Last year, I was contacted by Jonathan Green who was busily writing a book on the history of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and wanted to commission a brand new Derek the Troll strip for inclusion in it. It had been decades since I'd done my last Derek strip but I'd always hoped to bring him back and this was the perfect opportunity.
The book has now been published. You Are the Hero is a heavy 270 page A4 volume packed with information and illustrations on the story of Fighting Fantasy and I'm very pleased that Derek the Troll is in there for his 30th anniversary. Not just that, but Jonathan has also reprinted (with my permission) one of the original Derek strips from 1986, - Derek the Troll's 'Orrible Troll-Playing Game, wherein the reader has multiple choices to decide on the direction of the strip.
You can find out more info on the book over on my Blimey! blog:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/you-are-hero.html
Will this be Derek's final appearance? No. Now that the character is back I want to keep him around so expect to see him back again, somewhere, some day. Probably not for a few months at least as I'm busy on other comic strips, but he will return!
You Are the Hero blog:
http://youaretheherokickstarter.blogspot.co.uk/
Order your copy from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-are-Hero-Jonathan-Green/dp/1909679364
Is it wise Lew to inflame real trolls with posts like this? Haven't you had enough of that?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you're entirely serious, but I created Derek the Troll way before the Internet trolls existed. Anyway, we're talking about smelly, spotty, friendless little critters... not cartoon characters. :)
DeleteSeriously though, it's a character that was established 30 years ago. Long before most Internet 'trolls' were even born. The term 'troll' is from Norse mythology.