Humorous Fantasy

By Philip J. DeParto

[Editor's Note: This article was written as a sidebar to the panel discussion of Humorous Fantasy at the October 1989 meeting of the Association. It is reprinted with permission from Volume 3, Number 10 of The Starship Express Copyright © 1989 Philip J De Parto.]

Until relatively recently it would have been impossible to put together a panel on humorous fantasy because no one was writing any. Robert Asprin, in the introduction to Myth Inc. Link, relates that after writing his first Myth book, he put it back in his desk drawer because his agent convinced him that a book of this sort would be unpublishable.

It is quite ironic that by the mid-seventies American fantasy found itself in that state. After all, the two most popular adult fantasy writers of the first half of the century, Thorne Smith and James Branch Cabell, were humorists.

Thorne Smith is best known as the creator of Topper, although some may recall that he also wrote Turnabout--in which a man and a woman switch bodies--as well as a few other fantasies. Much of the humor revolved around getting drunk and losing one's inhibitions, a vein which worked much better during Prohibition than in these days of substance abuse.

Cabell followed a different brand of naughtiness. When Jurgen was declared obscene and the author arrested, it made Cabell an instant bestseller. Although here have always been a small group of connoisseurs who adore him, Cabell, like Clark Ashton Smith, is simply not a writer with a feel for or an interest in the commoner.

Both Smith and Cabell are out of print far more often than in. Del Rey Books may bring them back sometime down the road, but they will never be confused with Piers Anthony for popularity.

To be sure, a certain amount of HF could be found in the pages of Weird Tales and Unknown throughout the years. The adventures of Harold Shea have been collected in various formats throughout the years and can currently be found in Baen Books' The Complete Compleat Enchanter. Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser yarns are in print more often that not. Not every one of these is a comedy--though "Lean Times in Lankhmar" is certainly one of the funniest shorts I have ever read--but there is always an undercurrent of tongue-in-cheek in any collection of Lankhmar tales.

Notwithstanding these and other examples, the most popular and influential magazine fantasists wrote serious, even grim, visions. Robert E Howard may have written some stretchers about a gent from Bear's Creek, but mention his name and 99 out of 100 people think of Conan slashing people to pieces. Similarly, not too many people are rolling on the floor when the read Lovecraft, except for those times when he uses words like squamous and rugous in the same sentence.

The situation over in England is even worse. Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time are great fun, but he made his reputation with his creation of Elric of Melnibone, kinslayer, traitor to his race, wielder of the cursed sword, Stormbringer. Tolkien is, in his own way, even more serious than Moorcock.

Strangely enough, the counterforce to this would come from outside the genre.

In 1969 Signet Books quietly published a slender tome which poked fun at one of the counter-culture's adopted heroes. The book was written by the Harvard Lampoon. Its title was Bored of the Rings.

Now Bored of the Rings was no genteel little spoof to tweak J R R's nose. This was a no-holds-barred, down an' dirty parody of the Lord of the Rings and other days of yore things. I suspect that it served as a certain amount of inspiration for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the other non-genre counterweight.

Scene after scene is pilloried. The ents' march on the fortress of Isengard is replaced by the Jolly Green Giant leading an army of intelligent vegatables. Gandalf and the balrog do not plunge into the abyss of Moria because of their battle, but because his companions cut the ropes to save themselves. Along the way they must battle a raging theasaurous and a roller-skating dragon. It is not unusual for any number of us to begin quoting Bored of the Rings routines during a dungeons & dragons game. After reading it, you will never look at Tolkien in quite the same manner.

It would be nice and sarcastic to state that it only took the editors of the sf book companies five or six years to catch on that there might be an audience for this sort of stuff, but that would really not be fair. DAW books published John Jakes Mention My Name in Atlantis featuring Conax the Chimerical before the Xanth phenomenem. Lin Carter had gotten a couple of light romps published beforehand. But with Piers Anthony's Xanth, it was a case of the right author being at the right publisher at the right time.

Now Judy Lynne De Rey was the best loved editor in the business. This was not because of her personality, but because of her unerring ability to spot, promote, and properly market genre titles that would break through their anticipated sales and make money. Lots of money. Book store owners really admire that trait in a woman, a man, or anyone else.

While Piers Anthony was becoming a millionaire at the high end of the publishing business, Robert Asprin was slowly building a following at the low end of the business. The early Myth books by Starblaze/Donning are really nothing extraordinary. There are puns and silly situations, but something strange began to happen. Unlike the Xanth books, which most people agree got worse as the series went on, the Myth books got to be better. New characters appeared. Old ones developed more depth. You actually began to care for the characters! Even more amazingly, the characters grew and changed.

If you get the feeling that I'm a big fan of the later Myth books, you're correct. Guido's explanation that he could no longer live with himself because of all the misery he was creating as a mergers & acquisitions accountant so he became a Mob torpedo is not only funny, but actually a pretty valid piece of social commentary.

The people mentioned so far were the trailblazers. In addition to our guest speaker, the following writers will be mentioned in passing.

Elizabeth ann Scarborough's most recent book, The Healer's War is a serious work, but most of her output has been in a lighter vein. Her best book is The Drastic Dragon of Draco, Texas, a humourous fantasy/western/romance. Also recommended are her first two books, A Song of Sorcery and The Unicorn Creed, later collected into one volume.

Terry Pratchett has been writing a series of novels set on Discworld. The first book, The Color of Magic is okay. The second, The Light Fantastic, is much better. Among the characters in this book is an 87 year old barbarian named Cohen. Mort and Equal Rites are on my stack of things to read.

Craig Shaw Gardner has been writing a series of adventures featuring the bumbling wizard's apprentice, Wuntvor. These are published by Ace and packaged to attract the Myth crowd, but are one-note pieces.

Esther Friesner is currently the most prolific writer in this corner. She is now alternating novels in her Demon Blues series (reviewed here in August), the Elf Defense saga, and the Chronicles of the Twelve Kingdoms. The fantasy in the last is played in a more serious manner than the other two. Ms. Friesner was originally scheduled to participate in this panel but had to bow out.

Although many would include long time New Jerseyite Christopher Stasheff among the HF writers, I deliberately exclude him because his works are not truly fantasy. While there may be witches and trolls in his books, he attempts to explain them scientifically. Thus, I classify them as psuedo-fantasy.

The most popular writer of Humorous Fantasy is probably Sergio Argones. Who you ask? Sergio is the creator of the comic book Groo the Wanderer. Groo is a mighty barbarian who does not know the meaning of the word fear, or indeed any other word of more than three letters. Try it, you'll like it.