Elric of Melnibone

[Gnostic Goblin]

I was reading this to my kid a couple years ago. As you do when you are a great dad doing it right. I was 16 when I first read Michael Moorecock's Elric books, and then Count Brass and all the other Eternal Champion variations. What I noticed while reading is how massively influential Moorecock's writing has been on geek culture. It's not only the visual imagery from House of Dragons (is a blatant homage of Elric), or the Witcher, also known as 'the white wolf' (is a blatant homage of Elric), I was surprised to rediscover Elric fighting pig-headed pigglin people while he was in the Nether (Minecraft is a blatant homage to Elric). Does anyone know about any other homages to Elric?

I am concerned that one day there will be a tv series of Elric despite Moorecock having always refused to allow it to be filmed, on the principle that books and television are different media, and Elric is definitively to be best enjoyed by reading it. If as and when such a tv series does eventually get produced people are going to describe it as a rip-off of House of Dragon, Witcher and Minecraft without recognising it as the source. We could argue that Moorecock 'had it coming' because the ideas and the visualisation of those ideas is simply too powerful a part of our collective consciousness that they found some other way to present themselves. But regardless, if you have not read the Elric books, you need to, ASAP.

Also if anyone is interested in a Stormbringer camping (Ken St Andre, Chaosium) ...

 

[Ryujin]

I think that, at this point, an Elric series would be called "derivative of..." just as much as people were saying that they had seen everything in "John Carter" before. The general public doesn't generally tend to see what the seminal works really are, once they hit a new medium.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I’m in for the TV series or movie if and only if we get a substantial scene of the Melnibonean chorus of torture victims each of whom sings a certain note when properly stimulated. That’s such a simultaneously metal and grimdark detail that is peak Elric.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

When does Elric go public domain, anyway?

 

[Joshua Randall]

1961 + 75 = 2036

But likely copyright has been extended. I don’t pretend to understand how that works.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Edited:

here's a link to Cornell University's page outlinging the various times.

LibGuides: Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain

A guide to establishing the public domain status of items subject to copyright

guides.library.cornell.edu

it depends on when a piece was publsihed.

 

[Distracted DM]

I was reading this to my kid a couple years ago. As you do when you are a great dad doing it right. I was 16 when I first read Michael Moorecock's Elric books, and then Count Brass and all the other Eternal Champion variations. What I noticed while reading is how massively influential Moorecock's writing has been on geek culture. It's not only the visual imagery from House of Dragons (is a blatant homage of Elric), or the Witcher, also known as 'the white wolf' (is a blatant homage of Elric), I was surprised to rediscover Elric fighting pig-headed pigglin people while he was in the Nether (Minecraft is a blatant homage to Elric). Does anyone know about any other homages to Elric?

I am concerned that one day there will be a tv series of Elric despite Moorecock having always refused to allow it to be filmed, on the principle that books and television are different media, and Elric is definitively to be best enjoyed by reading it. If as and when such a tv series does eventually get produced people are going to describe it as a rip-off of House of Dragon, Witcher and Minecraft without recognising it as the source. We could argue that Moorecock 'had it coming' because the ideas and the visualisation of those ideas is simply too powerful a part of our collective consciousness that they found some other way to present themselves. But regardless, if you have not read the Elric books, you need to, ASAP.

Also if anyone is interested in a Stormbringer camping (Ken St Andre, Chaosium) ...

Is "Moorcock always refused to allow it to be filmed" correct? I thought they were looking at an Elric adaptation on screen in the 2010's but it ended up not going forward (not due to Moorcock).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I was reading this to my kid a couple years ago. As you do when you are a great dad doing it right. I was 16 when I first read Michael Moorecock's Elric books, and then Count Brass and all the other Eternal Champion variations. What I noticed while reading is how massively influential Moorecock's writing has been on geek culture. It's not only the visual imagery from House of Dragons (is a blatant homage of Elric), or the Witcher, also known as 'the white wolf' (is a blatant homage of Elric), I was surprised to rediscover Elric fighting pig-headed pigglin people while he was in the Nether (Minecraft is a blatant homage to Elric). Does anyone know about any other homages to Elric?

I am concerned that one day there will be a tv series of Elric despite Moorecock having always refused to allow it to be filmed, on the principle that books and television are different media, and Elric is definitively to be best enjoyed by reading it. If as and when such a tv series does eventually get produced people are going to describe it as a rip-off of House of Dragon, Witcher and Minecraft without recognising it as the source. We could argue that Moorecock 'had it coming' because the ideas and the visualisation of those ideas is simply too powerful a part of our collective consciousness that they found some other way to present themselves. But regardless, if you have not read the Elric books, you need to, ASAP.

Also if anyone is interested in a Stormbringer camping (Ken St Andre, Chaosium) ...

Loved the Eric books! I read them when I about the same age as you, and they definitely affected my ideas about fantasy, giving me a different point of view from the Tolkien I had already absorbed by then.

 

[TerraDave]

And there is the “multiverse”, created by Moorcock and an integral part of the Elric stories.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

1961 + 75 = 2036

But likely copyright has been extended. I don’t pretend to understand how that works.

It's UK law you need since Moorcock is British:

In the UK copyright protection generally lasts:

• for written, artistic, musical or dramatic works: for 70 years after the death of the creator (or the last of the creative team to die).

So, given that he is still alive at the time of writing, at least another 70 years.