User:Ianalabron/sandbox

"The Sword of Alabron" was a 3 page comic strip which ran in TSR UK's "Imagine" Magazine for 16 issues from April 1983 to July 1984. It was written and illustrated by Ian Williamson.

After a break of 12 months Ian Williamson returned to "Imagine" with a further comic strip called "Auchter's Axe", based on the Scottish Dwarf Auchter from "The Sword of Alabron". This strip ran for only 2 issues from August 1985 to September 1985 before the magazine was closed to make way for the entry of TSR's American parent magazine "The Dragon" into the UK market.

Characters

The main characters in the strip were "Nightswift", a magic-user, "Reg the Crusader", a Paladin, "Dexys", a thief and "Black Auchter Muchty" (known more simply as "Auchter") a Scottish Dwarf. All of the characters were based on actual AD&D characters of the author, with the exception of Auchter, created by a friend of the Author, who hell bent on having a crazy scottish dwarf character called his mother to get out a map of Scotland and put her finger down on it anywhere for a name. "Edinburgh" was not met with any enthusiasm, but her next stab led to a place called Auchtermuchty. The author sought permission to use this popular character in the comic strip, when first commissioned, which was duly granted by the creator David Pechey.

A mock up of "Imagine" preceded the official Issue in November 1982 which was circulated among potential advertisers, customers." The Sword of Alabron" epsiode which appeared in the mock up was not the episode which eventually appeared in issue 1. The line-up in that episode was as above but with "Gorf Crashaxe", the Dwarf, appearing in place of "Black Auchter Muchty".

Issue by Issue

Issue 1 April 1983 "Enter The Dungeon" Issue 2 May 1983 (Untitled) Issue 3 June 1983 "The Fire Prize" Issue 4 July 1983 "The Dragon's Roar" Issue 5 August 1983 "Getting Warmer" Issue 6 September 1983 "The Orc Patrol" Issue 7 October 1983 "Trouble in the Tunnels" Issue 8 November 1983 "The West Cave Warboys" Issue 9 December 1983 "The Lair of the Red Troll" Issue 10 January 1984 "A Happy Reunion" Issue 11 February 1984 "Prey [?] for your Gods" Issue 12 March 1984 "The Beast of Five Heads" Issue 13 April 1984 "The Guardian of the Gate" Issue 14 May 1984 "Castle of Ice" Issue 15 June 1984 "Rendenclaw Snowdemon" Issue 16 July 1984 "Revelations"

Synopsis

The meandering tale follows the exploits of the main characters in the bowels of Krell Tower, most of whom are in search of the artifact, The Sword of Alabron. Auchter, however, has no interest in acquiring the sword whatsoever, and follows his own agenda of fighting orcs, looking for dragons, and collecting amusing trinkets, e.g.  beetle glands, bouncing boots, a baby hydra and most irritatingly, dragging a decomposing giant spider around. He is the innocent abroad and is refreshingly straight. It is his dwarvish detective powers which leads the party to the sword.

Nightswift is a mysterious figure whose charlatanism is suspected throughout. He "reveals" himself in a farcical episode as Eerlobe Maximus, the Great Warlock of Puddlereach but only until his enlarge spell fails. He is an opportunist.

Reg the Crusader emerges as Reg Alabron and rightful heir to the sword, putting paid to plans to split it four ways. Reg is a down the line paladin; lawfully good he religiously obeys the rules, e.g. "one duel at a time please, have you no honour?" when besieged by orcs - that sort of thing.

Dexys is in it for what he can get out of it; a classic coward and thief. His loyalty is to the highest bidder. He turns out to be an assassin, Morgrund and not a very competent one.

A notable episode is "The Orc Patrol" which spoofs Tolkien's Bridge at Khazad-Dum in the Moria episode of Lord of the Rings. In a homage to that scene Auchter falls from the bridge like Gandalf to his presumed death. Much of the episode is written in Tolkien runes (dwarvish) and includes the line spoken by an orc (in dwarvish) "why are we talking in dwarvish?" Reply (in Common tongue): "It's a new plan to confuse magic users".

As an AD&D commissioned comic strip there are intentional game references throughout such as to hit points, AD&D specific spells, AD&D monsters and the like, and more than the occasional reference was made to the way in which players tended to cheat (nobody ever bothers to map, but seem to know where they are going; whenever a riddle is unexpectedly uttered by a magic mouth, every word is recalled and analysed as if a tape recorder were to hand)

The final frame of the last episode features caricatures of the author and various staff on "Imagine".

Form

The pages of the comic strip were drawn in pencil on A3 cartridge paper. Quality tracing paper (Gateway Paper) was then overlaid and the primary drawing traced with ink pen. From episode 12 inked brushwork also started to appear. The pages were then copied down from the A3 transparency to the A4 format of the magazine.

Ian Williamson also contributed illustrations to articles in "Imagine" Magazine, "Tortured Souls" gaming magazine, and launched a Comic-zine, "Necroworlds" with Criss Brand, Tim Fisher, John Morgan and Steve Thomas in November 1983.