Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser
Dark Horse

Writer: Howard Chaykin
Artist: Mike Mignola

My introduction to the idea of sword wielding heroes battling mysterious evils in strange lands didn’t come from Howard, Burroughs or even Moorcock; no my first taste of sword and sorcery was a beat up old paperback book I found lying around my grammar school common room one lunch time. Why on earth I should pick up a book called “Swords of Lankhmar” I had no idea, I was more into stories of World War 2 tank squadrons at the time. But pick it up I did. Within a few pages I was hooked.

Since that day Fritz Lieber’s lead characters of the large bearded ‘Northerner”, Fafhrd, and his sly accomplice, The Gray Mouser, have remained my personal archetypes of the “barbarian hero.” They mean far more to me than Conan, John Carter or Elric.

They also seemed a natural fit for the graphical world of comic book story telling. Over the years a few attempts have been made to translate Lieber’s works to the comics medium. Arguably the best of these was the 1990 mini-series published under the Marvel Epic imprint written by Howard Chaykin and illustrated by Mike Mignola.

A few years earlier Chaykin, a self confessed Lieber fan, had written a few stories set in the world of Lankhmar, but in adapting some of Lieber’s short stories for this mini-series he raised his game and perfectly caught the wit and underlying social commentary of Lieber’s allegorical tales. The atmospheric nature of the tales and their various settings, from urban to fantastic, from subterranean to supernatural, are perfectly captured by the art of a pre-Hellboy Mike Mignola.

Now Dark Horse has collected the long out of print and difficult to find series in a single volume that deserves a place on the bookshelves of any discerning comics or fantasy fan. The collection includes seven adapted comics stories plus a short text piece by Lieber.

I’d recommend the book for those who’d like to discover the worlds of Lankhmar as well as for those who wish to experience them anew. I can think of no better way to experience the adventures of these two great characters.