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Roger Zelazny and the Comics
by Jene M. Lindskold
Roger Zelazny never kept secret
his fondness for comics. He
provided introductions to the
follected Books of Magic and the
Grimjack graphic navel Demon
Knight. He was Guest of Honor
at tho San Dioge Comic Con and
Winner of the Inkpot Award.
‘The Tlustrated Roger Zelazny
(1978), with art work by Gray
Morrow’ contained "Shadow:
jack," "an original Jack. of
Shadows prequel pres
‘Zimmerman adapted ™
Defender of Camelot” into
black and’ white comic. Less
comicstyle ilustrated Zelazny
works include the novel A Might
in the Lonesome October and
The Visual Guide to Castle
Amber
[At the timo of Roger's death,
the Amber books were in the
process of being adapted into
‘Eraphic novels with art by Lou
Harrison and script by Terry
Bisson, Part ofthis project seas
reproduced in the 1995. World
Fantasy Convention program
book at the request of Bisson,
‘who was one of the convention's
Guests. of Honor When we
spoke, Terry told me he chose to
than any of |
dates to his earliest years. Ax he
told me ina Teter:
1 remember reading ne
comic srpa etl carina
Soag weir renting Toeer stopped
“njying the comin I
Are ej gor comer
Over the years, Roger read
many different titles including
Wolverine, X-Men, and. the
Fantastic Four. He also followed
Spirit and. Modenty Blain
somo of which he tracked down
in reprints. More recent favor
tes included Corto, Maltese,
Grimjack, Sandman, and the
Books of Magic. However, if 1
‘was forced to select one comic
that ‘remained a. perennial
favorite throughout is life the
answer might. surprise his
fians—it certainly surprised me
During our correspondence,
Roger introduced me to several
ofthe titles mentioned above, In
fact, we entered into. an
‘unspoken agreement to buy
fopies of Sandman for each
bother co that neither of us would
‘miss any ofthe story. However,
it was not until after we had
moved in together that Roger let
‘me in on the secret of his comic
favorite,
We had stopped by the
drugstore newsstand Whilewaiting for a preseription to be
flied. T was checking out the
new SP; Roger was scanning
the comics Hearing. hin
chuckle, T went over to see what
hhe was reading and discovered
that he had. Disney's Uncle
‘Serooge spread on his knee, te
looked momentarily embar-
‘assed, then moved the comic #0
that T could read the story with
him. (I'did. That issue had
something to do with a bear, as I
recall)
Roger's enthusiasm for
‘Uncle Serooge—and to & lesser
extent Donald Duck—beeame
‘quite evident when Thelped him
move his comics into our new
hhouse. At first I made the
‘mistake of assuming that the
brightly colored comies dated to
when his kids were younger, but
Roger cheerfully told me
‘otherwise. Not only did he road
the comic regularly, friend
hhad ‘made him copies of old
strips aswell. Occasionally,
Roger even clipped Donald Duck
‘rom te nevts
‘Once we we
father's
“ination with Disney's duck
clan) brought over his’ video
tapes of Duck Tales "and
Darkwing Duck. Sometimes
with Trent, sometimes on our
‘own, Roger and I kicked hack
fand’ enjoyed the animated
‘adventures of his old “frend.”
T' could. wax philosophical
about how I suspect that Roger
viowod the stories of Serooge
MeDuck as a commentary on
the “American Dream, asa
yersion of the Horatio Alger
rags to riches” tale with the
twist that, as a miser, Serooge
provides the. writers with an
opportunity. to make cynical
quips at the expense of Ameri-
fan materialism. I'might even
be right—but T think a more
Ronen explanation er why
Roger enjoyed the adventures o
Scrooge MeDuck was that they
made him lavgh,
"Those who know Zelazny’s
‘writings would be less surprised
to learn of Rager's interest in
those comics that featured
deal about what such a comic
Jhad to have in order to gain his
raise:
the protagonist ha tantlisingty
compiee panttrom home, hfe
out pet tng nthe Arena, ren
love air Wh overtone fom the
Matinogon “all emerging in pps,
‘rallanon her, bret fasesk ere
‘Amasing Mant come protons
‘ne sath past, fusing lyon
The ‘Trauma which made thos
sthatevr they are."Tae mary dont
thew pnd ar mir ade
they start atm the end aonb.
‘srety ts dfn, at caracar Bu
‘ot and fare He bua ben changed
‘ier by ovent Te mn, he
ach issue chapter thereto, than &
‘Spiel epnoiceomi bk
In Blood of Amber, Roger
paid Jon Gaunt (Grimjnck) the
fompliment. of giving him a
‘eameo as “Old John" who warns
Merlin about the thug in Bloody
Bill's bar—and then neatly
dispatches them when they
follow him out into Death Alley.
‘John Ostrander, the writer
for Grimjack, learned of Old
‘John’s visit to Amber from one
of his fans, Hie reeponse when
Roger confirmed that he was
indeed @ Grimjack fan waa one
of overwhelming excitement
ma poke obese to msistin
1 -yroluce”jou kom —eny someting
Tike“, ha Roper a,b, ie
UL thi Rage Zaz kT
ia guy who, when {aide ave any
‘money, woul cre out wth anther
‘sy hie Yk and ho bv me pang
Towa, thi is Roger Freaking
eka what 1 dn print tH yo
think Ti ging sb sal and at ted
Proftsonl and matoratace aboat
Jour out of your mind Grimock
19 "October 130
Sandman is another comic
that succeeds in living up to
Roger's aiffiealt. standard. In
1s Taeroducton tothe Books of
ie Roger comments on Neil
Satan rock
the idethat heempiaye
Roger wes introduced to
‘Sandman—and to Neil Gaiman
when "Neil gave. him the
collected Doll's House at a
tonvention in Dallas, Texas
Like Ostrander, Gaiman is a
‘reat admirer of Roger's work,
Recently, 1 spoke over, the
telephone with Nell about
Roger's influence on both Neil
himself, and on the amie Bek
at large. Noting that Roger's
influence on all of ue, both in
comies and in ‘fiction, was
immeasurable,” Neil continued:
When he (Rage! dad, I wound up
spreading the ners around DC comics
Roger were broken up on 2 fre
nly son when rock tot Sed pot
thet phone cl tom pope who tat
feronally And oe ofthe tons they
Trine of rng ak intresting A
writer re Rogers fault Thee ae
lov af cx who without Roger rit me
i rea hr th woul bare gone
‘i nd done something mene
Many of Gaiman's fans have
questioned him about the
‘apparent. similarities between
the Amber novels and’ Sand.
man. While not denying either
his familiarity with the Amber
novels or Zelazny’ infiuence on
his work, Neil says that Amber
is not what he thinks of when he
considers how Rogers work
‘shaped his owa:
Most, of the correspondences
tween Sadan and Amber tefiction, one of the last things
that Roger read before h
death wa se
Fesponse to attending Roger's
wake at Fred and Joan Saber:
Tagen’s home in
With a touch ofthe irony that
real life does at least at well a5