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Underground > Comic Books >

The Fantasy Genre in Comics

  
 
casemaker
17:33 / 30.11.06
I'm considering pitching a fantasy comic to Dark Horse over my winter break. It doesn’t seem that fantasy is much of a successful genre in comics anymore. I'm curious why that it is, and what elements make a good fantasy story in comics as opposed to film or prose.

Recently I think Mouse Guard is well done, and I've read the first issue of Ellis’ Wolfskin. But I'm thinking of doing something more akin to His Dark Materials or The Dark Tower. Are there well-done examples of comics like this? Would you consider Hellboy fantasy? Or Fables?

More specificcally, is there something about sword/sorcery tales that just doesn’t catch the average reader’s interest? Are they just poorly written? Or is there something about their structure that isn’t as appealing as the superhero genre?
 
 
Jared Louderback
18:18 / 30.11.06
Well, Neil Gaiman's Sandman is often hailed as some of the best comics. I don't know about that, but they were pretty good, and that was definatly high fantasy. Bone was basically fantasy, and it did very well, but it was more fantasy humor, I guess. Cerebus was definatly fantasy, and did pretty well for a small press comic. The Conan comics have been going for a while, but I've not read any of them, so I can't speak to the quality of them. I'd consider Hellboy sort of Horror/Fantasy, or Lovecraftian Fantasy, if there is such a thing.

I think one of the problems is that a lot of comic readers might think that a lot of fantasy is goofy or pretentious or cliched (although there is some good stuff, that's how I feel about a lot of it), while the average guy who reads fantasy might look down on the medium of comics as childish. That's my theory.
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
18:29 / 30.11.06
Might be time to dust off my idea for a 'Is Sword and Sorcery irideemable?' thread.

Might be time to learn to spell 'irideeeemable', as well.

I know I'm their bitch, but the Savoy adaptations of some of the early Moorcock stuff ('Jewel in the Skull' etc), with art by the fantastic James Cawthorn are well worth checking out. That, however, is specifically Sword & Sorcery. Fantasy is a bit of a broader term. Do you mean muscled barbarian types thumping anything with a lyre, or a broader (perhaps gentler/more mythological) approach to setting and mood?
 
 
Mario
18:48 / 30.11.06
Here's the thing...

Unless we are talking "urban" or "dark" fantasy (which is borderline horror) the trickiest part of a fantasy story is the world-building. (This may be why some of the most popular fantasy comics are adaptations of prose works... the hard work is already done).

And, in an ongoing comic, you need a universe that can hold up to lengthly use... You can't always get away with heroic warriors, aged sorcerors, and annoying sidekicks. Can a kingdom function when it's under continual attack, issue after issue, by a big bad? Or if the Big Bad is in charge... what happens between attacks by the heroes?

This may also be why, in more mundane universes, heroes who are kings tend to get deposed fairly often... it's HARD to write about royalty.
 
 
This Sunday
19:37 / 30.11.06
I think it's that 'sword and sorcery' as a genre, is awful limiting in some very artificial ways. Most genres or even subgenres are more open, but there you've necessitated a king/feudal set-up, magick, so that your sociopolitical, occupational, and even time-and-place options are often very stock. Stock equals BLAH! unless it's being deliberately subverted or played to the goddammed hilt.

The genre tends to contain a lot of we-like-our-monarch/overlord/bourgeois security, repressive or rightwing values, and the myth of the simpler, purer past. Then there's 'The Once and Future King' style, the 'Dark Tower' style, and whatever it was precisely that Eddings (or - the - Eddings, I suppose is more apt, on reflection) was trying to do.
 
 
grant
19:39 / 30.11.06
Ring of the Nibelung was fucking rad.

By P. Craig Russell and Matt Wagner's DAAAAAD.
 
 
The Falcon
20:02 / 30.11.06
The recent-ish rerelease of John Smith's 'Firekind' is about the only thing that springs to this mind; Smith apparently, I discovered reading a 2000AD interview with him has actually linked most've his stuff with a very Moorcockian multiverse device (I've not read enough to quote anything here) and, of course, there are some Moorcock comics - normally Elric, normally (ace) Walt Simonson art, but I can't vouch for the quality sadly, because I do not know. Not great if those two Tom Strong issues he wrote are anything to go by.
 
 
Benny the Ball
04:31 / 01.12.06
Thor worked very well when evoking the fantasy elements, more so, I felt, than when trying to do crippled human doctor as hero storylines. Dragonlance never really worked that well, but Elfquest seemed work okay (it was never readily available when I was younger, so I never followed a story for more than a couple of issues) - I think though that an earlier poster is right, there seems to be a bit of snobbery from comic book fans against fantasy fans and vice versa, the two don't mix well, creators seem to enjoy them more than fans.
 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
13:43 / 01.12.06
Dude! Crossgen!!!


Oh, wait...
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:05 / 03.12.06
I'd like to see Mieville try his hand at comics, to be honest- apart from anything else, I don't know this for sure, but he strikes me as the sort of guy who probably reads the damn things anyway (c'mon, he's a geek), and wouldn't just see it as doing the same thing he already does but with pictures. But beyond that, I'd love to see some of his creations, and I don't think the movies'd give him a big enough budget.
 
 
casemaker
15:50 / 03.12.06
I was actually thinking the same thing. Perdido Streeet Station did such a great job of injecting variety and unpredictability back into fantasy. He would make amazing comics. He’s really what got me thinking about trying this pitch. The genre can be invigorating; it just needs to stretch beyond the scope of sword and sorcery’s well tread archetypes. There's even that section in Perdido where three D&D type characters enter the story, are slighted in the narration as opportunistic adventurers and promptly killed off.

I thought of Thor too. More specifically, the Asgardian Wars stories from Claremont’s X-men work really well. Maybe I’m just nostalgic from reading them when I was younger, but I think they still hold up. Loki has all these crazy Kirby outfits with wild helms.

I’d like to see a fantasy comic story that moves away from the feudal lord, Middle Earth stuff and more into themes of globalization and colonialism.
 
 
sleazenation
16:22 / 03.12.06
Speaking as a comic reader, I have a bit of an aversion to the genre of sword and/or sorcery in comics. The genre doesn't really do anything for me and I'd be less likely to pick up a new sword and/or sorcery book than, well something in another genre. I never really got into Seven Soldiers, but genre of The Shining Knight really was the thing to got me to stop buying the series of series.

(Other genre turn-offs for me include Westerns and stories set in US Highschools, something that really prevented me from ever really getting into Buffy)
 
 
DavidXBrunt
18:09 / 03.12.06
Yeah, Smithy has managed to link most of his stories. The Indigo Prime and Tyranny Rex stories explicitly and links with shared characters that connect, say, Firekind to Judge Dredd via Pussyfoot 5 and Devlin Waugh.

Ian Edginton set out to write a fantasy story that avoided the cliches of the genre. What he came up with was the glorious tale 'The Red Seas' which is...more fun than you can possibly imagine. The first story predated 'Pirates of the Carribean', which is worth mentioning as it's Pirates, Zombies, magic and so on. The second series mixed in the Arabian Nights and the third and fourh saw PIRATES VERSES DINOSAURS AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH!!!!! (a sentence that needs, nay demands, caps and exclamation marks) Fantasy, Pirates, Edginton, Steve Yeowell.

Because I'm a cliche I'm also going to mention the often shaky but always idea filled Slaine sage that Pat Mills has been working on, on and off, for the best part of a quater of a century. Since 2000 A.D. was a far off future, in fact. Over the years there have been peaks (Horned God maybe) and troughs (The Secret Commonwealth) but the fantasy elements have always been a welcome contrast to the sci-fi Thrills of the future. At it's best when it's a basic big bloke with a sword and his sly little sidekick fighting monsters it's probably the best researched fantasy comic of all time. Sometimes there's so much research Pat Mills hasn't been able to fit any story in.

Two thirds of the recent 'Books of Invasion' with CLint Langley art are out in fancy hardback with the final collection promised soon. In it Slaine battles the Ordacons and eventually leads his people into the safety of the Horned Goddess' realm. Mostly Ukko free it's a more straight and sensible fantasy story than the majority of the stories and Clint Langleys photo shop crazed art has the plus of not looking quite like any other Slaine story before this point.

The earliest Slaine stories have also still in print in Rebellions 'Slaine Warriors Dawn' and for honest to goodness sword and sorcery adventure with ancient legends re-interpretted into a surprisingly good adventure. Angie Kincaid (nee what was it again?) drew the first episode and it's remembered for the stunning Mike McMahon art on stories like Sky Chariots but perhaps the Massimo Belardinelli art that makes up most of that collection will surprise most for the sheer eccentricity and charm.
 
  
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