Reading “Ill Met in Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber was a formative experience for me. I was impressed by Mignola’s covers. This was not the first time Mignola drew Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, however. He also worked on a comic series by Dark Horse about the Twain with Howard Chaykin.
Read MoreToday marks the thirtieth anniversary of when Fritz Leiber departed this mortal coil. At the venerable age of eighty-one, he left behind him a truly great legacy in the fields of fantasy, science fiction and horror, not to mention the realms of literary criticism and role-playing games. When he died, Leiber had already influenced the likes of Ramsey Campbell, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Terry Pratchett, Glen Cook, Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman and Michael Chabon, demonstrating the sheer breadth of what he had wrought.
Read MoreI discovered Fritz Leiber, Mike Mignola, and sword-and-sorcery at the same time. I was a teenager in the suburbs of Houston when I picked up the collection Ill Met in Lankhmar by White Wolf Publishing at a Barnes and Noble. This was a double collection that includes Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death.
Read MoreMuch has been made of the correspondence between H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, but Lovecraft corresponded with more writers, including a young Fritz Leiber, Jr. His work bears much influence of the Gent from Providence and Lovecraft was somewhat of a literary mentor of Leiber.
Read MoreLoki and Odin on Nehwon. A Mingol invasion. Heroes settle down, have children, get reflective, and (symbolically) die. The later Leiber stories are certainly unique, complex, and have a lot to unpack.
Read MoreThe Fafhrd and Gray Mouser of the late 1960s and on are not the same dashing heroes we meet in the early days of Unknown. The pace of the stories slow considerably, their adventures turn inward, and the stories occur in smaller spaces, in particular the distant island Rime Isle, located out on the very rim of Nehwon.
Read MoreWhile looking for images for yesterday’s post on thieves in sword in sorcery, I came across numerous comic adaptations of the stories mentioned. At first I found it surprising, but then realized it made sense. After all, these are short, exciting tales of infiltrating dangerous locales. Wouldn’t they lend themselves perfectly to the comic form? Let’s take a look at some of them.
Read MoreWhen you think of literary thieves, who do you think of? Aside from the crime genre, thievery as an occupation appears most often in sword and sorcery.
Read MoreToday is the birthday of Michael Whelan, one of the greatest artists to ever work in the fields of fantasy, sci-fi and horror. The occasion prompted me to think back on the Whelan covers that really, really affected me when growing up.
Read MoreI don’t get the appeal of pastiches. It’s virtually impossible to copy all aspects of another author’s writing style. In Swords Against the Shadowland, the only Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novel not by Fritz Leiber, Robin Wayne Bailey comes closer than most. Unfortunately, he also misses the mark in certain major ways.
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