Untitled

ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION — May 2011. Published by BOOM! Studios, a division of Boom
Entertainment, Inc., 6310 San Vicente Boulevard, Suite 107, Los Angeles, CA 90048-5457. Text and illustrations of ELRIC: THE
BALANCE LOST FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION™ © 2011 Michael Moorcock. Excluding the unique creations of Chris Roberson,
which are ™ and © Monkeybrain, Inc., all characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are ™ and © Michael
Moorcock. All other material, unless otherwise specified, ™ and © 2011 Boom Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. BOOM! Studios™
and the BOOM! Studios logo are trademarks of Boom Entertainment, Inc., registered in various countries and categories. All characters,
events, and institutions depicted herein are fictional. Any similarity between any of the names, characters, persons, events, and/or
B O O M - S T U D I O S . C O M institutions in this publication to actual names, characters, and persons, whether living or dead, events, and/or institutions is unintended
and purely coincidental. BOOM! Studios does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork. For information
regarding the CPSIA on this printed material, call: (203) 595-3636 and provide reference #EAST – 99999. PRINTED IN USA.
Mel. NIB. Oh. Nay.
That’s how I’ve been saying it for 30-some years
now. Alice has Wonderland. There’s Middle
Earth. Hyperboria may come to mind. Where I
wanted to go was Melniboné -- perhaps that’s
an overstatement. I wanted to be a fly on the
wall because, frankly, the universe was too
damn frightening and dark to actually want to
go there, something might decide to kill me, or
far, far worse...there’s a lot of fates worse than
death in Melniboné.
When Elric showed up, it was like everything was
light beer and this was Scotch. I’d been listening
to Celine Dion and then Led Zeppelin rolled up.
I loved Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe. Elric showed up out of the
mists of Norse Legend with a Nine Inch Nails
soundtrack and changed everything.
I missed the first appearance of Elric. I wasn’t
born in 1961 when the first book was published,
and I couldn’t read yet when he appeared in comic
book form in the early issues of CONAN THE
BARBARIAN from Marvel Comics (#14 and #15).
That’s okay. When Elric first showed up, he was
under the command of one of the seminal Silver
Age writers, Roy Thomas, and the great Barry
Windsor-Smith, but he had a weird red pointy
hat that true Elric fans knew wasn’t appropriate.
Elric and the kingdom of Melniboné make their comic book debut in “A Sword Called Stormbringer!” and
“The Green Empress of Melniboné,” appearing in CONAN THE BARBARIAN #14 and #15.
Windy City Comics publishes ELRIC: FALL OF THE DREAMING CITY, the first comic book entirely devoted
to the Prince of Ruin.
Elric appears in issues of HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE, starring in a comic written by Michael Moorcock and
drawn by Frank Brunner. Another Moorcock eternal champion, Jerry Cornelius, also makes his first
sequential art appearance in the magazine.
You’ve got to understand something -- I was a
pretty average Middle American kid growing up in
the populous-but-has-a-small-town-heart city of
San Antonio, Texas. I grew up about a 4-hour drive
south of where Robert E. Howard, the Texan creator
of Conan, grew up. Nowadays, the English-born
Michael Moorcock lives in Bastrop, Texas -- an hour
and 45 minutes north of where I used to ride my bike.
Funny how it all comes together, isn’t it? It was all in
my metaphorical backyard.
Beautiful P. Craig Russell artwork on the cover. The
flames, the gothic armor, wrapped up in a package
that was a, ahem, graphic novel! Excuse me, what’s
that? That’s right, the size of this original book was
patterned after the European graphic novel format
(mostly French) that was larger, magazine-sized,
squarebound (no staples here!), longer in duration,
and yes, God help us, more expensive. Slicker paper.
Richer colors. Sharper images.
It was only the second graphic novel that Marvel had ever published, right after THE DEATH OF
CAPTAIN MARVEL. There had been a few before this
-- ECLIPSE’S SABRE, which I had entirely missed.
This was a world-shaking event. Real fantasy comics
in a gorgeous, deluxe package that would presage
the way most people enjoy the medium 30 years
later.
Part 1 of Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell’s “The Dreaming City” is published in EPIC ILLUSTRATED #3.
The first collection of “The Dreaming City” is released by Marvel Comics in a graphic novel format.
Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell’s run with the albino sorcerer continues with issue #1 of
ELRIC, released by Pacific Comics.
Issue #1 of ELRIC: SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE is released by First Comics, who continues to
publish Elric comics through 1989 with the series ELRIC: WEIRD OF THE WHITE WOLF, ELRIC: THE
VANISHING TOWER, and ELRIC: BANE OF THE BLACK SWORD.
It was a relic from an alternate universe. I can still
picture Elric emerging, his hands raised, his mouth
open as he cast a spell. People didn’t do magic in
comics that was so cool. Yeah, there was Doctor
Strange, but he was a superhero who hung out with
Spider-Man. Elric was pure, undiluted fantasy without the artifice of capes and tights. Elric was from
an alternate world that probably roasted Hobbits
in massive, debauched occultic ceremonies.
This wasn’t just a barbarian who could swing a
sword, this guy could kill you with his mind. I’m
going to say it again. He can murder you with his
mind.
If you hadn’t guessed, for a guy who’s six-foot-two
and well over two hundred pounds, I could never
relate to the Barbarian with a physique more like
a defensive lineman. I mean, wear some armor,
dude. Why are you getting your hands dirty? I loved
the elegant spires of Melniboné, with its Dreaming
City, and the romantic nomenclature: “Sailor on
the Seas of Fate” just sounds so much better than
“Cimmerian” to me. Don’t get me wrong, Conan is a
triumph of literature. But I was always an Elric guy
at heart.
That’s the mythology, of course. That he’s a reverseConan -- where Conan is physically fit, Elric is frail.
Dorian Hawkmoon, the Duke of Köln, makes his comic book debut in the graphic adaptation of
HAWKMOON: THE JEWEL IN THE SKULL.
Eternal Champion Corum Jhaelen Irsei makes his first appearance in comics in THE CHRONICLES OF
CORUM, drawn by a young Mike Mignola. Two years later in CORUM: THE BULL AND THE SPEAR, a
young Jill Thompson would take the reins.
Dark Horse/Topps publishes the first of the 7-issue ELRIC: STORMBRINGER, issue #0 of which is a
short semi-autobiographical story written by Neil Gaiman on the influence Moorcock’s work had
on him as a young man, entitled “One Life Furnished in Early Moorcock.”
DC Comics publishes the first issue of the highly ambitious MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S MULTIVERSE, a
12-issue series written by Moorcock himself.
Michael Moorcock writes a second series for DC Comics, entitled ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER,
drawn by Walt Simonson.
Where Conan is brute survival of the fittest, Elric
is refined and cerebral. While Conan celebrates
violence, Elric broods on it and wrestles with forces
frightening and morally ambiguous.
Word is that Moorcock put a bit of Kullervo from
Finnish mythology into Elric, and there’s definitely
the breath of The Broken Sword, Poul Anderson’s
1954 novel, in there. The Albino thing is from Monsier
Zenith. Go Google it all. For a kid growing up in the
suburbs, it was modern, frightening, alluring, sexy,
dangerous, and altogether intoxicating.
Did I mention that his sword had a mind of its own
and forced him to kill people so it could eat their
souls?
When early direct market publisher Pacific Comics
put out a monthly comic book series, it was mindshattering. You mean I can get Elric every month?
And it’s Craig Russell and Michael T. Gilbert?
When the series migrated to First Comics and started
adapting the novels, I had to find the source material
and devour it all. Suddenly, they started publishing
Hawkmoon and Corum, opening up these new worlds
to me...I spent many nights rolling up Dungeons and
Dragons characters that were Magic Users multiclassed with fighters, who walked around with cool
black swords that had intelligence all their own and
drank souls...every time I was on the other side of
the Dungeon Masters’ screen, I secretly hoped that
the Wizard-locked and trapped treasure chest had a
sentient sword inside...
Dark Horse/Topps picked up the thread and continued the legend when First shuttered. They added
some beautiful flourishes to the legacy, with Neil
Gaiman’s ode to Elric in “One Life Furnished in Early
Moorcock”. Agreed, Neil. You got a much earlier
start than me -- the comics had to lead me to the
books -- but this is me tipping my hat to you, sir.
Turning my head sideways, I can now see shades of
Elric himself in Dream, Gaiman’s generation-defining
lead character in Sandman. The prince of a kingdom,
driven by conflict, to make hard choices...Oh, yeah, and
there’s the skin-color thing, right?
And then, of course, the delightful Elric parts of
MULTIVERSE and ELRIC: MAKING OF A SORCERER
from DC Comics with the legendary Walter Simonson
brings us up to date.
So, let me raise my Shiner Bock in your direction,
Mr. Moorcock. Thank you for the mind-bending
journey. Thank you to Roy, Barry, Craig, Michael,
Walter, and now to a new creative team taking the
reins. For the audience that has picked this up, if
this is your first time to Melniboné, beware -- dragons
sleep under Imrryr awaiting a call to war. It is not for
the faint of heart. If you have been before, welcome
back. Remember the ley lines you used to get here.
With the wrong incantation, you might find yourself
somewhere else across the multiverse...
00111
8
44284 00210
3
W W W. B O O M - S T U D I O S . C O M