Customer Reviews

Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Elric of Melniboné has slashed his way through a number of books and short stories since 1961. Even though Elric has had an interesting series of experiences, his history prior to the events in the novel "Elric of Melniboné" has yet to be the focus of a story. This graphic novel, which collects a four-issue release by DC comics, explains how Elric gained his powers.

At the beginning of this story, we see Sadric the Emperor concerned that his son is too weak to lead the empire. The dream couch tests will either kill Elric, or they will prove that he is capable of leadership. Sadric is not the only one who thinks Elric is too weak to lead. Elric's cousin Yyrkoon believes himself to have the ruthlessness it takes to lead the empire into the future, and he tries to influence events by following Elric on his dream quests.

Elric travels through space and time on four dream quests. The first quest helps explain how Melniboné came to be and how King Grome, the King of the Earth Elementals, came to be in Elric's debt. The second quest shows White Crow, the person Elric became on his second dream quest, inviting Arioch, a Lord of Chaos, into the world. The third dream explains how the Spirits of the Air came into Elric's debt. The final dream shows how Elric came to be chosen the King of Melniboné.

The Good: I enjoyed this story a lot. I enjoyed the story so much that I read it twice in a row. Though there is a lot of similarity between the dream quests, there are significant differences between the stories that provide explanations for Elric's abilities and behavior. I liked the artwork as well, though it did seem a bit too much like the style of DC Comic's artists rather than the kind of art that I think would match Elric's stories.

The Bad: I liked the art, but some details in the artwork seemed glossed over. How many teeth are solid bars of white? Other details that would have taken minimal time to include were also left out, enhancing the comic book appearance of the artwork.

I can recommend this book to fans of Elric. Though you do not need to have read any of Moorcock's books about Elric, it does help to understand what is going on if you have read several of the books. If you are a big fan of sword & sorcery you may also find this graphic novel to be interesting. I have read a number of Elric's stories and this book is a nice book to have and to read after having read the first books in the series.

Enjoy!

I am a fan of Michael Moorcock. Specifically his Elric of Melnibone series...
He is a fascinating character - tall, albino, and is one powerful man.
Moorcock's graphic novel shows Elric as he is being trained to become worthy of being the next king. He is given super sleeping draughts and he goes on dangerous journies - and each time he gains power and knowledge.
He finds a great broadsword, which will be his bane and power in later books. Stormbringer. A sword that kills, takes the victim's souls and gives the holder soul's energy too.
In this prequel - Elric is a nice person and has a love - These dreams through time and worlds help us give some insight to the Elric we find in the start of the true Elric series - and if you are a fan of fantasy, especially Elric, you will enjoy this one.

If you're an Elric fan, this is a defenite read. Michael Moorcock creates a nice prequal series of how Elric builds up his skills as a a sorceror and emperor, all while struggling with Yrkoon whose ambitions are also well known. While of course without much deatail (it's a comic book!), the stories are packed with quick adventures that don't stray from Elric's overall themes. What's interesting, without giving any of the stories away, is that Moorcock throws a nice twist of Melnibonean historical twist into the lot too. We know snippets of how Melnibone rose to the great power of 10,000... these stories elaborate on that a good deal.

One negative I found in the book is the artwork. I'm not a fan of graphic novels/comics, so this is more just a personal stance. But specifically what I didn't like was how many of the characters are drawn. Elric is okay... but Tanglebones is short and stocky... Cymoril looks like a punk-rock cyber princess... and Yrkoon is BALD looking like Jean Luke Picard! Ha ha... so if you can get past these aspects, just enjoying the stories for the nice little prequals they are, this is a wonderful purchase.

I first read Michael Moorcock's Elric saga many years ago when it consisted of only six books. I absolutely loved it and have reread the original saga regularly. Since that initial exposure, Moorcock has revisited Elric numerous times, to the point that the number of new books has caught up with the originals. I've found these additions to be increasingly unnecessary and tedious, but for some reason, I purchased the trade paperback ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER, perhaps due to the fact that Walt Simonson handles the art. This book collects the 4-issue limited series and claims to reveal "an untold chapter in the life of the classic sword-and-sorcery character Elric - witness the ascension of Elric to the throne of Melniboné!" It sounded to me like this would provide some interesting history on the characters, places, and events immediately prior to the first novel, ELRIC OF MELNIBONE. Well, not quite... as strange as it sounds, this prequel is really nothing more than a boring retread (pretread?) of events from the original saga.

In this story, an abundance of expository dialogue reveals that the Emperor Sadric requires his son, Prince Elric, to undergo four dream quests in order to prove his ability to rule their island nation. During these quests, I assume in which Elric inhabits the personae of past Melnibonéans, we learn of the formation of the Isle of Melniboné and the origin of its inhabitants' pacts with various gods. The whole dream quest idea seems fairly contrived, and it confuses me. Based on Moorcock's original saga, I'd always understood Elric to be frail, emotionally complex, and something of an oddity among his own kind, but THE MAKING OF A SORCERER depicts him as a heroic ideal... oh wait, it's a dream... oh wait, he's not even Elric in the dream... huh?!?!? Through his dreams, Elric wields the great runesword Stormbringer and deals with many gods and characters PRIOR to their appearances in the original saga, in effect diminishing the significance of the actual events to come.

In general, I love Simonson's art, but his style was ill-suited for this story. He didn't do a very thorough job of researching characters' appearances in the novels. His Melnibonéans appear as seemingly-normal, even brutish, humans; a squat, blocky Tanglebones and a bald, 'roid-raging Prince Yrkoon being the most noticeable examples. This story may have been "Elric" in name, but it sure didn't look like it.

On a final note, the title of my review is a line spoken by a character over halfway into the story. When I read it, I had a good laugh and could only bring myself to skim through the remainder of the book. I'd be more impressed if Moorcock would focus his energies on adapting his existing classic works to comics, rather than using them to tell new stories. There comes a point at which a writer should say "no more".

I actually own the original comics series and let me tell you, this is Moorcock at his finest and his most fun-loving ever. And Simonson's art combined with the electrifying colors of Steve Oliff and the almost erotic lettering of John Workman makes this origin of Elric stand out both on its own and as a fine intrduction to the master that is Michael Moorcock. Hail, one and all!

Even though the art in the comic may not please some of Elric's hardcore fans, the stories are classical early Moorcock, where action prevailed over quirkness or philosophical akwardness, the way a comic book sould be.

An essential buy for any true Melnibonean fan

The art here is decent, but that's pretty much where it ends. The story is thin, formulaic, and redundant. I never read Moorcock's books, but I only hope that he delves more deeply into the nature of the characters and world than this adaptation does. Perhaps the target audience here is the pre-teen set, but this is definitely not for adults.