Novel is Finished – Off to the Longships
So metal.
The initial spark for The Band of the Crow, my newly-finished fantasy novel, came to me in 2006. I was really getting into metal music at the time, especially the doom, death and black varieties.
Ah, black metal. So much to be admired, so much to be despised. It occurred to me Christianity isn't really a "foreign" influence on Scandinavian culture. At least, not any more. You could no more eviscerate Jesus from Norway than you could chop off your own head and expect to survive for very long. And no amount of church burnings is going to accomplish that end in the first place. Sorry, Varg. That idea, and The Sword's debut album were really inspirational to me. Something just sort of clicked.
Buy this album. Buy it now.
Giddy with excitement, I set about fleshing out my world – the cultures, the languages, the history, the religions… until finally, five and a half years later, I realized I hadn't written a single word of the actual story. I gave myself a year to write it. A year and a half later, I was done.
Now the scary part begins. It's easy to sit around and dream about the wonderful story you're going to write. Actually writing it, facing up to your own deficiencies, is when the going gets tough. Harder still is shoving it out into the cruel, cruel world, for everyone to rip to shreds. I'd like to say I don't care about rejection, or negative reviews, or indifference, but I do care. A lot. If I didn't, I'd have to find another line of work.
My search for a literary agent is officially underway – I sent the first batch of "query letters" out last week. It's an involved process, a lot like applying to college, but even more stressful, if that's possible. Got two "no thank yous" already, both very kindly worded. I hesitate to email the agents back saying "thanks for responding so quickly"; at this stage, my primary concern is not coming off like an ACP (Annoying Crazy Person).
I'll post updates on my quixotic quest right here, of course, so stay tuned. Whatever happens, I know Band of the Crow is the absolute best storytelling I'm capable of, and that, in itself, feels like a victory. Thanks to my brothers, my wife, my parents and of course Ben for all of their support and their terrific comments.
Rygar: An 8-Bit Odyssey
Old video games are brutal. I guess they had to be, because the technology behind them was so crude. Rygar, from Tecmo, was one of the most savage. One life, no continues. Fall into a chasm? Game over. Die during the fight with the final boss?
Game over.
I never finished Rygar as a lad – it was just too discouraging to have to start over from scratch after playing for four hours straight.
Despite all this, Rygar was and is one of my favorite games. It was one of the first titles I played that wasn't a hopelessly insoluble "graphic adventure" or a futile, existentialist sprint against death. Rygar is a story, in the truest sense of the word. Now, what with ROMs and emulation software and all, you can actually finish the game and know the ending.
Playing Rygar all over again reminds me why I loved the game when it first came out. It's so weird and imaginative. Your hero (Rygar!) is a Robert E. Howard-esque slayer, with a "Discarmor", a spinning shield of fire that lashes out like a yo-yo. Rygar searches the land of Argool for the five "Indoras", mystical sages who will bestow him with the power to kill the evil god Ligar and restore peace.
Despite the simplicity of the graphics, there are moments of true beauty and awe in the game – the rising sun in the background of the opening level, the mysterious castle in the sky, and the far-off mountains and trees in the backgrounds. Argool is a wild, vast and magical place.
At times Rygar feels like Norse mythology; at others, it feels Hindu. Or Greek. It's a delirious and wooly blend of prehistoric Indo-European mythologies, completely unrestrained in its creativity and imagination. The wonderful names of the monsters and places – Eruga's Forest, Garloz, the Tower of Garba – added immensely to the flavor.
Rygar was also special when it came out in that you could actually revisit places you had been – in fact, you had to. Argool was truly open-ended, every bit as much as Grand Theft Auto.
But Rygar's soundtrack is the best thing about the game. There are a few missteps – the repetitive drone of Dorago's Palace drives me a little crazy – but nothing can take away from the overall beauty and power of the score. Garloz and Eruga's Forest are my favorite tracks.
Tecmo remade Rygar for the PS2 in 2002. It was a great game, but they abandoned Argool for a Greco-Roman setting. It actually came out before God of War, so it wasn't a copycat, but I was still disappointed – I've always wanted to know more about Argool's myths and monsters.
I was surprised to learn there was a coin-op Rygar game, released about a year before the NES version, but it's one instance where the console version of the game is head-and-shoulders above the arcade. They're not even the same game, really. Although the graphics for the arcade version are better, the game is grindingly repetitive.
So there's no question: the version of Rygar for the Nintendo Entertainment System is the best of the bunch. It's crude, and it's brutal, but despite that it truly feels like a window into another universe. To play it, check out the Nestopia emulator. Rom-world.com is a great place to go for ROMs. I don't condone downloading ROMs of games you never owned, of course, but if you bought the original game, it's still yours!
Will Conrad: The Newest X-Man
My framed copy of Will's original art for Kull!
Last October, I got some fantastic news: Will Conrad, the artist who drew my run on Kull for Dark Horse, is the new interior artist for Marvel's X-Men.
It's a pretty big deal – every artist's (and writer's) dream is to work on a high profile ongoing series, and it doesn't get much more high-profile than X-Men. It's the equivalent of moving up to the major leagues in baseball. I've been paired with a lot of great artists, but working with Will was a stand-out experience.
He gave me an original page from Kull, which now hangs on my wall next to my computer – you can check out a cleaner version here. I look at it every day. Kull has always been my favorite Robert. E Howard character, more even than Conan. Bringing him to life with such a talented artist will always be one of the highlights of my career as a comic book writer.
I was sad Will and I couldn't continue on Kull together, but Dark Horse has a great team in place with David Lapham and Gabriel Guzman. In some ways it's better, because I get to just sit back and read!
You can see some of Will's X-Men art on his site. Congratulations, Will. It warms the cockles of my admittedly black and desiccated heart to know you're getting the recognition you deserve.
Favorite Things: The Tripods Trilogy
Ever made the mistake of re-reading a cherished book from your childhood, only to discover it's nowhere near as good as you remembered? That's happened to me more than few times. So I returned to the Tripods books by John Christopher with more than a little trepidation.
Imagine my surprise – they were even better than I remembered. The story begins off a lot like a fantasy novel, but soon it becomes clear something is very, very wrong.
I'm happy I read the versions of the books with front covers by the great Tim Hildebrant. No other illustrations of this series even come close to his. Tim was very smart not to show any of the characters close up – or at all, really. I never like seeing overly representational takes on characters from books, I always think "That's not what they look like!"
Here are Tim's three covers:
And now for some SPOILERS, only for those who've read the books already.
One of my favorite things about the Tripods books is how you can deduce certain things based on clues John Christopher drops. For instance, it becomes clear Will lives in England, and that his friend, "Beanpole", is in fact "Jean-Paul". The "White Mountains" Will and his friends are trying to reach are really the Alps. Later on, you can deduce the "Masters" breathe chlorine gas.
But none of these things are ever stated explicitly! Little touches like that make the Tripods Trilogy one of my favorite things.
Gung Ho: The Gayest Joe?
Saving the world from terrorists with extreme fabulosity.
Way gayer than Shipwreck. Way.
Arvid Nelson (me!) is a comic book writer, responsible for Rex Mundi and Zero Killer, among other things. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts with my lovely wife. more...Coming Up
- Mar. 14: Lord of the Jungle #2
- Mar. 21: Warlord of Mars #16
- Apr. 18: Lord of the Jungle #3
- Apr. 25: Warlord of Mars #17