This Saturday, after you sleep in a little bit to recover from all the awesome of seeingThor on Friday, make sure to eat your Wheaties and get your ass out to your Local Comic Shop for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!  Yes friends, the greatest day of the year, the first Saturday in May, is HERE!!!!  (well, second greatest day, really, after Free Funnybook Day, coming next Monday!)

All week on IoM, we’re going to give advance reviews of some of the mostly hotly anticipated comics this Saturday and let you know which ones are worth checking out, or which ones might be better left for other fans.

I’m going to admit, first and foremost, I’m not familiar with the universe portrayed in Elric: The Balance Lost, from Boom! Studios and based on the popular character created by Michael Moorcock.  The FCBD comic, from the creative team of Chris Roberson and Francesco Biagini, seeks to correct this by creating, essentially, an entry point into the world of Elric, explaining the character and the dynamics of his world, as well as showing the comics history of the character, and a sketchbook of designs for the series.

Even then though, I couldn’t get into Elric: The Balance Lost.  That’s not to say it’s bad.  The art is quite good, and I’m sure the story could appeal to fans of this world.  However, I’m just tired of the usual tropes of sword and sorcery comics, and the old English used in so many of them.  It’s one of the reasons I enjoy IDW’s Dungeons and Dragons book so much – it’s told in a modern storytelling style unique to this genre.  So, it’s just not my thing.  However, it does portray an interesting concept of a multiverse, where Elric is actually multiple people in different universes.  If you’re a fan of the character, or of this type of storytelling, you’ve probably already got your eye on this one.  If you’re not into this kind of thing, I’m not sure Elric: The Balance Lost is going to convince you to jump on board.