The extraordinary origins of Melrod!
Right, I thought I’d get this explained as soon as possible to stop any future confusion. One of the recurring characters appearing in The Great Book Quest is Melrod, the albino carpet-flyer who tells outrageously false stories of his own greatness. And the more observant among you might see that he is in fact my, The Author’s, invention, since he always appears in Red Un’s posts. But before you congratulate me on an hilarious comic relief (or just complains that he’s dumb), I should state that I was a bit… inspired.
See, I had been reading a bunch of issues of Cerebus by Dave Sim, a rather famous fantasy-comic that apparently got worse as it progressed. But the early stuff is often really funny and sometimes even thought-provoking (‘ol Sim like to discuss religion and philosophy and all that stuff, something that later led to his downfall when he revealed some rather… Unusual opinions). Now, one of the characters in this comic was Elrod of Melvinbone, an outrageously annoying albino who often talked of his own greatness while at the same time being hilariously weak and stupid, much to the frustration of the main character, Cerebus (no, that is not a misspelling). You might start to see where I got my inspiration from…
Elrod could be talking about himself, but he is, in fact, talking about someone even more stupid.
Now, at the time of making The Great Book Quest I thought that Elrod of Melvinbone was in fact an original creation of Dave Sim. I later learned, however, that this was not the case. Elrod was in fact a parody of a far more serious fantasy character, a certain Elric of Melniboné created by the author Michael Moorcock. Elric is “the last king of Melniboné” and, surprise surprise, an albino. Now Elric might talk big at times, but he is in fact just as powerful and heroic as both Elrod and Melrod wish they were.
Elric of Melniboné, don't mess with him.
But it doesn’t end there! The, I say, the rather curious way Melrod speaks also has a tale of inspiration. Borrowing, that is. I took it from Elrod’s way of speaking, thinking at the time that it was in fact Sim’s creation as well. However, he had in turn taken it from, of all things, an old Looney Tunes cartoon-character, a certain Foghorn Leghorn. Mr. Leghorn was a rooster with a real southern American way of speakin’, y’see. Apparently Sim had mixed Elric of Melniboné with Foghorn Leghorn to produce an idiotic albino who talked like a self-obsessed cartoon character.
Foghorn Leghorn, cartoon rooster who know a thing or two about workin' on th'farm.
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that Mel Blanc, the voice actor behind Foghorn Leghorn, apparently got his inspiration for the voice from a character on a radio-show, a certain Senator Claghorn.
Senator Claghorn. Yeah, I know, THIS is the origins of Melrod?
So, to sum it all up, Melrod the albino carpet-flyer is a parody of a parody of a parody! Maybe I’d have thought up something a little more original if I had known it at the time…
Back to main