Friday evening at Book People was an awesome evening meeting my favorite Fantasy-Multiverse author, 20-year resident of Texas…Michael Moorcock! Outside of fans (both Fantasy and Metal) and D&D players, he probably isn’t well known so the easiest answer I can give you is he created the anti-Conan, Elric of Melniboné. While Conan is the muscle-bound adventurer wandering the earth helping those in need who started from the bottom, Elric is an albino weakling who once sat on the Ruby Throne of a decadent empire, indifferent to the suffering of others. Moorcock also created additional well-loved characters: Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekosë, and Jerry Cornelius. The accoutrements these heroes carried were incorporated into D&D too: soul-devourering black swords (Stormbringer), the Hand and Eye of Vecna (the same parts from a dead god grafted on to Corum) readily come to mind.
The occasion to see him in person was the release of his latest novel The Whispering Swarm which is a mixed Autobiography/Fantasy novel. From Moorcock’s reading of a couple passages, I get the impression he’s a character in the story. It wouldn’t be the first time, one comic-book series he did for DC had him and artist Walt Simonson become visible participants.
Afterwards it was time to have some Q&A. Elric may finally appear on TV or film. There are plans for two more novels to the Whispering Swarm‘s series, he likes to work in trilogies. As expected, somebody had to bring up Tolkien. Moorcock was very humorous explaining how Fantasy didn’t exist as a genre before and after Tolkien’s new fame from The Lord of the Rings, many Sci-Fi writer friends hated the author because publishers mis-classified the famous trilogy as Post-Apocalyptic or Far Future material. Plus Tolkien shared a common snobby attitude toward not having his novels printed in America. English creators feared their works being gobbled up and ruined by Hieronymus Disney. Moorcock had the opportunity to meet the professor when he was a teenager as well. He was impressed by the man’s intelligence but he could never read any of Tolkien’s books, they’re too condescending and dull. The Hobbit I disagree, LoTR absolutely, Fellowship was a chore and I got through 50 pages of Towers, ditched the series. The movies don’t leave out anything important in my opinion. Moorcock concluded with a hilarious coup de grace, “I did see the first Hobbit movie and afterwards felt sorry for the man.”
My face time with Moorcock was memorable. He is very generous when it comes to autographs and talking with his audience, predominantly male I’m bummed to see. I asked him how he liked Cerebus the Aardvark‘s parody of Elric as Elrod of Melvinbone. Moorcock said he enjoyed it, found the take funny yet never cared for Dave Sim’s misogyny toward women. Why Elric had that dorky, pointy hat in Conan comics wasn’t Barry Windsor-Smith or Roy Thomas’ doing, it was a Marvel guy Moorcock liked but remains agitated over.
I can’t wait to read this latest novel. Once I finish a couple other more “serious” tomes, Moorcock’s latest is on deck! Oh, the Texas connection. Around the same time I came to Austin, he and his American wife moved to Bastrop. They originally wanted to live in the city, there just weren’t any old houses to their liking. I remain stoked to having met him; we did meet 15 years ago, I just didn’t get any pictures. The man provided hours of ideas, entertainment and imagination through his novels I got hooked on in high school.