April 20th, 2008
Smirkulees’ Quest pt 1
I decided to go with another extended story again. This time featuring a boy. I don’t think Princess Christi would want a special weapon. She just uses her wits and whatever happens to be lying around.
As a kid I wondered why so many heroic cartoon characters had swords as their special weapon: He-Man, She-Ra, Lion-O, Blackstar, Thundar etc. I knew that the rules on TV would never let them sever flesh with their swords, only robots or ropes that held up chandaliers. Why wouldn’t they just give them a bludgeoning weapon and let them use it on everyone? That was one of the strengths of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon show. It gave out several special items and weapons but all worked within the code that tv writers had to abide by in America.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Heh — I love the reference to Fritz Leiber’s Fafrd and the Grey Mouser. If that’s not Ningauble, it’s his second cousin for sure.
April 26th, 2008 at 9:21 am
It wasn’t intentionally a reference to Lankhmarian. This character started as a fortuneteller who I figured had the head of a crystal ball. Having an eye float in it would be cliche but having a whole bunch of eyes would be cool. (Like the amount of Skulls in Skullossus). But now I see why he so easily falls into the quest giving role. Silly subconscious! I’ve always enjoyed Leiber’s low fantasy more than high fantasy stories. Mike Mignola’s comic adaptations of the first several stories were really great!
April 13th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Yes! I love the Lieber stories and the Mignola(/Howard Chaykin) comics so much. I definitely just assumed that dude was Ningauble, too.