Marvel Graphic Novel #2-Elric, the Dreaming City
Pasty white guy time!
Creative Team: Michael Moorcock-writer, Roy Thomas adaptation scripter, P Craig Russell-everything else, Tom Orzechowski-stuff that PCR couldn't be bothered to do, Mike Friedrich-failed publisher-turned-agent, Jim Shooter, Lynn Graeme, Jim Salicrup, Lance Tooks-trying to take credit for what was probably Roy Thomas editing himself, 'cause Shooter couldn't say boo to him, until his contract was up. No? Okay, "consulting editors."-yeah, page 24 needs semi-colon, instead of a comma." "Nice contribution Jim!" "Nice suck up, Jim." "Who the hell are Lynne and Lance?" "Assistant gophers?"
Okay, that's kind of harsh; but, Roy Thomas' contract did pretty much give him complete editorial freedom (within the limitations of Marvel actually publishing the book). Lynn Graeme was an editor on Marvel Preview and some of the later era Marvel magazine titles. Lance Tooks was an assistant editor and graphic artist, who published stuff with Cry For Dawn and elsewhere. So, yeah, they probably did grunt work on the production end. Shooter probably just slapped his name on there for executive privilege; but, Friedrich did sell this to Marvel; so, Shooter was involved in that capacity, at a minimum. Salicrup? Looking through GCD, these things had different editors. Salicrup edited a lot of special projects and licensed titles (their adaptation of Annie, the Pope John Paul bio, etc). My guess was that he was assigned this, since it fell into his realm, since it was an outside thing, possibly since Archie Goodwin might have been busy? i don't know.......... Pipe up if you have specific details that illuminate the roles here.
Mike Higgins is listed as "design consultant". Not sure if that means the packaging or just looking at the design and say, "That looks purty!"
This is actually a collection, rather than an original graphic novel, as The Dreaming City was serialized in Epic Illustrated, first. It was actually conceived for Star*Reach; but, when Mike Friedrich had to take the company out to the woods and shoot it, he then took some of the more promising properties and brokered publication deals elsewhere, with Epic being one of the prime buyers (Elric and The Sacred and the Profane, for 2 high profile projects). So, long journey from Star*Reach (which had done some Elric, between Star*Reach and Imagine) to Epic Illustrated, to Dreaming City graphic novel. Then, Elric landed on the shores of Pacific, for Elric of Melnibone (adapting the entire collected novel, of which The Dreaming City was the first published novelette), then to First Comics, since Pacific went belly-up, and finally to Topps, 'cause First went another body part up. Then DC did Michael Moorcock's Multiverse; so, Elric has pretty much been through the comic book publishing Multiverse (including his appearance in Conan, with the pointy hat, and Dave Sim's spoof of said pointy hat iteration, version that is; as , I say as Elrod, magician, albino that is.)
Confession time. It took me a while to warm up to PCR's Elric, as he looked way too skinny and girly. Wait, I know, he's supposed to be; that was the whole point. In my defense, my intro to Elric was from Daw books, who had Michel Whelan doing a more butch Elric, on the covers....
So, you know, you get certain images in your head, based on cover illustrations, regardless of descriptions by the author. I had the same deal with Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, as I saw Sean Bean play the character, before I read any of the books. So, I always pictured Bean, rather than a dark-haired cockney, as Cornwell describes him in the early books (he later tweaked the character to be more like the fair haired Yorkshireman, Bean). Now, enough prelude, onto pasty white girly-men with soul-sucking swords!
Synopsis: In a remote fjord (Pining for the fjords? What kind of talk is that?..............sorry) a bunch of conspirators gather and await the arrival of someone important, who will help them launch a raid that will bring wealth and power or utter destruction, depending on which conspirator is talking. The mystery guest finally signs in and Bennett Cerf correctly identifies him as Elric, rightful ruler of the island nation Melnibone. Elric promises to disguise their fleet and lead them; but, he must first go to the city Imrryr and return. His conditions still stand: they are to burn the city to the ground, but spare the usurper, Yyrkoon and his sister, Cymoril...
That is followed by a beauty page from PCR, with the mad Yyrkoon and some nekkid Melniboners (Melnibonians?)....
(Warning, nekkid pasty white people, but some cool nutjobs with funky noses...)
Elric has done as promised, creating a thick mist to hide the reaver fleet. Count Smiorgan, who accompanied him has pretty much watered his britches, because of whatever Elric did. Elric is pretty wasted and drinks some wine and cops some Zs. The next morning, Elric summons up spells, creating vast wind and waves and sets sail in his little boat, headed for Melnibone.
Elric sneaks ashore in Imrryr and meets up with Tanglebones, a loyal retainer, who leads him to the chamber where still sleeps Cymoril, Elric's lover. She is guarded by a Silent Guard, a eunuch. Tanglebones tries an arrow shot and misses, requiring Elric to use Stormbringer, the cursed sword that howls as it sucks out the soul of its victims, feeding their life energy to Elric, who is more slave than master. So, you know, stealth tactics. Elric finds Cymoril...
The landlord comes to complain about the howling and shrieking. Or rather, Yyrkoon and his guards. Elric has them shut out, and Yyrkoon is a bit unnerved to hear Elric's voice. He commands his guards to take him alive and warns Elric that any attempt to wake Cymoril well damn her to hell. Elric calls upon his patriarch demonic figure, Arioch, and lets the guards in. Stormbringer has a nice meal and some kind of black mist forms in the chamber. It ....well, it gets pretty nasty and Yyrkoon is left to fend for himself, while elric runs off. he runs into Tanglebones and orders him to ensure that Cymoril is taken to the tower of D'A'rputna, to await Elric, when the reavers come. He then makes his escape in his boat.
We jump ahead to Elric, in his baroque armor, leading the reaver fleet to Melnibone. The fleet spots Imrryr...
The reavers fire the first catapult, which falls short (should have used a trebuchet) and the Boners reply with a better shot...(You sank my battleship!) However, the fleet is large and Melnibone has neglected its defenses over time. Her one catapult is destroyed by a direct hit and her archers felled. The reavers ram the sea gate and breach it.
Elric guides them through the caverns to the inner city harbor, where more archers are waiting. Elric urges speed. He appears on the decks, with war helmet and cuts a promo on Yyrkoon, vowing to kick his sorry butt when they meet, in the Garden, in the main event. The Boner forces await; but, they are in brown trouser mode. More and more ships emerge into the harbor, and the rouser get browner and yellow pools form on the streets. Elric leads the charge, when the ships land, with Stormbringer make a lot of racket.
Stormbringer feeds on souls, making Elric stronger, which brings more victims and more souls, and...you get the picture. The reavers are taking names and kicking skinny butt. One of the conspirators, Yaris, decides to go engage in a bit of rape and gets knifed in the back, by a Melnibonean lady, who shows more fight than the guys. Elric goes to meet up with Tanglebones and finds him dying. Yyrkoon followed them, mortally wounded him and took Cymoril to the tower of B'A'Al'Nezbett (Baal Nesbitt? Sounds like a quantity surveyor from Milton Keynes), where all kinds of nastiness took place, in ages past. Elric moves through the tower, to a barred door, and uses a spell to remove the mystic doorway. Inside he finds.....
Yyrkoon has Mournblade, the twin of Stormbringer, and the s@#$ just got real! Elric draws first blood, and Yyrkoon howls, then gets his own back. HACK! CLANG! SLASH! Elric spots Cymoril and cries out and Yyrkoon just goes total barking mad and starts swinging wildly. Cymoril awakens and calls for Elric to save her! What you think he's trying to do, sell Amway? Yyrkoon reaches through a barrier and grabs his sister by the hand. Elric slices into him and Yyrkoon laughs, then pulls his sister forward, through the barrier and right into the point of Stormbringer. It sucks out her soul, Elric goes slack-jawed, Yyrkoon laughs his head off and his soul is sucked into the blackest pits of hell. Elric is left standing over the corpses of his cousin and his true love. He cries like a little baby. Wuss. Conan would go slaughter a few hundred people.
Elric returns to his ship, as the city burns. They depart and he reflects back on the corpse of Cymoril, who he left on a sleeping couch, guarded by Mournblade and the dead Yyrkoon. the ships depart and run smack into the fleet of the Dragonmasters, who are POd about their city in flames. Elric summons up a storm and a portion of the reaver fleet outdistances the Melnibone navy, then he sees the dragonriders emerge and spit their flammable venom on the reaver ships in range. He makes a decision, calls away the winds to affect only his ship, leaving the entire reaver fleet at the mercy of the massive Melnibone ships and the dragonriders.
Near the island of Pan Tang, Elric tells off Stormbringer and drops it into the ocean; but, it doesn't sink. It floats there and howls. Elric grows weaker and realizes he needs the sword and it needs him. He drops over the side and misses the sword; but, it sinks to him and feeds him energy. he emerges again, as Elric of Melnibone, a man to be feared. He swims ashore and his crew sail off, before they end up as either a midnight snack or dragoon fricassee.
Thoughts: This thing is F-n gorgeous! Parsifal was pretty damn sweet; but, Star*Reach's reproduction was kind of sh@#$%y. This looks fantastic and Russell would only get better! Ironically, this graphic novel was released after Roy was working for DC and Russell was working mostly in the indies, including doing Night Muse, at Eclipse. However, it first started appearing in Epic Illustrated in 1980, before Roy left. So, I'm not entirely up on his writer/editor contract timeline; so, I don't know if it was still in force; but, my impression was that he had full say, until the contract was up for renewal and he and Shooter ended up at odds, sending him into DC's exclusive arms. That's all behind-the-scenes, anyway. Roy does a magnificent job with Elric and would do so in adapting Elric of Melnibone. Russell was also heavily involved in the plotting of Elric, but there would be a split between he and Roy, leaving him out of the adaptations, for a bit. He came back to it later, though.
The Dreaming City was first published in 1961, in Science Fantasy, issue 47. It was the first Elric story. Further stories would appear. Some confusion surrounds it and the novel Elric of Melnibone. The latter came later, in 1972 and, although it covers the same ground, does not include The Dreaming City. The problem is that Lancer Books published Elric of Melnibone under the title The Dreaming City, as did the later Magnum Books (in 1975). Daw collected it with Weird of the White Wolf, but published Elric of Melnibone separately.
For years, Hollywood has sniffed around Elric; but, nothing concrete has ever arisen. Technology today is perfect for it, though you wonder how the hero would be received. It would make for a pretty good cable series, ala Game of Thrones, though I would tone down the constant "Arioch, aid me!" Even if you didn't want to go that far, the Dreaming City, as a novella, makes a great movie plot. Moorcock only has one adaptation, The Final Programme (aka The Last Days of Man on Earth) and Moorcock was not happy with it, as it seriously messed with story and character (I have a copy and it is interesting, even if it doesn't really make for a great movie experience). His other venture in Hollywood, co-scripting The Land That Time Forgot made him wary of promises and control. There was an Elric animated feature in development, at one point that was abandoned. I want to say Wendy Pini was involved. There have been noises, in recent yeas, which proded a re-release of his work in the US; but, until something is in production, it is a pipe dream.
Collection or not, this is more of what a graphic novel line should be; interesting projects that call for better packaging to highlight something exceptional. The Death of Captain Marvel was suitably mature enough to warrant a GN; but, it would have worked just as well as a one-shot comic or mini-series. This is something that calls out for more. You could also do it as a one-shot, or, as was first done, serialize it in something like Epic Illustrated; but, it reads better as a whole and looks better on something big enough to give scope to the artwork. The same was true of many of the features in Heavy Metal. Outland looked great in the magazine; but, a graphic novel would have been amazing. Sadly, they didn't do that, despite the success of the Alien GN (though Alien was a hit and Outland was a lower performing film). Others, such as Empire were seen in Heavy Metal, as well as the graphic novel. That was the European tradition; serialize in a magazine and collect in a nice album. This is in that tradition, as was The Sacred and the Profane (collected by Eclipse). Captain Marvel is more of a special project that fit the format. Coming up, New Mutants, is a questionable choice for a graphic novel. It's an unestablished property that is supposed to launch a series. In that case, the format was used more to give cache to a riskier launch. Would fans jump onboard a new X-Men series, without any sh@#$-kickers? Well, maybe if we launch it as a high profile GN. It's the publishing equivalent of putting a wrestling title belt on a guy to get them over (like making them Intercontinental champion), with the crowd, rather than giving it to them because they are the star of the company and the center of the storylines (like the World Champion).
Unfortunately, as we will see, Marvel's line would evolve to be less of this kind of thing and more of a place for stories that could have been one shots or minis. Heck, many that came after the initial phase weren't even in the same category as New Mutants, to launch a new venture. They were often disposable tales in an expensive package. Kind of like Marvel Fanfare, By contrast, DC used the album format for things like wonderfully illustrated sci-fi and unique original tales and developed the prestige format as more of a middle ground, for special mainstream projects.
Next up, Jim Starlin continues the world of The Metamorphosis Odyssey with Dreadstar, focusing on Vanth Dreadstar. It would be published at nearly the same time as The Price, at Eclipse, with the two works connecting, at the end, leading to the Dreadstar series, from Epic (which then migrated to First Comics).
Colan always looks great in black and white and his kid vampires do look scary. Ploog gets to do swampy, which is always a treat. Mayerik's stuff looks very EC.
