The Cthulhu Mythos and the Melnibonéan Mythos.
This is today's Half-Price Books brag. Sure, the cover's horribly faded and worn, but I never owned a version of of the old
AD&D supplement
Deities & Demigods that included entries based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock respectively.
I was jealous of my friends who had this edition back in the day; by the time I bought my copy of the
DDG, they had been redacted. You get the eldrich illustrations of Erol Otus in the Cthulhu section, and the renderings of Jeff Dee in the Melnibone chapter.
Interestingly, I remember speaking with
Deities & Demigods author James Ward at NTRPG Con last summer. Two items of interest he shared regarding this book: First, he actually had clearance from both authors' literary estates to use their material, but was vetoed by TSR's legal department. Second, in compiling the various other mythologies, he had to omit a lot of background information because of all the sex in those old tales!
Finally, the cool thing about used books is seeing how their previous owners treated their tomes. I like this one because of this sticker on the inside of the front cover. Any of you do something like this to your game books?
7 comments:
I had a copy, but I sold it years ago. Of course now I regret doing that, but it's on the re-acquisition list.
When it comes to marking up books, I used to consider them sancrosact. I couldn't bear to mark, or damage them in anyway. Now I'm a little more laid back, especially when buying used books that have seen a lot of use. However, I will erase pencil markings, like in the artifact section of the AD&D DMG 1E, or anywhere else in the book. Ink markings and highlights I just have to accept.
I actually colored in some of my Fiend Folio drawings with felt-tip markers. In fact, that's where the image for my blogger avatar came from.
Oh my. Back in the day, I would never, ever, do something like that. Now if I could find a cheap copy, I probably would. Oh wait! I can scan the pics, and use a paint program! Ha! My books are safe.
My current copy of the Fiend Folio is in good shape.
This past August at GuadaComaCon, I asked Jeff Dee if he had any problems getting approval from Moorcock to reproduce his Deities & Demigods artwork for sale online.
He told me that TSR's failure those years ago was getting approval from Moorcock himself at a convention and not contacting Moorcock's legal representation directly.
You (Desert Scribe) were there at the time, but I'm not sure you were part of the conversation.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'd forgotten that Erol Otus did the artwork for the Cthulhu Mythos. They're all great, but I've always been partial to the Shub-Niggurath illustration on page 47... So glad I never sold my books or games, even though it meant lugging them around the world during my military career.
I think the only book I ever wrote in was my Monsters & Treasure, where I foolishly added a few monsters... should have just left them on a separate page tucked into the booklet! After that, I studiously avoided marking them other than putting my initials somewhere on them...
The Cthulu/Moorcock D%DG is actually worth a lot of money to collectors, although I'd wonder about the condition of the book affecting the value.
Sovereigneternal, that sounds about right. JW said pretty much the same thing--they had the OK from the author directly, but the legal staff said no way.
Post a Comment