On sale now in comic book shops and digitally is Elric: The Balance Lost, a new ongoing series based on the classic fantasy hero created by Michael Moorcock. The comic is written by Chris Roberson (iZombie, Superman, Cinderella) and illustrated by Francesco Biagini. Publisher BOOM! Studios is promoting the new series by making available online a special 10-page prelude comic that is not part of issue #1's contents, and you can check it out after the jump.As was the case with its Hellraiser launch earlier this year, BOOM! Studios is aggressively marketing Elric to comic book readers and fans of Moorcock and fantasy literature in general. An entire Elric comics website has been devised to provide not just background information on the work of Moorcock and the comics' creators but also basic knowledge about the comic book medium itself, including distribution details, when the material will be collected and in what formats, and what the hell variant covers are. Additionally, there are blogs by Roberson, BOOM! CEO Ross Richie and more. It's really quite astonishingly proactive and should be seen as a template for future initiatives of this type.

If you're unfamiliar with Elric or the work of Chris Roberson or Francesco Biagini, the creators have produced a 10-page prelude to The Balance Lost that you can read below. Elric: The Balance Lost #1 is available now in finer comics shops and online retailers and of course digitally from BOOM!'s comiXology app, where it will continue to be released same-day digitally.





















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