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Dark Horse collects the hard-to-find Lankhmar adapations of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Discover the stories that defined the genre of sword & sorcery through the eyes of legendary comics writer Howard Chaykin and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola - out soon from Dark Horse books.

Since their first appearance in 1939, Fritz Leiber's (Gather, Darkness!, Catch That Zeppelin! and The Great Garrick among many others) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories have ranked among those with the most beloved characters in the whole fantasy/'sword and sorcery' genre. Their rollicking adventures in the fantastic land of Nehwon have influenced the work of some of the best in modern fantasy, including British novelists Michael Moorcock (Stormbringer, The English Assassin, Elric of Melniboné), Terry Pratchett (Mort, The Colour of Magic, Wyrd Sisters, and countless others.

Chaykin and Mignola's four-issue adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, long out-of-print, is collected in this new edition - out in March in a graphic novel for the first time - with new cover art from Mignola himself.

Heavily influenced by the writings of Cthulhu Mythos creator H.P. Lovecraft (At The Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and Robert Graves (I, Claudius, Claudius The God) Leiber was the author of numerous novels, short stories and other writings - including journalism in his capacity as Associate Editor of Science Digest magazine from 1944 until 1956. A former Episcopal minister and Shakepearean stage performer he earned his living as a freelance author from 1956 until his death in the September of 1992.

The obituary published in The Times newspaper probably best sums up the literary importance of the man who spawned a whole sub-genre of imitators: "He was the first to use the term 'Swords and Sorcery' to describe this particular SF sub-genre, and wrote of dark horrors of the commonplace: scratch the surface of urban life and there is something deeply sinister beneath. In this he could be compared to the director David Lynch...He certainly exerted an definitive influence on American fantastic fiction, drawing many of his own themes from Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, H.P Lovecraft and the master of the English ghost story, M.R. James."

British horror author Ramsey Campbell - himself a novelist touching on Leiber's eldritch milieu - called Leiber: "the greatest living writer of supernatural horror fiction".

In addition to the adapation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser DH Press will also be publishing all eight books in the influential Lankhmar series and Dark Horse Entertainment is developing the property as a major motion picture - so it looks like the future's bright for Fritz Leiber's fantasy legacy.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is out as a 200 page collection in March from Dark Horse.

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