Kings In Darkness

[Marca]

Reading Kings In Darkness again, I was reminded of L. Sprague De Camp's comment in his anthology The Spell Of Seven (where the story also appeared) that it was the one you liked least of the original Elric appearances (c. 1965), while it was in fact a reader's favourite, and he points out how a writer's perception of his own work can differ dramatically from that of the reader. I like it too, and find it very well written. I imagine your opinions of the story will probably have mellowed in the last forty years, but was there a reason you liked it the least at the time (assuming De Camp's original comment is accurate).

On a different matter, James Cawthorn now receives a credit on the story in the EC omnibus editions. Was this another case of Jim providing a storyline, or is it more involved than that?

[Michael Moorcock]

Yes, the outline was by Jim. I seem to remember it was originally for a Conan story. That's the only Elric I've ever written which didn't try in some way to add to the exploration of his character, and that's why I didn't like it. I don't have anything against it as an action tale. I have to admit I haven't actually read it through since it was written!

[Marca]

Interesting that, on reflection. I can definitely see how the story would have been conceived as a Conan-type action tale. Was it ever written as a Conan, I seem to remember you saying you saying elsewhere on the forum that you started writing a Conan story or two, before switching to the Elric concept.

[Michael Moorcock]

I never did more than a few pages of a proposed Conan story for Fantastic Universe. The magazine folded before I could do any more and I put it aside. This is what I first showed to Carnell. He then asked me to do something different, so I did something as different as I could.
Jim, as I recall, had sketched out that story when I had been planning Conan stories for FU. Originally, I'd only planned three Elric stories and when Carnell asked me for another, I didn't really have anything ready, so I used Jim's outline (with his permission, of course).