THE MICHAEL MOORCOCK LIBRARY: ELRIC: THE MAKING OF A SORCERER - graphic novel

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

Sometime about the mid-1970's I discovered Michael Moorcock's Elric books and became a big fan of the series. When I saw that there was a graphic novel, written by Moorcock, that told the origin of the albino, I was definitely interested.

Sometimes there are books you are interested in reading and you eagerly open it up and quickly realize that the book you're looking at really needs your full attention and this is not the time to read it. That was the case for me with this book. I first opened it about a year ago, got a chapter in and realized that I was not ready for this book - I needed to read it when I could give it my fullest attention. I'm quite glad that I waited.

This is Michael Moorcock. That means that it is FULL f meaning, intensity, complication, history, potential. Nothing is wasted which means every word has implications.

It's an origin story, but I'm really not sure how much this will appeal to someone not already familiar with the character(s).

There's a lot to take in here as Elric's father tries to decide who should take the reigns and look after Melniboné. Should it be the anemic Elric or Elric's evil cousin Yrkoon? Meanwhile, Elric is in love with Cymoril, who happens to be Yrkoon's sister. And Yrkoon's got some twisted, romantic plans for her as well.

But that's mortal stuff. Elric's got some bigger issues - there are gods who toy with him and gods who are happy to get rid of him, though he proves himself at every turn that he's more than capable of going toe to toe with them. Though sometimes he needs a little help - which comes by way of a powerful sword, which brings about its own troubles, which .... Do you see why it gets complicated and intense?

There is magic and dragons and different realms that Elric must travel to in order to save his people.

Moorcock is the man behind the words, but the art plays a tremendous role here as well.  Walt Simonson is the illustrator and his work is every bit as intense and complicated as Moorcock's story. Initially, a year ago, this turned me off and it was a big reason why I had to wait for a better time to tackle the book. 

The art is busy ... BUSY ... with detail. In his afterword, Simonson even notes that he drew this book in a format twice the published size (whereas the standard is 1.5 times). I was not at all surprised to read that, given how much each panel was filled with detail.

It definitely took me some time to get accustomed to this. I went from overwhelmed to appreciative as I got deeper into the story. I was not a fan of how Elric was depicted, but I grew up with the incredible Michael Whelan book covers, and that's how the character was to me. But as I went on I came to really understand this P. Craig Russell look. Near the end I noted how Jack Kirby-like some of the artwork seemed. From the "New Gods" look:

to the heavy, block-y inking:

Overall, an almost transformative experience, but you have to really be receptive to it.  This is not light reading and even just paging through the art will take some time.

This is going on my wish list. While I appreciate the digital ARC, I really want a physical copy to enjoy.

Looking for a good book? Fans of Michael Moorcock's Elric will want to read the origin story found in the graphic novel The Michael Moorcock Library: Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

The Michael Moorcock Library: Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer

author: Michael Moorcock

artist: Walt Simonson

publisher: Titan Comics

ISBN: 9781787741560

hardcover, 208 pages

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