Fritz Leiber, fantasy master

J.R.R. Tolkien deserves recognition in the fantasy genre for creating a fully imagined realm, but he wasn’t the only one . . . or the first. Back in 1939, Fritz Leiber gave us Nehwon -- a land combining the Old West and the Arabian Nights . . . with his stories of the warrior duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Over the last year, Darkhorse Comics has made a major rehabilitation effort with Leiber’s work, starting with a graphic novel adaptation penciled by “Hellboy’s” Mike Mignola. With inks by Al Williamson and the story adapted by Howard Chaykin, “Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” seems like a bold new work, not something that’s been around for more than 70 years.

There’s something special about the way stories affect us as kids; everyone has at least one memory of a book or author that enchanted his or her childhood. For Chaykin, it was his encounter with Leiber as a 13-year-old.

Darkhorse has also published three of Leiber’s original novels (a fourth is on its way next month), grouped under the title “Lankhmar” (the name of Nehwon’s principal city). These books lack illustrations -- except for a rough map of Nehwon.

But you know what? Leiber’s originals stand entirely on their own. The prose is swift and imaginative, propelled by Leiber’s pseudo-antique syntax -- “Likewise I shall never lift foot toward Lankhmar again” -- and plenty of dramatic set pieces. It’s enough to fill a young kid’s imaginings -- or, for that matter, those of an adult who, confronted with suburbs and strip malls, wants to dream of a fantasy land far from office memos, fax machines and traffic jams.

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-- Nick Owchar