Elric: Weird of the White Wolf, Elric: The Vanishing Tower, Elric: Stormbringer

Let’s see if I can get through the rest of the Elric titles today.

Elric: Weird of the White Wolf 1-5

It’s not the best sign that I needed to flip through this again just now to remember what happened.  P. Craig Russell is back, with what I believe are reprinted stories baked into a wrapper story.

Throughout all of Elric’s adventures so far, much emphasis has been placed on his endgame - to return to his capital city of Imrryr, kick Yyrkoon off of his throne, and reunite with his beloved Cymoril.  I was shocked and disappointed, then, to see all of that dispensed with in an eight-page story, completely narrated with no speech bubbles.

This had the potential to be something both epic and intimate if given the time to breathe.  So many compelling elements - Elric’s infiltration and followup invasion of the city, his questionable decision to raze Imrryr (Seriously, why did he choose to do that?), a rematch of the duel against his overzealous cousin, and his accidental slaying of Cymoril.  At the end of the day, Elric is completely alone, his native country destroyed by his own hand, his invasion force obliterated. All he has left is Stormbringer, a soul stealing weapon of Chaos. This is the most fundamental tragedy of Elric’s story, and it’s practically thrown away as an afterthought.  Poorly done.

Which isn’t to say that Russell’s art isn’t exemplary.  I just wish there was much much more of it.

There’s a followup adventure that’s also drawn by Russell, which surprisingly ends in failure.  I mean, Elric’s life is full of fail in general, but he usually succeeds in whatever short term quest he’s on.  Here, the book he’s looking for crumbles in his hands.

The last two adventures are drawn by Michael T Gilbert and George Freeman.  The stories themselves are meh, but there are some interesting art choices:

Foot worship isn't something you normally see in comics.

Very Frank Miller Sin City.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Elric: Vanishing Tower 1-6

Jan Duursema takes over on art.  I suspect a combination of reading Elric for the fifth day in a row and no nostalgia for these last two miniseries is the reason for my waning appreciation for these stories.  Still, there are a few highlights:

Noose of Flesh?  Ew.

These horses look extremely Walt Simonson.

Simonson on Thor.

Moorcock literally came up with Pokemon twenty-four years earlier:

This is straight out of Tolkien, the awarding of specific items from a huge treasure hoard:

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Didn’t suck

Elric: Stormbringer 1-2

P. Craig Russell returns to Elric over ten years later.  His art has undoubtedly grown more polished, but there’s a restraint to it that somehow makes it less suitable for the untethered imagination of Moorcock’s stories.  The wild abandon of Russell’s earlier work makes for better Elric illustration than these pages. It’s still great to look at, but it lacks the energy of the previous incarnations.  

Elric adventures like he's doing improv.  He says yes to everything, no matter how crazy.

He looks so cool with both dark swords.

Also, his adaptation of Moorcock’s prose is less adept than Roy Thomas’ in the old series - He’s too wordy here, and reading through it is a major grind.  

So much to read!

Moorcock does not do a good job of writing women.  They’re either queens who want to sleep with Elric or damsels in distress.  The one in this story, Elric’s new wife, is both. She’s not even given the dignity of any lines.  She’s merely a prop to propel the story along.

I didn’t buy the last five issues of this.  I imagine I grew as weary of the wordiness back then as I did now.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

And that’s the end of the box!

Box Summary:

Time spent reading: 24 hours 44 minutes

Issues read: 199

Issues cut: 10

Highlights (Good or better): Deathmatch 1-12.  Not much that stood out but very little that was worth cutting, either.  

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 18 days, 21 hours, 19 minutes

Issues read: 3694

Issues cut: 487