Titan Books: MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ NOVELS GET A NEW COMIC ADAPTATION!

Writer  Julien Blondel

Artists   Didier Poli     Jean Bastide   Robin Recht

Full colour

64pp

Format Hardcover

ISBN 9781782761242

£8.99   $9.98 US   $10.82 Can

Available Sept. 16, 2014

THE KING OF FANTASY… BACK ON THE THRONE!

An epic new comic adaptation of legendary fantasy author Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné novels is set to be released by Titan Comics – kicking off with Elric vol. 1: The Ruby Throne from September 16.

Written by Julien Blondel and beautifully illustrated by Robin Recht, Didier Poli & Jean Bastide, this new four-part graphic novel series of Moorcock’s signature creation Elric has been produced with the full and enthusiastic endorsement of Moorcock himself.

“The best graphic adaptation of the story has to be the current one by Julien Blondel and his team,” says Moorcock, who has written an exclusive introduction for this edition. “This is perhaps the first graphic version of Elric fully to capture the sense of utter decadence I tried to convey in the books.”

The ancient island of Melniboné has been ruled by Elric, the albino emperor, for millennia. Reliant on magic and herbs for his strength and prolonged life, Elric's grip on Melniboné is crumbling, as his people slide into decadence. Now his envious cousin Yyrkoon, Prince of Melniboné, plots to overthrow him and claim the Ruby Throne for himself!

Check out the trailer to the first volume here

 

  

 

Michael Moorcock’s Elric vol. 1: The Ruby Throne is set to rule book shops and comic stores from September 16, 2014.

Each volume of the series will also be available to read on the iPad, iPhone, Web, Android and Kindle Fire, exclusively through the comiXology app and comiXology.com

When I first glanced through this I immediately thought "European" regarding the art style. Using my superior deductive skills I then looked at the frontispiece: yep, those are European names -not much gets by me.  Oh, and Editions Glenat first published this in 2013. I amaze myself.

The mystery comes in the press sheet Titan sent me with the book.  It gives the cost as £12.99 and page count as 172 which just aint right.  So go by what I've written up by the cover.

I'm also not willing to hold grudges with the character!  Basically, back in the 1980s I spent a week drawing pages of Elric for -was it Neptune or Trident?  Anyway, I sent the original art pages as requested only to be told the pages "might have been accidentally put in the waste bin...but we decided not to go any further last month"  Comics, heh?

There is a good story.  Never read Moorcock so not sure whether its a faithful adaption -though he seems happy with it so....  And good art.  Even some preliminary art featured as a back-up along with information on the creators of this series.

After Lord Of The Rights, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones I'm guessing someone made a smart decision here.  But how can you go wrong here? A very well produced package and great to get your fantasy read fix.

Recommended.