Adventures in Fiction: Fritz Leiber
Dec24

Adventures in Fiction: Fritz Leiber

Our Appendix N Archeology and Adventures in Fiction series are meant to take a look at the writers and creators behind the genre(s) that helped to forge not only our favorite hobby but our lives. We invite you to explore the entirety of the series on our Adventures In Fiction home page. Adventures in Fiction: Fritz Leiber By Michael Curtis We’ve talked a lot about Fritz Leiber, whose birthday we’re celebrating...

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Classic Covers: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Feb07

Classic Covers: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

From the magazine covers of Fantastic, to endlessly reprinted mass market paperback collections, and comics and role playing game supplements by the score, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have long proven an irresistible subject for artists and illustrators. The giant, tawny-haired barbarian and his nimble-limbed roguish companion make for a striking contrast not only narratively, but visually as well. Of course, there are more than a few...

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Sifting Through a Sword-and-Sorcery Definition
Jan27

Sifting Through a Sword-and-Sorcery Definition

Sifting Through a Sword-and-Sorcery Definition by Brian Murphy When Michael Moorcock asked readers in the May 1961 issue of Amra to “put a tag” on the style of fantasy he was writing with his Elric stories, he cast a wide net, letting it drag through a sea of stories that readers today would likely consider heroic fantasy, high fantasy, or sword-and-sorcery—or all of the above: We have two tags, really — SF and “Fantasy” —...

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Short Sorcery: Fritz’s Leiber’s “Bazaar of the Bizarre”
Sep16

Short Sorcery: Fritz’s Leiber’s “Bazaar of the Bizarre”

The Monsters and Magic of Lankhmar Indiegogo campaign is currently live over on Indiegogo, and what better way to help celebrate it than to take a look at the world from which they originate? Enjoy! Short Sorcery: Fritz Leiber’s “Bazaar of the Bizarre” by Bill Ward If I had to describe Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in one word, that word would be ‘fun.’ Not the dismissive ‘fun’...

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Where to Start With Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Mar15

Where to Start With Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Where to Start with Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Bill Ward Aside from Conan the Cimmerian, there can be no more iconic image in all of sword-and-sorcery fiction than the dynamic duo of “the Twain.” Fafhrd, towering Northern barbarian, and Mouser, weaselly little thief, form a wonderfully visually complementary whole, and that’s even before you get to their actual personalities. Bawdy and...

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Some of My Favorite Sword-and-Sorcery Monsters
Oct12

Some of My Favorite Sword-and-Sorcery Monsters

Some of My Favorite Sword-and-Sorcery Monsters by Bill Ward Where would hulking barbarians and fantastic swordsmen be without monsters to pit their steel against? Sword-and-sorcery, that delicious combination of adventure fiction and supernatural horror, is as famed for its weird foes as it is for its self-reliant protagonists. And while it isn’t locked into strict adherence to formula, every writer of sword-and-sorcery since...

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