I have a fantasy piece odd-couple on the slow boil - arguably influenced by Fritz Lieber's
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series (I've inserted a image from the Dark Horse comics adaptation of that to the opening post). However, I've been looking at ways in which to make it more refreshing, unique, and different. I do like to challenge tropes.
Boy Lieber's
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser was a revelation to me.
My maternal great grandmother had a big old Victorian house in Sherman Texas and an old dusty library with books that seemed unread for years. There I found a hardbound copies of
Tarzan and
Princess of Mars and some copies of Weird Tales from the 1930s. On visits I read the Burroughs books when I was 12 years old. The old magazines had Conan stories in them. I remember liking the Tarzan novel (I never saw another Tarzan novel until the reprint scandal ) , I did like the Howard sword and sorcery better than the John Carter.
Next year I turned 13 and discovered Heinlein , that killed reading Burroughs or Howard pretty much forever.
I did not know until my 20s that sword and sorcery could be not-adolescent when I read
Lord of the Rings , which I liked a lot. A friend suggested Lieber and had a copy of
Two Sought Adventure. I liked that and followed world of Nehwon as best I could tho I have a lot of gaps.
I am not a fan of Sword and Sorcery but the Lieber stories , like the Martian Song of Ice and Fire are pitched at a higher and more adult level that pulls me in.
There is probably other S&S that I am missing because I like science fiction better.
I do wonder if anyone has considered Lankhmar as a suitable visual narrative?
I am I am still surprised at Game of Thrones success, … I have liked that show from the get go.