I have just ordered a few Arthuriana over the Internet. I was still missing two out of three parts of Gillian Bradshaw's trilogy Down the Long Wind - I only have the middle one, and that made me curious about the first book especially. It's about Gwalchmai ap Lot, a. k. a. Gawain. I had been on the lookout for these for a while now, but whenever I came across copies on the Net they seemed comparatively expensive for tanned, 1980s paperbacks, and any vendors I could find were in the States. This time I found an English vendor via Abebooks.
The other thing I got is a pretty crazy-sounding DC classic comic called Camelot 3000. In it, Morgan le Fay sends an army of aliens out to conquer the planet Earth (*dies*), and a young archeologist wakes up King Arthur who, as everybody knows, lies sleeping under Glastonbury Tor. Arthur goes to find Merlin, who, as everybody also knows, is emprisoned under Stonehenge, and then he goes on to pull Excalibur out of a stone, though it is a well-known fact that Excalibur is not the sword in the stone, but let's pretend for a moment that it is. - Anyway, as Arthur can't very well ward off Morgan's Army of Aliens on his own, his knights reincarnate. Apparently Sir Tristan reincarnates as a woman - that is one story arc I can't wait to read :D. Gawain, I am told, comes back in the shape of a black South African.
I couldn't very well not buy that comic, could I? You will hear more about it when I have actually read it :).
Now: on with the story. You know the drill: click the thumbnails if you want to be able to read anything...
The other thing I got is a pretty crazy-sounding DC classic comic called Camelot 3000. In it, Morgan le Fay sends an army of aliens out to conquer the planet Earth (*dies*), and a young archeologist wakes up King Arthur who, as everybody knows, lies sleeping under Glastonbury Tor. Arthur goes to find Merlin, who, as everybody also knows, is emprisoned under Stonehenge, and then he goes on to pull Excalibur out of a stone, though it is a well-known fact that Excalibur is not the sword in the stone, but let's pretend for a moment that it is. - Anyway, as Arthur can't very well ward off Morgan's Army of Aliens on his own, his knights reincarnate. Apparently Sir Tristan reincarnates as a woman - that is one story arc I can't wait to read :D. Gawain, I am told, comes back in the shape of a black South African.
I couldn't very well not buy that comic, could I? You will hear more about it when I have actually read it :).
Now: on with the story. You know the drill: click the thumbnails if you want to be able to read anything...
4 comments:
Not even a consult on the comic? I'm hurt & could have gotten you a fair deal.
Morgana's poses and expressions in the last two pages remind me of Craig Thompson's Blankets, especially the attitude of a teacher toward little Craig. I don't know if you have ever read Thompson: for me he's one of the very best comic artist of the world ^^
As for the DC comic, it sounds so absurdly funny! And does Tristan, changed into a woman, fight like a woman warrior? Eheh. There's a XVI cent. Italian poem where Renaud is transformed into a woman by a fairy, but I haven't read it.
Goody, Noutmans! Do you never buy anything impulsively? I read about Camelot 3000 on the womenincomics blog and bought it within minutes, out of sheer curiosity. That happens. I'm relying on you for the last Scott Pilgrim though :P...
Cecilia: yes, I have read Blankets (*points at comics expert*) and enjoyed it. I love Craig Thompson's lines :).
As soon as I know more about Tristan, I'll let you know! The book will arrive any day now... You have made me curious about that 16th century poem, mind. What is it called?
It's called La morte del Danese (the death of Ogier le danois) by Cassio da Narni (publ. 1521-1534). I know it only from summaries in other books. I can copy you this small summary (from a text that it's not completely reliable as for summaries, The Fortunes of the Warrior Heroine in Italian Literature by Margaret Tomalin, Modena 1982):
"In canto VIII Rinaldo [Renaud]finds himself exchanging sex with a fata [a fairy] (even his horse, Baiardo, is involved in a sex change!). Rinaldo has a baby which dies through his inability to feed it, but the maga (sorceress) restores the child to life. Canto IX continues the episode; the pair meet Orlando who is extremely surprised to find that the Paladin, his cousin, has become a warrior maiden. In Book II, Canto V, Rinaldo again experience birth pagns [I don't know who is the father/mother of the baby, since the author doesn't specify it!] He sets out a lament in whih he sympathizes with women [quote] and eventually gives birth to twin boys" (p. 154).
I can't tell you if in the poem is happens exactly like this, because I found elsewhere inconsistencies between Tomalin's summaries and the real poems. But it's a really weird situation nonetheless ^^
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