Michael Gilman: The first American Elric comic was The Dreaming City, published in 1982; Elric: Stormbringer will be published in 1997 -- a 15-year span of time. Why the long wait?
P. Craig Russell: When it came to doing Elric: Stormbringer I was very adamant about doing that adaptation myself; consequently there was a stand-off of several years between the fifth and sixth adaptations. Eventually Roy Thomas, who is credited as writer on the first five Elric adaptations, dropped out of the project, and I started on it in 1993.
Gilman: How did this last volume end up being a joint venture between Dark Horse and Topps?
Russell: When Mike Friedrich, who has the American comics rights to Elric, approached various publishers and pitched them the idea, Topps showed the most interest. But they sort of dropped the ball, and Elric: Stormbringer sat there for over a year. Sometime during that year, Dark Horse got interested in it and worked out a co-publishing deal with Topps.
Gilman: So the book has been completed for quite some time.
Russell: Yes, it's all done. Actually, when I did the book I did it backwards. I laid it out and scripted it from first page to last but I started drawing with issue seven and worked my way back to issue one.
Gilman: Why did you do it that way?
Russell: I didn't want to get one issue done -- this is ironic in retrospect -- and have the publisher solicit it right away and be under a deadline doom for the rest of the series. It was an enormous project to be writing, drawing, and inking alone. I figured I would start it at the end, that way no one could publish it until I was done.
Gilman: You've worked on Elric stories before, but his is the first one where you're doing both the writing and the artistic chores. You mentioned before that you were adamant about scripting this project. Why is this?
Russell: Over the years I had learned quite a bit from doing adaptations of the other Elric novels, many operas, and Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, and I was just not going to do this book at all unless I could script it myself. There were too many times in the earlier volumes where I would design certain graphic effects based on the original text from the novel or I would want a silent panel, and it would end up entirely different from what I envisioned. Often, the writer and I had a different point of view.
Gilman: You did have some help with the book though, specifically with coloring and lettering.
Russell: Lovern Kindzierski is coloring it and Galen Showman is lettering it. I'm something of a control freak, but only because in standard "industry" comics there are so many ways a book can get screwed up. I have nothing against collaboration, in fact I enjoy it -- as long as there's real communication between all parties involved.
Gilman: When were you first introduced to Elric?
Russell: Just about the time when I was approached to do The Dreaming City. I had read a lot of fantasy, but I'd never read any Moorcock -- even though my friends had been telling me for years that I really should. I later found out they were right; so much of it is the kind of material I like to draw. But my first exposure to it was in reading The Dreaming City with an eye toward doing the adaptation.
Gilman: As as artist do you always read the novel you're adapting rather than just rely on the author's script?
Russell: Absolutely. With the Elric books I would go through line by line and stage the artwork -- as far as dialogue goes -- right from the book, making notes as to where it came from in the novel and where it broke between panels and such. I learned how to do adaptations and how to do scripting using this process.
Gilman: Elric: Stormbringer is the longest of all the Elric novels. Was it difficult to determine which scenes were pertinent to the telling of the story in comics format?
Russell: Yes, even with seven issues. And although I remained true to the original as possible, I still had to cut quite a bit of the novel out. I must admit it was somewhat daunting trying to figure out what to leave out and what to put in, knowing that the original author was going to be looking at it.
Gilman: Have you ever met Michael Moorcock?
Russell: No, I've never met him, although we've exchanged letters. I sent him a complete set of Elric: Stormbringer after I finished it.
Gilman: Did he give you any feedback?
Russell: Yes, he spoke very highly of it. It's always nerve-wracking showing one's work to a living author. You never know if they're going to say, "What have you done to my story?!?" That's why it's so much more comfortable to work with writers who, shall we say, are no longer with us.
Gilman: Because of the process you use, is doing an adaptation much more intensive than doing an original story?
Russell: No, not at all. Doing an original piece of my own takes longer because I'm starting from scratch -- all I have is a blank page. With an adaptation I'm at least starting with an existing property, and while I have to put it through all sorts of changes to get it from its original form into comics form, I have something to start with and play around with. That's much easier to do than writing an original script.
Gilman: What's next on your schedule?
Russell: I'm adapting Wagner's The Ring for Dark Horse. Talk about a span of time: I first decided I was going to do The Ring back in 1973 during my first year in comics. I've been talking about it for 23 years now, and it was a real strange feeling the other day when I realized that in a few minutes I was about to start it. It's going to be around 450 pages when it's done. So far, Elric: Stormbringer is the largest project I've done on my own and The Ring will be easily twice that.
Gilman: Upon completion of The Ring, you will have attained a huge goal; once that's realized what are your plans?
Russell: I've been saying for the past couple of years that when I finish The Ring I will be looking for a good therapist. After all, if everything goes according to schedule, I will be completing 30 years in comics, finishing an enormous project that I've talked about for years, it will be the turn of the century, and I'll be turning 50. That's just way too many curtains coming down at once. But there will be so many projects to do that I can't hope for a complete recovery. So far I've scripted and laid out the Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales "The Devoted Friend" -- 15 pages, and "The Fisherman and His Soul" -- 44 pages; as well as the 32-page opera Pagliacci. Of course after The Ring, a 44-page story will seem like a wrist exercise. But that's just fine.