie Registered User regular
...because we don't have a graphic novel thread.

Elric-Coverweb.jpg

I love Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff. It's weird and convoluted and sometimes silly and gets into bizarre alternate worlds and whatnot, but I don't care. It's as close as you can probably get to novel writing that reads like it should be a crazy cosmic comic book. And it's been adapted to comics a bunch of times! Hell, Elric fought Conan. I wasn't sure we needed a new adaptation of the classic Elric of Melnibone series, but hell, I'm game.

The introduction threw me, because it was Michael Moorcock - in his 80s, an Englishman in Texas - singing the praises of this adaptation. That's unusual. It's like the anti-Alan Moore. Moorcock actually said that this comic improves on the original novel. So I was kind of stoked going in.

...and it's gorgeous. Really nice, European art, the kind that still doesn't happen in most American comics. It's a solid adaptation, and yeah there are little flourishes here and there in the depiction of this or that character or bit of scenery, and there are some simplifications and elaborations on the story which...I have to admit, it takes what is a very old story and it simplifies it a bit and makes it a little edgier. Not a lot. I don't know if I want to spoiler anything here, but it's kind of subtle; it's a surprise, which is nice for people that have already read the book it's based on. And the thing is, the book is kind of sparse - it was the old days, before every bloody fantasy novel was 300+ pages, so there's room for these little additions and detailing, and it doesn't feel like somebody taking big liberties and diverging massively from the book.

They're going to do a series of these things, following the original run of the books. I kind of doubt they're going to include any of the lighter-hearted bits, or any of the really convoluted later novels which were sort of interquals. But I like it, I'm going to pick them up.

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