PREVIEW: Elric: The Ruby Throne

[CBR News]

A stunning new comic adaptation of the classic Elric of Melniboné novels by Michael Moorcock!
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!
Lavishly illustrated, this new comic adaptation has been produced with the full and enthusiastic endorsement of Moorcock himself, who has written an original introduction for this edition.


Full preview here.

[AndrewDTurnbull]

I didn't know we were getting a new set of Elric comics. The preview pages look fantastic the artist really has a good handle on the look and feel of Elric in those few panels.

I'll definitely be picking this up in September.

[Geralt of Rivia]

Think Im going to have my LCS special order this for me, I have never seen a Titan book on their racks; and I do not want to miss out on a new Elric adaptation - specially one that looks like this!

[FanboyStranger]

The rumor on this is that Moorcock wasn't aware that the book was being produced (having not been so diligent on following his European rights), asked for a copy to see if he wanted to pursue any action, and was absolutely blown away by the art when he recieved it. He's completely enthusiastic about these adaptations. Considering how good some of the past Elric comics have been, that's a major recommendation.

[thetrellan]

Really not that impressed with the art. The guy knows his stuff, sure, but we're talking about a character that was once illustrated by the likes of Peter Craig Russel. I know it's been a long time since then, but those are really big shoes to fill, and not many have measured up.

RussellElric3.jpg

[James]

very much looking forward to this collection. the only comic of elric i've previously read was the chris roberson written volume from boom!, which i enjoyed quite a bit.

[MartinNL]

I got this book in Dutch yesterday because I too was blown away by the art in the preview pages. I'll try and put a review up on our blog this weekend.

Titan should be pumping out a lot more European comics in the future such as Void with Sean Phillips and also The Third Testament with Alex Alice of Siegfried.

[SpideyClone]

"The glory of Melnibone has not be forgeded in the hush of libraries". Wow, they might want to take another pass at proofreading before publishing this...

[Mjolnir]

So I know there are other comic adaptations of Elric, but is what Titan doing is “rebooting” so to speak or does this story exist within the continuity/universe of the other adaptations? Because this looks really good as a great starting point, but if there are others within this timeline, I might need to track them down.

[Chintzy Beatnik]

Looks very cool. I'm on board to order this.

[AndrewDTurnbull]

It looks like a straight adaptation of the first Elric story, given it's set on Melnibone and Cymoril is with him. I imagine it's a new set of adaptation with nothing to do with the Pacific/First/Topps/DC comics published previously.

[Mjolnir]

It looks like a straight adaptation of the first Elric story, given it's set on Melnibone and Cymoril is with him. I imagine it's a new set of adaptation with nothing to do with the Pacific/First/Topps/DC comics published previously.

I'm so tempted to grab this, but the risk of picking this up is if it doesn't do very well by whatever standards the publisher is looking for, we might not get any more adaptations like this and then here I am with a volume 1. How many actual novels were published and was there ever an ending that Michael Moorcock wrote?

I'm a big fan of Dark Horse's Conan series and loved the few Kull adaptations they did, but it didn't sell well apparently and Dark Horse never did any more adaptations. Kinda sucks to be stuck with a partially adapted piece of work.

[shaxper]

Really not that impressed with the art. The guy knows his stuff, sure, but we're talking about a character that was once illustrated by the likes of Peter Craig Russel. I know it's been a long time since then, but those are really big shoes to fill, and not many have measured up.

RussellElric3.jpg

Definitely my favorite Elric artist (as well as my favorite Elric adaptation yet).

Still, Elric adaptations are a lot like pizza. Even bad pizza is never all that bad.

[FanboyStranger]

Definitely my favorite Elric artist (as well as my favorite Elric adaptation yet).

Still, Elric adaptations are a lot like pizza. Even bad pizza is never all that bad.

We've been really lucky with the artists for Elric comics. I mean, P Craig Russell, Frank Brunner, and Walt Simonson! Francesco Biagini's art for the BOOM! series was quite good, too.

The thing I love about Moorcock is that he's always been a booster of comics. He wrote quite a few for Mick Anglo back in the '50s and '60s. Anything he's done with the Eternal Champion in comics is considered canon for his complete body of work, even the Daker character he came up with for Howard Chaykin in The Sword of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell, who gets namechecked in a few passages here and there.

[Anis]

I'm so tempted to grab this, but the risk of picking this up is if it doesn't do very well by whatever standards the publisher is looking for, we might not get any more adaptations like this and then here I am with a volume 1. How many actual novels were published and was there ever an ending that Michael Moorcock wrote?

I wonder about the same thing. I love the preview but it'd be better if the book is self-contained in case they aren't releasing the next volume..