ium Books’ * prumntinap terre 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 Whilewaiting 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 tefiction, 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