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Ring of the Nibelung

hashmal

01:59 / 28.09.04

has anyone read P. Craig Russell's adaptation of wagner's ring saga? i'm tempted to buy the copies my local store has as i've always wanted to read the ring saga (ie, the old pagan one before that catholic tolkien bastardised it with the christ mythos) and figure comic form may be the way to go given my current harried schedule. couldn't find a thread on it. has anyone here read it?

doctorbeck

11:51 / 28.09.04

was this the one by eclipse comics? there were ads i think in some old miracleman comics years and years ago but i have never seen a copy. shame as when i went to see part 2 of the ring cycle i was thinking 'i wish i'd read the comic of this beforehand so i know what the hell is going on'
must be worth a look just for oddness value
a

sleazenation

12:03 / 28.09.04

No, this was serialised by Dark Horse around 2000. P. Craig Russell, an avowed opera lover has adapted a wide variety of operas, mainly Wagnerian, into the comic form - some of which came out via Eclipse - i think Parsifal was one of these...

FinderWolf

14:29 / 28.09.04

This is just a fantastic comic. I don't know the opera itself very well, but the comic blows me away - the script is intelligent and the art is the real star. I've saved these for the better part of a year, not wanting to bag them & put them away in boxes because they're just so amazing...I also want to draw from P. Craig Russell's art because it's just a lesson in genuis to study and do sketches from his stuff.

Jack Fear

14:36 / 28.09.04

Russell had been doing Wagner adaptations on and off for many years before his full-length RING cycle.

Somewhat confusingly, DC Comics did its own adaptation--this would've been late 80s, early 90s...

Not terribly successful, I'm afraid. Genius though he was, Gil Kane seemed a terrible mismatch with the material, and the borderless, Neal-Adams-style layouts he was using simply muddled the action.

And God knows what possessed Roy Thomas, of all people, to think he could do Wagner... I tried it, honestly, but I couldn't make it past DAS RHEINGOLD. Utterly ham-fisted.

But hey! Jim Woodring working on a DC Comic! Who'd'a thunk it?

This was TPB'd, but I'm pretty sure it's out of print. If it isn't, it should be.

FinderWolf

15:31 / 28.09.04

I didn't think Gil Kane's version was badly mismatched, I just think Kane's is like a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10, whereas P. Craig Russell's is a 12 out of 10.

But thanks for remining us of the previous Kane version - very cool.

Haus of Mystery

17:18 / 28.09.04

Ahh yes. Back in the halcyon days of 'prestige' format when you could wrap any old twaddle up in cardboard with the added promise of 'maturity'
*sigh*

grant

17:25 / 28.09.04

Weird that the cover layout would be so identical to the Russell one.

And Woodring? Doing not only DC, but opera?

Jack Fear

17:53 / 28.09.04

Identical? You think?

I mean, it's pretty much a given that a SIEGFRIED cover would feature a hunky dude with a sword and crypto-Germanic typeface. Beyond those unavoidable similarities, what's the same?

If anything, I think the TPB cover...

...is a dead ringer for this DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN cover...

Haus of Mystery

18:28 / 28.09.04

Interesting. But how does it link to 9/11?

grant

16:36 / 30.09.04

Ah! I remember now! It's the same FONT on the front cover, and the circle w/ image (of a dragon, I think) on the BACK cover. And, I think, a similar wallpapery background image there, too.

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