A couple years back, I posted the original paperback collections of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, so now that the set of deluxe hardcovers from Centipede Press is complete it seems only fair to post those too.
As with all of Centipede’s publications, these books are impressive physical objects, but they also act as pretty definitive collections of work about the Twain. In addition to the stories themselves, there are interviews, poems, introductions, essays, notes for a film adaptation, and on and on. A feast. In addition to these seven volumes, there are two more coming, a reprint of Robin Wayne Bailey’s posthumous continuation of the saga, Swords Against the Shadowland, and a final volume of ephemera. And when that’s done, we’ll have the final word on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. A bit melancholy, honestly.
Still, the Centipede volumes are especially exciting because each features a different illustrator for both covers and interiors. Tom Kidd sets a high bar in Swords and Deviltry. I love his rattish Hristomilo. Dominick Saponaro handles Swords Against Death and in a bold move I am still not sure about, generally depicts Faf without a beard. With so many of the stories in this volume being adapted by Mike Mignola, though, any artist was going to have a tricky time in my view. Grant Griffon’s work on Swords in the Mist is well outside my expectations, bringing a very loose, modern, horror-tinged look (evidence: that portrait of Ningauble). Jim and Ruth Keegan take on Swords Against Wizardry. I’m a little ambivalent about the front cover, but love the view on the back from “The Lords of Quarmall” and most of the interiors, particularly the fortune teller. My lone disappointment with Tyler Jacobsen’s cover for The Swords of Lankhmar is that you can’t see Karl Treuherz riding the beast. Richard Hescox’s work for Swords and Ice Magic is interesting — the color stuff gives me an almost Dungeon Crawl Classics vibe but he black and whites feature tight ink work reminiscent of Gary Gianni. Finally, the legendary Tim Kirk takes up his pen for the final volume, The Knight and Knave of Swords and delivers possibly the best work in the whole series. Lovely stuff.
