The Illustrated Roger Zelazny

by Roger Zelazny, Gray Morrow (Illustrator), Byron Preiss (Editor)

ROGER ZELAZNY, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author, and science fiction artist GRAY MORROW have combined their talents to produce a deluxe, full-colour illustrated book of the most fabulous Zelazny tales and characters.

A stunning collection of graphic stories, murals, illustrations and never-before-published Zelazny fiction, this book is one of the most lavish fantasy volumes ever published.

Among its features are a new SHADOWJACK adventure, the first illustrated version of A ROSE FOR ECCLESIASTES, the first graphic story version of THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS EYES, and a sweeping series of murals based on Corwin and the Amber worlds.

Magnificent art, fantastic stories and a revolutionary format will make this book a treasured collectors edition in years to come.



Contents:

· Illustrations · Gray Morrow · il
· Introduction · Byron Preiss · in
· Shadowjack · ss *
· An Amber Tapestry · Gray Morrow · il Mediascene
· A Rose for Ecclesiastes · nv F&SF Nov ’63; ; Illustrated version-, Heavy Metal Jan ’78
· The Furies · nv Amazing Jun ’65
· A Zelazny Tapestry · Gray Morrow · il *
· Zelazny Speaks · ar *
· Morrow Speaks · Gray Morrow · ar *
· The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth · nv F&SF Mar ’65; ; Illustrated version-, Star-Reach
· Rock Collector [adapted from “Collector’s Fever”] · ct Galaxy Jun ’64

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Short Stories, Art

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).

Reviews

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this is a really interesting addition to the Zelazny collection. Put together in the late '70s by Byron Preiss, who was kind of an innovator in the field of illustrated fiction and graphic novels at the time. I have a copy of the original (though in softcover, not hardcover), published in '78 in an 8 1/2 by 11 format. I recently picked up a copy of the Ace (mass market) paperback version published a year or so later. As there are substantial differences between the two, I'll review both together. The introduction in the original mentions that each of the "five fantasies" were "developed in a different way" including "[a]t least two systems of graphic storytelling [that] have never been seen before in this country." As a long-time (50+ years) reader/fan/student of comic books, I'm curious about this statement. Most of the stories are in the same format, and I'm left wondering what was new in 1978. A quaint explanation of how to read comics is also included. Most of this is missing from the introduction in the reprinted paperback, which tends to stress the success of the original and hints at the changes made for the paperback version. All of the art is by noted (and perhaps underrated) comic book & sci-fi artist Gray Morrow, who worked for Marvel, DC, and other comics publishers as well as painting numerous SF book covers. On to the stories themselves...

The first story is "Shadowjack," an all-new tale of the character from the novel Jack of Shadows. Zelazny provides a short introduction to the character and the world; the story is set in a time before the events of the novel. This is presented in the traditional comic-book format, with the text and dialogue all presented in captions (no word balloons here). It's a fun, fantasy adventure, kind of a sword-and-sorcery story. The paperback version is not only reduced, it's also printed in black-and-white instead of the original's colors. To preserve some of the size of the original art, panels are cut to only a couple per page, and those are often cropped, showing only a portion of the original. And many panels are missing altogether. A vastly inferior presentation.

Following is "An Amber Tapestry," 7 pages of full-color, full-page illustrations of various events, characters, and situations from the Amber books. Zelazny's introduction explains the Amber books and lists them in order, including the fifth book, Courts of Chaos, which I think came out just after this was released. And the half-page title to this section lists only the titles of the first four books. As a big Amber fan, I was able to identify most of what's depicted here, as no explanations are given. This section in the paperback version is one of only two that are in color (with black backgrounds), and also contains additional notes by Zelazny about the art. Probably the only part where the paperback improves on the original, if only slightly (I appreciate Zelazny's notes, but don't really like the reduction in art; also not every aspect of the original is reproduced here, either.)

Next up is an adaptation of Zelazny's classic story, "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," which I've re-read a couple times recently. Unlike "Shadowjack," this is more of a prose presentation with illustrations scattered throughout. Lots of illustrations - most pages have much more space devoted to illustrations than to text. (The prose, by the way, is edited down - though the "deletions" are "sanctioned" by Zelazny per the intro - but not really in the way of comics where the pictures are used to tell the story.) I wasn't as thrilled by this version, mostly because the Martians didn't look as exotic as I'd pictured them; they looked human. The paperback version has the art in black-and-white for the first half of the story and color for the second. (Why?) Also, much of the art is cropped or missing altogether, making the appearance of the story here much more text-heavy. A weird change from the original version.

Then we have "The Furies," another combination of text and interspersed art. The art here helped me to visualize this story better than when I'd read it previously, so I appreciated that. No introduction from Zelazny here, although the paperback does have a short one from him (taken from a paragraph in the "Zelazny Speaks" section of the original; more on that later). The art in the paperback is, as usual, cropped, missing many pieces, and in black-and-white.

That is followed by "A Zelazny Tapestry," a full-page b&w illustration of scenes from Today We Choose Faces, a full-color page for Doorways in the Sand, and a two-page b&w spread for Damnation Alley. A nice intro from Zelazny talks about his writing of these three books, plus Creatures of Light and Darkness & To Die in Italbar (neither represented by illustrations). In the paperback, this section is moved up to just prior to the Amber Tapestry, and the art's reduced (and the introduction sections on the two additional books are removed). There's also a double page b&w spread of the artwork that's featured on the cover (in color) of both publications. Primarily, but not exclusively, Amber-based.

The original next has a page devoted to "Zelazny Speaks," a half-page essay by Roger about writing and how he thinks his work has been adapted to the illustrated form ("appropriate and impresses me favorably"). The other half-page, "Morrow Speaks," gives his impression of the experiment. In the paperback version, this section is moved up, about 2/3 of Morrow's words are removed, and Zelazny's essay is scrapped and replaced with the introduction to the "Zelazny Tapestry." Urrgh.

The last longer story is "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth," accompanied by b&w illustrations. The paperback version crops and cuts out a lot of the illustrations. This is also the final story in the paperback. The original contains an additional two-pager ("Rock Collector," an adaptation of Zelazny's short story, "Collector's Fever") in traditional comic book format with word balloons. Appropriate since the original prose story is told almost entirely in dialogue.

Whew. By far the longest review I've ever written (and congratulations - or condolences - to anyone's who's read this far). All this is to say that the original, magazine-sized, graphic novel of The Illustrated Roger Zelazny is a good addition to any Zelazny fan's collection. It's that version that's earned a four-star review from me. The paperback edition I'd recommend only to the most dedicated Zelazny collectors (and I consider myself in that category), and then only in addition to the original printing. Others should skip it completely.

[Amber Dyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was tickled to find this treasure at half price books for a buck and a quarter. Fans of classic sci fi would not be disappointed by this venture, making a graphic novella out of some of Zelazny's earlier works.

Unfortunately, the shrinking of the original 8.5X11 format to a 4X7 paperback did not translate well. Much of the artwork is obscured by the inner margin. You'd really have to crack the binding to see many of the photos.

I also find the placement of images within text to be odd and occasionally frustrating to the eye. Example: "He shook his head and phased for MaaL's world.
IMAGE.
He took elaborate pains, in-phasing and out-phasing in random directions; he gave
IMAGE
Mala a golden collar with a two way radio in it's clasp, wore it's mate within his death ring; he converted much cur-
IMAGE-
rency, left the Wallaby in the care of a reputable smuggler
IMAGE
and crossed the Delles by Sea. He was fond
IMAGE
of sailing and he liked the purple waters of the planet. He
IMAGE
rented a large villa, slums to one side, riviera to the other.
IMAGE"
Too choppy to be meaningful.

My last complaint is that the women (both in Zelazny's writing, and in Morrow's depiction of them) are straight out of a prepubescent boy's fantasy, both in their form, lack of dimension and in their...erm... willingness to accommodate. I guess this might be tolerable to the objective reader who is able to experience the book as a window into another time, but if you're looking for Ripley, you will not find her like here.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This version of the book is much better than the mass-market paperback. The illustrations are almost all in color, as intended. There are more of them—some of the illustrations were cut for the mass-market version, and some cut up into multiple images to fit the page.

In some cases, if text appeared on an image that was cut, it was abbreviated at best in order to fit it in the mass-market paperback. ShadowJack does this, for example, because the whole thing is told like a caption-oriented comic book, with the captions telling the story in the illustration.

The illustrations need the wider and taller format to be fully appreciated.

There is also an additional, two-page comic strip that does not appear in the mass-market edition. It is either unattributed or by Gray Morrow.

Seriously, if you’re a Zelazny fan I still recommend this book, but definitely in the larger format.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zelazny was, in my opinion, one of the finest (and most visual) writers the field ever produced, and this lovely edition showcases some of my favorites. I also always loved Gray Morrow's work, he was one of the most colorful artists of his day, and the two were an excellent match in this volume. I especially liked the Amber material, as well as two of my all-time favorites, "A Rose For Ecclesiastes" and "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth." The full-size, all-color slick version of this is well worth the search.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly strange book on a number of different levels, but I adore it. I am sentimentally attached to my copy, because I read it as a kid when Jack of Shadows to me was the greatest novel ever written, with Nine Princes in Amber a close second.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was originally a 10.8 x 8.4-inch paperback and hardcover, in 1978. It was (as I understand it) all in color and designed as a sort of combination prose comic-book.

This converts that book to mass-market paperback size. The texts vary in size from normal for mass-market paperback to barely legible; and even with reading glasses on the text inside some of the images is barely legible.

Color is limited to a “Nine Princes in Amber” insert, and several images in “A Rose for Ecclesiastes”. The rest are black and white, and, I suspect, cut up to fit.

If it’s the only format you can find, it’s worth looking at—but apparently its rare; it tends to command a higher price than the larger-format paperback and be harder to find.

That said, it contains a nice Shadow Jack story, not as magical as Jack of Shadows but a very fun old-school romp. And speaking of old-school, the book also contains his two “under the wire” planetary romances, “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” (Mars) and “The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth” (Venus).

There’s also “The Furies”, one of his first stories, “from the period when I was still trying to teach myself about character development”. It’s a moderately successful attempt to highlight the good side of a mass murderer and the arrogant side of the superhero team tracking him down.

Since I’ve only recently started reading Zelazny (before 2014, the only book of his I’d read was Damnation Alley) all of these stories were new to me; more dedicated fans will probably already have read them, and the only reason for this book will be the illustrations by Greg Morrow. They’re worth getting, but in the larger format, not this one.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack of Shadows is one of my all-time favorite characters in fiction.

Awesome art.

[Ben Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork alone in this graphic novel earns it a 5 star rating. Absolutely stunning art.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for what was probably one of the first graphic novels created back in the 70's

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shadowjack story is worth the price of admission.

[Raja99 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: My copy has the same ISBN given above but is not a hardcover. (It's the format I like to call "oversized softcover"; it's 8.5x11 inches.) (Was there really a hardcover with this ISBN?)

Strangely enough, this may be my favorite Zelazny collection. It contains three-fourths of Four for Tomorrow , and I actually prefer the version of "The Furies" printed here. It also has a lovely "Amber Tapestry", including portraits of the Nine Princes in Amber .

My copy is in sad shape as a result of being read and reread many, many times.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection contained only a single new story (a prequel short to the novel JACK OF SHADOWS). I picked up it out of curiosity and because it was signed (1/2 star boost for that).

My verdict: the master's words really don't need illustration, especially the sort of 1970s vibe that was a far cry from Jack Kirby.

It was an interesting experiment, and will probably be of interest to collectors and rapid fans.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the prize of my Zelazny collection - a signed copy in a plastic sleeve, given to me seven Christmases ago by my beloved Todd, who understands what it means to be a collector.

It's been opened and read once. And now it's on my Zelazny shelve, where it will remain.

[James Mcgowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lavishly illustrated edition of Zelazny's shorter work, plus some opulent pictures of characters from his "Amber" series! My personal favourite is "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" which tells the story of a poet trying to translate an alien work.

[Zeeple · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd forgotten how good A Rose for Ecclesiastes is.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

My very first introduction to Roger Zelazny, so I remember it with fondness