'Elric Volume 1: The Ruby Throne' - Moorcock, Blondel, Poli, Recht, Bastide (Titan Comics)
So I'm coming off the back of a 'heavy work day' and looking straight down the barrel of another one... Erm... Yay? It won't surprise you then that I haven't had a lot of time for reading and no time at all for coming up with an original blog post. Story of my life these days... ;o) It's not all bad though. While I'm using today's commute to catch up with my reading ('Litany of the Destroyer' is really something special), my past self has a little something to keep the blog ticking over. It's a little 'Elric' for your reading pleasure ;o)
You can find the original post Here but all the important bits can be found below...
You can find the original post Here but all the important bits can be found below...
It's a fact long established, on blogs other than this one, that I will read pretty much anything 'Eternal Champion' related that Michael Moorcock has written. Which means pretty much everything he has written doesn't it? I mean, from what I've seen it all ties together at one level or another. I have a lot of reading to get through yet then…
In the meantime though, it's the 'Eternal Champion' books 'proper' that provide an element of the comfort read but with characterisation and an 'edge' that really forces me to engage with what is in front of me. Elric may not be my favourite of the Champions (this changes between Corum and Hawkmoon with a little Bastable thrown in for variety) but, of all of them, he is the one with the tale that is really worth staying the course for.
That's the reason why then that you will see Elric pop up a little more in other mediums than the likes of Erekose etc. Especially in comics which offer the kind of 'wide screen' format that really suit Elric's sprawling, multi-dimensional adventures. All of which leads us to the latest comic book iteration of Elric's adventures…
The story itself will be familiar to fans with Elric battling the human side of his nature as well as his vicious cousin, Yyrkoon, who wishes to rule Melnibone and restore it to its old cruel glories. What is surprising though is the amount of backstory (and 'front story' too, if 'front story' is a term…) that has been taken out. This is a very much stripped down version of the tale with only the key moments happening and that's fair enough if you're a first time 'Elric reader' wanting to get a feel for things. Longer term readers may feel like there's a little too much missing for the read to be truly satisfying. That was how I found it anyway. The important bits are all there and the story itself doesn't feel disjointed in any way, just lacking the depth of the novel.
The artwork though… The artwork almost makes up for the skeletal plot with Robin Recht and Didier Poli combining to give the reader some quite frankly awesome depictions of Melnibone and its decadent inhabitants. Recht and Poli don't pull any punches when showing the readers the cruel and yet somehow strangely lazy excesses of Melnibone; this is not a book for younger readers (just in case you were wondering) with explicit scenes of torture that are exactly what Melnibone is all about. And those last scenes where Arioch makes his first appearance… You can almost hear his entrance, the artwork is that good.
I'm not sure where 'The Ruby Throne' falls then as the plot is a little too flimsy for the long term fan while the art might put off newcomers (it worked for me but I can see it being a little too evocative for some…) I enjoyed it for what it was though and reading back over what I wrote all those years ago (yep, 'present me' is back in the house!) I need to go and find my copy of 'Stormbringer' so I can keep reading, I'll add it to the TBR pile... ;o)
In the meantime though, it's the 'Eternal Champion' books 'proper' that provide an element of the comfort read but with characterisation and an 'edge' that really forces me to engage with what is in front of me. Elric may not be my favourite of the Champions (this changes between Corum and Hawkmoon with a little Bastable thrown in for variety) but, of all of them, he is the one with the tale that is really worth staying the course for.
That's the reason why then that you will see Elric pop up a little more in other mediums than the likes of Erekose etc. Especially in comics which offer the kind of 'wide screen' format that really suit Elric's sprawling, multi-dimensional adventures. All of which leads us to the latest comic book iteration of Elric's adventures…
The story itself will be familiar to fans with Elric battling the human side of his nature as well as his vicious cousin, Yyrkoon, who wishes to rule Melnibone and restore it to its old cruel glories. What is surprising though is the amount of backstory (and 'front story' too, if 'front story' is a term…) that has been taken out. This is a very much stripped down version of the tale with only the key moments happening and that's fair enough if you're a first time 'Elric reader' wanting to get a feel for things. Longer term readers may feel like there's a little too much missing for the read to be truly satisfying. That was how I found it anyway. The important bits are all there and the story itself doesn't feel disjointed in any way, just lacking the depth of the novel.
The artwork though… The artwork almost makes up for the skeletal plot with Robin Recht and Didier Poli combining to give the reader some quite frankly awesome depictions of Melnibone and its decadent inhabitants. Recht and Poli don't pull any punches when showing the readers the cruel and yet somehow strangely lazy excesses of Melnibone; this is not a book for younger readers (just in case you were wondering) with explicit scenes of torture that are exactly what Melnibone is all about. And those last scenes where Arioch makes his first appearance… You can almost hear his entrance, the artwork is that good.
I'm not sure where 'The Ruby Throne' falls then as the plot is a little too flimsy for the long term fan while the art might put off newcomers (it worked for me but I can see it being a little too evocative for some…) I enjoyed it for what it was though and reading back over what I wrote all those years ago (yep, 'present me' is back in the house!) I need to go and find my copy of 'Stormbringer' so I can keep reading, I'll add it to the TBR pile... ;o)
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