By Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert & George Freeman (First Comics)
ISBN: 0-915419-24-6
Michael Moorcock’s irresistible blend of brooding Faustian tragedy and all-out action is best seen in his stories of Elric, last Emperor of the pre-human civilisation of Melniboné, and the adaptations scripted by Roy Thomas in the 1980s were a high watermark in the annals of illustrated fantasy.
This volume, collecting the miniseries which so impressively captured the otherworldly nature of Michael Moorcock’s ‘Eternal Champion’ concept, sees the weary doom-laden albino leave his beloved Cymoril and the Dreaming City of Imrryr to go questing for an unattainable peace of mind, only to take ship on a transdimensional galleon collecting heroes for an impossible mission. Aboard the eerie vessel he meets a motley band of warriors gathered from numerous alternate Earths in a desperate attempt to save the multiverse.
Risking the very nature of reality Elric has taken ship with three other aspects of the ‘Eternal Champion’; Corum, Erekosë and Dorian Hawkmoon. Together they must defeat Agak and Gagak, siblings from beyond the multiverse who intend to devour all of reality.
This mission and the long quest to return to Melniboné comprise the second novel in the Elric cycle (although Moorcock actually wrote most of the tales “out of chronological orderâ€) but only purists need to concern themselves with that. The rest of us can simply revel in an unparalleled phantasmagoria of carnage and cosmic concepts, spectacularly brought to life by some of the most innovative workers in comics.
© 1987 First Comics, Inc. and Star*Reach Productions. Adapted from the original story by Michael Moorcock, © 1976. All Rights Reserved.