Moorcock, Art & Comics PART I

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

Moorcock and RPGs Part V – Stormbringer Redux!

Moorcock & RPGs V – Stormbringer Redux!

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.

The Fortress of the Pearl – Part One

The Fortress of the Pearl – Gollancz SF 1989

The Fortress of the Pearl – Part One

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)

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

To Rescue Tanelorn / SÖNUS – Usurper of the Universe

Tanelorn | Moorcock's Multiverse Wikia | FANDOM powered by ... — Tanelorn by Rodney Matthews

To Rescue Tanelorn / SÖNUS – Usurper of the Universe

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!

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.

Moorcock RPGs and the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly

Moorcock RPGs and the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly

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).

The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly – Audio Version (Work in Progress)

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.

The Eternal Champion Part One

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.

Episode 06 – Elric of Melniboné Part Two w/ @lozbearfield

Elric of Melniboné Part Two

Loz is back with me at Derry and Tom’s as we dive into Straasha’s ocean depths to prize open the mysteries below and discuss (most of) Book Two of Elric of Melniboné. Elric is full of pith and vinegar for a change and we get a good look at him from a different perspective.

Excellent beverages are consumed along the way.

Episode 05 – The Final Programme Phase One w/ @husseindharma

The Final Programme Phase One

After a degree of arm-twisting and one false start, Hussein finally gets his head into a sci-fi/fantasy book and agrees to tell the tale!

We cover the first Phase of The Final Programme, the introduction of Jerry Cornelius into the world of Michael Moorcock.

Hussein pops a couple of cherries, appearing on his first podcast AND reading his first ever scifi/fantasy novel! He also gets to marvel at the wonders of psychedelic 70s scifi covers. Meanwhile I keep mixing up my Perssons with my Brunners.

Massive thanks to new patrons Matt and Tom, as well of course as existing Chaos Engineers Norman, Fred, Malpertius and David. I’m ruminating on what I can do in terms of patron exclusives. Watch this space.

Episode 04 – Happy Birthday MM and Phil!!!

Happy Birthday Michael Moorcock and Phil

One of the twitter gang tipped me off a few weeks ago that December 18th is Michael Moorcock’s birthday. It took a while for the penny to drop, but when it did and my brain was penetrated by the copper and grub of ten thousand grasping fingers, I was taken aback for a second.

December 18th is also my brilliant and long-suffering partner Phil’s birthday!

Sweet, sweet synchronicity.

This presented an opportunity to celebrate both birthdays with a special, festive episode recorded in a four poster suite in the ancient 16th century Bagdale Hall Hotel in Whitby, the salt-bitten harboured, red-roofed jewel in Yorkshire’s Crown.

What’s more, some fine friends of the show sent along their messages to MM for inclusion.

So thanks Rob, Michael, Fred, Anthony, Asako Soh, David and The Pastor for your contributions. I’d like to think that in some cycle of existence MM may hear your words and feel the love.

The Pastor went the extra mile and sent a video of his salutation. As I could only keep the audio for the episode, here is his contribution in all its heavenly glory!

Thanks again Pastor!

So, many happy returns of the day to Phil, to Michael Moorcock, to anyone else who shares this day and anyone who just happens to listen to this on their birthday at any point in the future, from Earth 01 to Earth 16 or anywhere in the multiverse!

Finally, my gratitude to new patrons Malpertius and David, who join Fred and Norman in the ranks of Chaos Engineers. I’m always humbled that anyone would offer up their own sheckles to support this podcast. I hope I can repay your confidence.

Anyway, I hear the Song of the Swords. A transition approaches so… I’ll see you on the Moonbeam Roads!