Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast
Podcasting about Michael Moorcock and traversing the million spheres.
Miles is back in Derry & Toms as we tackle another 60s Moorcock classic… The Ice Schooner. Lots to talk about here, and some pearls to clutch too, as we visit one of Mike’s sweatiest rime-encrusted tales that, one way or another, remind us of our hometowns.
And we talk about Doctor Who and Star Trek a bit too.
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(and listen to the Casual Trek Podcast)
Ice Schooner art by Simon Perrins.
Simon is back to finish our look at the final instalment in the first Corum trilogy… The King of the Swords… and, as it runs ramraid style into the conclusion of The Vanishing Tower, we roped in Miles too, because he’d only recently read it!
This is another pivotal book in Moorcock’s oeuvre, and for this podcast, because it means that the second sequence of eternal champeen books we’ve managed to complete in the last six years. Yes… This pod has been going for six years.
Crikey!
Miles is one half of the team behind the Casual Trek Podcast.
Simon, as well as being behind lots of the visual stylings of Breakfast in the Ruins, is also the co-host of Can I Pod With Madness… and they have a Patreon Page!
With news that the Apple TV/Skydance Eternal Champion series is “DOA”, what better a time to talk to Chris Preyer, the man behind Elric: Chains of the Doomed One – a fan-film project. Chris lifts the lid on the joys and challenges of crafting and resourcing a passion-driven endeavour.
Follow Chris and the team’s progress on Instagram and check out Tim Hintsala’s armoury at Iron Ape Forge, Shai Winzer’s make-up at Tesh Techniques, and the haunting music of Altoscliff.
Simon Perrins joins me in Derry and Toms to discuss Moorcock, art, comics, Tolkien, TV adaptations, role-playing games, tortured poet musicians we adored in our youths and generally go totally fugazi.
Simon is the man behind our banner art, logo, Gerard Arthur Connelly portraits and pretty much our entire visual identity. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.
Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.
Imagery and stuff we discuss along the way:
White Dwarf #57
Thrud and Eric of Boneymaloney – Carl Critchlow
Fighting Fantasy Book 9 – Caverns of the Snow Witch
Imagine Magazine January 1985 – Cover by Rodney Matthews
The Nomad of Time – Grafton Edition – Cover by Melvyn
The Tolkien Bestiary – David Day – Illustration of The Fall of Numenor by Ian Miller
More Tolkien Bestiary – elves by Victor Ambrus
Andy’s Fave Elric cover – Jack Gaughan
Barry Windsor-Smith’s Elric vs Conan
Simon’s fave Elric – Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Whelan
Elric by Lawrence Cutting
Blue Steel
Science Fantasy #47
Stormbringer 2e by GW – Rob Halford Elric
James Cawthorn’s Stormbringer by Jayde Design
Death of Elric prelim sketch by Cawthorn
Cawthorn’s History of the Runestaff
P Craig Russell on The Dreaming City
Julien Tello on The Dreaming City for the Julian Blondel adaptations
Mike Mignola’s Corum
MM on The Beatles
Moorcock and Mike Harrison (Robert Crumb style)
Homemade MERP Screens
The Swords of Heaven the Flowers of Hell by Howard Chaykin
The Mad God’s Amulet by Bob Haberfield
Swords of Corum by Mark Salwowski
The Chronicles of Castle Brass by Mark Salwowski
Breakfast in the Ruins – Random House – artist unknown
Fantasy Masterworks History of the Runestaff by Richard Carr
Fugazi by Mark Wilkinson
Ted AKA @tedankhamen joins me in Derry and Toms for the second leaf of our Summer diptych musing on Moorcock, gaming and whatever else enters our eyeline.
Some choice cuts in here including miniature bashing, Tolkien (again), a shock Strongbow appreciation story, chaosium-isms… but mostly some good, chewy thinking on modelling Moorcockian worlds and cosmology. I also bang my BoL drum again.
Be sure to have a good delve around Ted’s blog Tomb of Tedankhamen.
Ted also mentioned Lasers and Feelings by John Harper. Lots more good stuff on his itch.io
You can check out the Tentacled Whisperer of Secrets Discord by making an offering to… THE TENTACLED WHISPERER… or just check out his profile. He’s pretty lax on gatekeeping for an ancient deity of unspeakable power.
Steve’s Stormbringer game recaps are on his blog.
Check out and subscribe to Jim Kirkland’s newsletter and read his spoiler-free review of The Citadel of Forgotten Myths.
Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store. Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.
Loz returns to Derry & Toms to revisit an old adversary, Michael Moorcock’s The Fortress of the Pearl.
Join us and marvel at our declining energy.
Bridle, as Loz declares The Chronicle of the Black Sword a shit book and denigrates poetry.
Along the way we ‘wake the chicken’. What does that even mean? How many names are there for trousers? Why would anyone smoke stout?
Listen as we mull over the answers.
(Spoiler – we don’t know)
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Support the podcast by becoming a Patron.
Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.
Chapter 11 of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly was scored by N Λ N D
Dave AKA SÖNUS is back in Derry & Toms to celebrate the release of his second cut – USURPER OF THE UNIVERSE – out now on Forbidden Place Records.
As it aligns nicely we also take a dive into the 1962 Moorcock story To Rescue Tanelorn and make some connections. Along the way we talk about some other guff.
JOIN US!
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Support the podcast by becoming a Patron.
Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.
Phil, Loz and I celebrate an all too brief interlude in lockdown life to drink weird porters and muse upon Moorcock’s treatment at the hands of tabletop role-playing games.
Phil taunts us with her syrupy beer avoidance skills, two-man canoes get far too many mentions and Loz gatekeeps Moorcock RPG play (the rotter).
Also, The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly debuts with chapter one. There are 5 more to come (and if I don’t get pelted with rottent tomatoes I may write more).
I’ve been thinking about how to vary the content on the show and one of the ideas generated is to do an ‘audio book’ version of an old write-up of one of Loz’s Moorcock themed games from a few years years ago.
Gerard Arthur Connelly is a character I created over 25 years ago (perhaps more) and have returned to regularly over the years. Being lazy and just playing variations of the same bod seems suitably Moorcockian.
I’ve shared some of the progress to date with patrons and, as nobody has told me it’s shit, I’ve done some more AND added some music. It’s still a work in progress and the atmosphere music is just to plug a gap until I get around to doing something original for it (probably with some help from Neil and Johnny Royale). I also realised when I got to the last chapter it was never finished so I haven’t recorded that yet. Will have to have a big splurge on the writing front if I decide to continue with it.
Once the individual chapters have had some more attention they’ll probably end up being dropped at the end of regular shows as an episodic deal or, if they don’t really end up working they’ll just stay on the Patreon site as oddities for our glorious patrons.
July is looking like a busier month (at last), I should have The Eternal Champ ep 2 uploaded this week, I’m catching up with Natasha a week tomorrow to round off The Jewel in the Skull and later this month Loz and I will embark upon our tour of the Corum books.
In other news the Gollancz Collection is finally almost complete. They may lack inspiring covers but they are definitive texts and are excellent reading copies. Sadly a lot of my older 60s, 70s and 80s editions are getting a bit fragile.
Finally for today, I just concluded play on Dirk the Dice’s terrific three-part Hawkmoon RPG scenario Casa De Mercurio. It was a ton of fun with a great plot, tons of Moorcockian flavour and a great group of players.
Incidentally, Dirk’s latest episode of The Grognard Files is all about the Hawkmoon Role-Playing Game and other associated bits and bobs. It’s required listening as always. Even if you’re not a gamer Dirk and Blythy’s observations on the Hawkmoon series of novels and the games they inspired are as astute, warm and informative as ever. Check it out here.
We’re back in Derry & Toms roof gardens to mull over 1970’s The Eternal Champion, the novel debut of Erekosë/John Daker.
It’s got everything. Bad pronunciation, silly names and nudity.
Phil returns to the co-host chair, we drink Old-Fashioneds and draw comparisons between Noonos and Grimsby, adding that ancient port-town to our list of mildly insulted settlements.
We have a brand new logo (actually a suite of logos) by the brilliant Simon Perrins (@hf_tf on Twitter). Check out his fabulous work at https://cjthorpe1.myportfolio.com/ and pay him cash money to draw you stuff.
Since the last show Dirk over at The Grognard Files asked me on to do a turn on his My First, My Last, My Everything spot. I thoroughly enjoyed it and you can find that episode here. If you didn’t know anything about Lyonesse by Jack Vance before listen to this and you’ll be all over it. While you’re there listen to all of his other shows too. They’re brilliant.
We also have a new patron, Jim. He runs a small press publisher and is working on a guide to Elric collectables. Pay him a visit.
Finally thanks to everyone out there that has stayed interested and enquired about the show. You’re great motivators.
Stay safe and I’ll see you on the moonbeam roads.
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast 