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the late eighties. The first three sets were also compiled as bound graphic novels. The sequence was stopped by Moorcock before Stormbringer, due to deterioration in the quality of the artwork, although a new graphic version of the novel, adapted by P. Craig Russell, was finally serialized in the USA for Topps/Dark Horse Comics in 1997 (compiled as a bound graphic novel a year later). Most recently, of course, two new Moorcock-scripted tales, “Duke Elric” and Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, have developed the saga further still.

Also heavily and ornately illustrated are the various rule books and supplements for Elric-related role-playing games from the American companies, Chaosium (whose best-known Stormbringer has itself been revised and massively expanded several times) and more recently Mongoose Publishing with their Elric of Melniboné.

Elric ephemera has become quite a major industry, and if the long-awaited Elric movie comes to fruition, such things can only be expected to blossom. There have already been collectable cards, die-cast miniatures, dolls, jigsaw puzzles, model-kits, posters, T-shirts and, of course, records.

Moorcock’s musical involvement with several rock bands, including his own, is well known. He wrote an Elric-related song, “Black Blade,” for Blue Öyster Cult, but it is Hawkwind who have used the albino prince to the best effect. In 1985, they released the album The Chronicle of the Black Sword, and went on an accompanying theatrical concert tour—sometimes featuring Moorcock on stage with the band—which also gave rise to a live album, Live Chronicles, and video/DVD, some versions of which include Moorcock performances.

Quite what the ever-taciturn Elric would make of all this attention, I am not sure. He has already endured far more than those first nine novellas would have had us believe possible. Have we really now seen the last of him? Only time will tell …

ORIGINS

Early artwork associated with Elric’s first appearances in magazines and books

Original artwork by Marc Moreno, for La Revanche de la Rose (The Revenge of the Rose), French edition, Pocket Books, 2006.

Original artwork by Marc Moreno, for La Forteresse de la Perle (The Fortress of the Pearl), French edition, Pocket Books, 2005.

Original artwork by Guillaume Sorel, for Elric et la Porte des Mondes (Elric and the Gate of Worlds), first edition of an original anthology of new Elric stories in French, Fleuve Noir Books, 2006.

(“Empire [of] Melniboné”) map by H. , 1992, appeared in (The Dreaming City/The Sleeping Sorceress), Terra Fantastica, 2001.

Cover artwork by Yael Bar-Dayan, for an Israeli translation of The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Yanshuf Books, 2005.

Cover artwork by Howard V. Chaykin, for Elric, self-published portfolio, 1975.

Cover artwork by Frank Brunner, for Star*Reach Greatest Hits, 1979; lead stories: “Elric of Melniboné” by Brunner, and “The Prisoner of Pan Tang” by Eric Kimball and Robert Gould.

A page from “The Green Empress of Melniboné,” by Barry Windsor-Smith and Roy Thomas (plotted by Moorcock and Cawthorn), the second half of a story begun with “A Sword Called Stormbringer,” first appearing in Conan the Barbarian Nos. 14 and 15, March and May 1972.

“The World of Elric” map by John Collier and Walter Romanski, 1976 (based on the map by Cawthorn and Moorcock), first published in Elric of Melniboné (and all subsequent DAW Elric books). This corrected version, previously unpublished, courtesy John Collier.

“Elric in the Young Kingdoms” map by John Collier, 2009. This updated version, including placenames from the 2007 novella “Black Petals,” previously unpublished.

Interior artwork by Philippe Druillet, from Elric le Necromancien, Éditions Opta, 1969, later reproduced in Elric: The Return to Melniboné (1973).

“L’Ère des Jeunes Royaumes” (“The Age of the Young Kingdoms”) map by Philippe Druillet, first appeared (loose-leaf) in Elric le Necromancien, Éditions Opta, 1969.

Cover artwork by Robert Gould, for The Revenge of the Rose, first American edition, Ace