Michael Moorcock's Multiverse | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Helix, an imprint of DC Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Limited series |
Publication date | 1997 - 1998 |
No. of issues | 12 |
Main character(s) | I: Rose, Sam Oakenhurst, Jack Karaquazian, Michael Moorcock II: Sir Seaton Begg, Rose von Bek, Dr Taffy Sinclair, Count Zodiac ContentsIII: Duke Elric, Rose |
Creative team | |
Created by | Michael Moorcock |
Written by | Michael Moorcock |
Artist(s) | I: Walter Simonson, II: Mark Reeve, III: John Ridgway |
Colorist(s) | Tatjana Wood |
Editor(s) | Stuart Moore |
Collected editions | |
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse | ISBN 1-56389-516-1 |
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series published in 1997 as a part of the short-lived DC Comics imprint Helix. It was later collected as a single edition graphic novel. Written by Michael Moorcock, each monthly issue contained a chapter from three separate storylines featuring distinct groups of characters lifted from Moorcock's sprawling Eternal Champion novels.
A different artist illustrated each story; Walter Simonson for Moonbeams and Roses, Mark Reeve for The Metatemporal Detective and John Ridgway for Duke Elric. Whilst each story depicted an independent series of events set across different locations and time-lines, by the conclusion of the title the three plot threads had converged in a logical manner centred on their mutual search for the Silverskin, an enigmatic underworld crime figure and recurring protagonist from Moorcock's novels. [1]
Despite a positive reception in comparison with other Helix titles, critics remarked that the title was not the best introduction to Moorcock's work. [1]
Each of the three tales is set within a distinct aspect of the multiverse that Moorcock has built up over four decades in his novels and short stories about the Eternal Champion :
...the Multiverse isn't a globe. Time isn't cyclic. There is no real linearity. The Multiverse is a tree root and branch, a living organism. A creature. Like me. Forever adapting and changing. Like us, made up of spheres, but it's not itself spherical. We've evolved beyond the merely spheroid, I hope...... [2]
The first tale, I:Moonbeams and Roses, is set in the Terminal Cafe, in present-day Biloxi, Mississippi where Jack Karaquazian indulges in meta-universal games of chance with an assortment of leading characters from the Moorcock novels, together with Moorcock himself, and later, artist Walter Simonson. Somewhat impenetrable, the story tracks the adventures of Rose, who originally appeared in the novel The Revenge of the Rose (1991) and Sam Oakenhurst, hero of Blood (1995) and subsequent novels [1] as their progress towards Silverskin is manipulated at each turn by the unseen players of the Game.
II:The Metatemporal Detective is set in the inter-war period and follows Sir Seaton Begg and his off-sider Dr Taffy Sinclair from the eponymous novel sleuthing an array of crimes Sherlock Holmes-style, including the murder of Adolf Hitler's incestuous girlfriend and niece.
The final tale III:Duke Elric features the popular albino emperor Elric of Melniboné displaced from his fantastical world and transported to the Europe and the Middle East of 1000 AD. Here he pursues a quest to uncover certain artifacts which will allow him freedom to confront King Silverskin and to return to his home world.
The three plot-lines converge in a single narrative in the final issue of the title, The Harmonies of Chaos (drawn by Walter Simonson) as Elric confronts the Silverskin and its connection to Moorcock's multiverse is revealed.
Corum Jhaelen Irsei is the name of a fictional fantasy hero in a series of novels written by Michael Moorcock. The character was introduced in the novel The Knight of Swords, published in 1971. This was followed by two other books published during the same year, The Queen of Swords and The King of Swords. The three novels are collectively known as the "Corum Chronicles trilogy" or "the Chronicles of Corum". Both The Knight of the Swords and The King of the Swords won the August Derleth Award in 1972 and 1973 respectively. The character then starred in three books making up the "Silver Hand trilogy", and has appeared in other stories taking place in Moorcock's multiverse.
Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character is Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion.
Stormbringer is a magic sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. It is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes, created by the forces of Chaos. The sword has a will of its own and it is hinted that the sword may be controlled by an inhabiting entity. It is wielded by the doomed albino emperor Elric of Melniboné. Stormbringer makes its first appearance in the 1961 novella The Dreaming City. In the four novellas collected in the 1965 book Stormbringer, the sword's true nature is revealed.
Jerry Cornelius is a fictional character created by English author Michael Moorcock. The character is an urban adventurer and an incarnation of the author's Eternal Champion concept. Cornelius is a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous gender. Many of the same characters feature in each of several Cornelius books, though the individual books have little connection with one another, having a more metafictional than causal relationship. The first Jerry Cornelius book, The Final Programme, was made into a 1973 film starring Jon Finch and Jenny Runacre. Notting Hill in London features prominently in the stories.
The Eternal Champion is a fictional character created by British author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his speculative fiction works.
Monsieur Zenith the Albino is an ambiguous villain created by writer Anthony Skene for the "Sexton Blake" series of detective pulp fiction.
Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.
Philip Craig Russell is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay.
Walter Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.
Helix was a short-lived science fiction and science fantasy imprint of DC Comics, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 1998. In early promotional materials prior to the release of the first title, the imprint was called Matrix instead of Helix. It was renamed because of the then-upcoming film, The Matrix. It featured a handful of ongoing monthly series, several limited series, and one short graphic novel.
The History of the Runestaff is an omnibus collection of four fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, consisting of The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn, and The Runestaff. Charting the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon, a version of the Eternal Champion, it takes place in a far-future version of Europe in which the insane rulers of the Dark Empire of Granbretan are engaged in conquering the continent. Written between 1967 and 1969, it is considered a classic of the genre, and has proven highly influential in shaping subsequent authors' works.
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that comprise all of reality.
The Eternal Champion is a fantasy novel by Michael Moorcock that introduces the hero known as both John Daker and Erekosë. Originally written in the late 1950s, it constitutes the first novel of Moorcock's sprawling Eternal Champion series. The tale was first published in 1962 as a magazine novella Moorcock expanded the novella to novel length for publication in 1970. He revised the text for its 1978 publication. Along with expanding the original story, the novel makes some minor changes to narration and scenes, and also includes references to other short stories by Moorcock. The Eternal Champion is the first in a trilogy of novels known as the Erekosë series. The sequel novels are Phoenix in Obsidian, and The Dragon in the Sword (1987).
Michael Terry Gilbert is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked for both mainstream and underground comic book companies.
The Metatemporal Detective is a collection of short fiction by British fantasy and literary writer Michael Moorcock.
Una Persson is a recurring character in many of Michael Moorcock's 'multiverse' novels. She has also been used as a character in stories by other writers. She was the character Moorcock chose to start a round-robin story in The Guardian.
This is a bibliography of the works of Michael Moorcock.
The multiverse is a series of parallel universes in many of the science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories written by Michael Moorcock. Central to these works is the concept of an Eternal Champion who has potentially multiple identities across multiple dimensions. The multiverse contains a legion of different versions of Earth in various times, histories, and occasionally, sizes. One example is the world in which his Elric Saga takes place. The multiplicity of places in this collection of universes include London, Melniboné, Tanelorn, the Young Kingdoms, and the Realm of Dreams.
The Dreaming City is a novella written by Michael Moorcock, which first appeared in Science Fantasy issue 47, in June 1961. It was the first story to feature the character Elric of Melniboné.