Posted by Horrid, April 5, 2007
Few adventure characters can compare to Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné. Conan is indestructible, John Carter unbeatable, Tarzan one lucky fuck, and Aragorn is just wishy-washy. But Elric, poor Elric, is the most tragic goth hero I have ever read. An albino prince born of an elder race of snobby pervy sadists, Elric conspires against his own race and accidentally kills everyone he cares about because his sword, Stormbringer, is hungry for souls. Elric personally fucks up an entire army, kills devils, random buddies, his wife and also his first love. Oh, and he also brings about the end of his world. He has some good luck and does some good deeds, but that really doesn’t satisfy him. Stormbringer controls him and is always hungry for souls that empower Elric, who is sickly and weak without his badass sword. What a lucky guy. He pines and pines and kills and kills, drinks and moans and kills some more.
Michael Moorcock, Elric’s creator, has written over fifty novels and has won a shit load of awards including the Nebula and the Bram Stoker. He has publicly criticized Robert Heinlein and H.P. Lovecraft for their political views and lifestyles (he compared Heinlein's Starship Troopers to Mein Kampf, for it’s xenophobic views and accused H.P. Lovecraft for having racist viewpoints.) He also criticized Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy for their 'Merry England' point of view, comparing it to Winnie-the-Pooh! (The essay is called Epic Pooh.) Though he heckled the books, Moorcock liked Tolkien personally. Other authors he likes even though he parodies are Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.
Moorcock has written lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult, collaborated with Hawkwind (Lemmy from Motorhead used to be in Hawkwind) and inspired countless metal bands like 3 Inches of Blood, Blind Guardian, Summoning, Domine, Diamond Head and Cirith Ungol. He has also collaborated on a graphic novel with Neil Gaiman and some of his characters appear in Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Elric has been seen in comic book form from Dark Horse and his stories have been told in Heavy Metal magazine. Elric references have surfaced in the video game Castlevania, and on TV shows Alias and Babylon AD. Nerd-fest!
Michael Moorcock was born December 18, 1939, in London, England. He was mistakenly reported as dead which he himself heard about at a Hawkwind concert when he was really, really stoned. That would suck.
Pictured here are renditions of Elric done by Michael Whelan.