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67-488: MythAdventures or Myth Adventures is a fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin . After twelve novels by Asprin, published 1978 to 2002, he and Jody Lynn Nye continued the series with seven more books that they wrote together. After his death in May 2008, Nye has continued the series on her own. The Myth Adventures are noted for and popular for their whimsical nature, myriad characters, and liberal use of puns . After

134-461: A city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus 's authority. Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Apuleius 's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on

201-494: A collection of Asprin's short myth-stories under the title Myth-Interpretations ( ISBN   1-4391-3390-5 ). This collection contains short stories and short novels taking place in many worlds that Robert Asprin created. It is advertised as containing all of the Myth short fiction. The first novel was adapted into an eight-part WaRP Graphics comic book series in the mid-1980s. Illustrated and heavily rewritten by Phil Foglio ,

268-485: A feature-length movie after doing so with their own property, Elfquest , though the latter has yet to even make it past concept to this day. A board game called Myth Fortunes was developed by Mayfair Games and sold in 1990. Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction which involves themes of the supernatural , magic , and imaginary worlds and creatures . Its roots are in oral traditions, which became fantasy literature and drama. From

335-671: A feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy became a genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was published. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ; when it

402-449: A graphic novel collection. Foglio has also done the cover art and accompanying illustrations for the first editions of most of the novels. Before he started the cover illustrations, Kelly Freas did the covers of the first editions of the earliest books of the series. Short-lived rumors circulated in the 1980s that Wendy and Richard Pini , owners of WaRP Graphics , were considering turning their adaptation of Another Fine Myth into

469-489: A graphic novel published by Starblaze Graphics . This was followed in 1987 by a full-length graphic novel, Buck Godot: PSmIth , also published by Starblaze. A single-page Buck Godot story also appeared in E-Man #9 (December 1983). In 1993, Foglio began publishing the 8-issue limited series Buck Godot - Zap Gun for Hire through Palliard Press . Six issues were published on a semi-annual basis. After Palliard Press dissolved,

536-510: A haven to many of the worst criminals and other anti-social humans and aliens, and has become even more so now that it offers safety from the Machines (the Law Machine assigned to New Hong Kong "moonlights as its conscience"). New Hong Kong is the home base of the series' eponymous protagonist, Buckminster "Buck" Godot , a quick-witted mercenary whose motto is "Always available, but never free". He

603-428: A healthy sex drive). Lou has employed Buck on several occasions, usually surprised that he prefers payment in cash instead of "trade". Buck's response is generally that she is "too small", a reference to the fact that Hoffmanites are so large, heavy, and strong, once joking that they could have a go if she gained about 400 pounds. Buck's other friend is Asteroid Al , a Thuxian (an eyeless alien species roughly resembling

670-564: A large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. H. Rider Haggard , Rudyard Kipling , and Edgar Rice Burroughs began to write fantasy at this time. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt , established what was known as the "lost world" subgenre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , were also published around this time. Juvenile fantasy

737-471: A main plot element, theme , or setting . Magic, magic practitioners ( sorcerers , witches and so on) and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's use of narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. In writing fantasy

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804-521: A man of his size. Buck is also a fast thinker, shown setting up and executing very elaborate schemes on short notice. His skills are impressive enough to be worthy of respect by no less than Lord Thezmothete, the single most advanced being in the galaxy. Buck is an expert marksman, able to shoot his way out of almost any situation. His normal "zap gun" is Junior , a white or chromed laser pistol which fires cartridge-loaded energy blasts (a much larger gun, Senior , may be glimpsed on his apartment wall). He

871-412: A new style of "fuzzy" supernatural texts. The fantastic is on the dividing line between supernatural and not supernatural, Just as during this time period the women were not respecting the boundary of inequality that had always been set for them. At the time, women's roles in society were very uncertain, just as the rules of the fantastic are never straightforward. This climate allowed for a genre similar to

938-470: A noticeable decline in "real governments", because they tend not to be able to function in the harsh scrutiny of The Law. In their place have risen guilds like X-Tel, which specialize in helping disgruntled colonists move and resettle to places where The Law has a weaker presence. The sole exception to the Law's jurisdiction is the colony of New Hong Kong . The planetary government there wound up being protected from

1005-591: A possible printed (re-)publication of Godot "in late Spring [2016]". Buck's adventures take place in a future where humanity has joined an interstellar coalition known as the Gallimaufry . Human colonization and exploitation has resulted in the development of various human and mutant sub-species, as well as methods such as terraforming (altering marginally habitable worlds into environments where humans can thrive) and pantropy (genetically altering humans to thrive on marginally habitable worlds). Humanity has also become

1072-607: A single source. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, due to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion . There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin 's The King of

1139-731: A week. As of June 2009, the last Buck Godot comic has been posted (except for the second story in the first volume, concerning the Planetary Temperance League and one of Lou's employees that featured some nudity and one page story "The Gauntlet" parodies the old Hostess pie ads from E-Man #9, and a lost short story from GASP! magazine) and updates have now ceased. Though this has been offline since sometime in February 2016, along with webcomic republications of What's New with Phil & Dixie and MythAdventures , when Airship Entertainment's old website broke down. Studio Foglio hinted at

1206-659: A wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard 's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy , and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream . Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea books, helped cement

1273-615: Is One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) , which is a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales. Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters, particularly in the Indian epics . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate

1340-541: Is a well-known face at Asteroid Al's, and indeed throughout most of New Hong Kong. Buck's notable antagonists have included the aforementioned X-Tel Corporation , the human collective mind PSmIth (read as "Smithe", referencing the "psi" shortening of " psychic "), the high-grade thief and assassin named Der Rock the Destroyer and the notorious space pirate known as the Pistol Packin' Polaris Packrat (a sentient who has

1407-630: Is also an expert pilot, operating small personal craft around New Hong Kong as well as interstellar spacecraft. Buck's best friend is Louisa "Lou" Dem Five , the asteroid -born madam of the Velvet Fist bordello . Lou is a former agent of the Planetary Temperance League, but finds her current profession more to her liking, and has successfully tempted several of her fellow agents to work for her. Her human-variant alteration gives her voluntary control over glands in her body that exude an intensely-powerful pheromone that can entice anyone (at least, anyone with

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1474-634: Is another fine mess you've gotten me into." (The actual catchphrase referred to "another nice mess".) After it was too late to change the catalog, Asprin decided that using "Myth" would be much better if the book would become a series. They changed the title and claimed a typo in the catalog. According to Asprin, the original inspiration for the Myth Adventures was the Road to ... comedy movie series, which stars Bing Crosby and Bob Hope as wandering con-artists/adventurers. The stories mostly revolve around

1541-612: The Epic of Gilgamesh . The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš , in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat , contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt. The Tales of the Court of King Khufu , which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and

1608-509: The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda , includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir , and dwarves , elves , dragons , and giants . These elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately for "Celtic" fantasy, sometimes with great effect; other writers have specified the use of

1675-477: The anthology comic book Just Imagine , published by Just Imagine Graphix. More Buck Godot stories followed in issues #3 (1982) and #5 (spring 1983). A fourth story written by John J Buckley, Jr. and penciled by Doug Rice, which has never been reprinted, appeared in #8 (winter 1984). In 1986, the three stories by Foglio were colored and compiled along with a new fourth story in Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire ,

1742-477: The 'protection' of the Law Machines when a hacker entered a new 'law' to be voted into place (and it was, overwhelmingly): There shall be no laws on New Hong Kong . The hacker was subsequently arrested, but since the Law Machines are programmed not to interfere in society except when enforcing official laws, they became powerless to act on New Hong Kong thanks to this new (and only) 'law'. The planet had already been

1809-585: The Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald , the Scottish author of such novels as Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872); the former is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era

1876-589: The RPG products sold in 2005. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 it was still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises ). The first collectible card game , Magic: The Gathering , has a fantasy theme and is similarly dominant in the industry. Fantasy encompasses numerous subgenres characterized by particular themes or settings, or by an overlap with other literary genres or forms of speculative fiction. They include

1943-676: The Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson , and the Harry Potter films, two of the highest-grossing film series in cinematic history. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game and remains the most successful and influential. According to a 1999 survey in the United States , 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D . Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of

2010-470: The Supernatural in the 1890s and 1920s , Lizzie Harris McCormick, Jennifer Mitchell, and Rebecca Soares describe how the social climate in the 1890s and 1920s allowed for a new era of "fantastic" literature to grow. Women were finally exploring the new freedoms given to them and were quickly becoming equals in society. The fear of the new women in society, paired with their growing roles, allowed them to create

2077-456: The absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture , the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Many works of fantasy use magic or other supernatural elements as

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2144-511: The adventures of a few central characters: The Phil Foglio comics based on the books also involve The Winslow : A small fuzzy alligator which happens to be utterly indestructible and presumably immortal, and figures prominently one way or another into fully three-fourths of the galaxy's known religions. Many of the names, like so much else in this series, are puns; see the parenthetical comments. Dimensions that have been mentioned but not explicitly depicted: The "first" Myth Adventures series

2211-505: The air of uncertainty in its narratives as described by Todorov. Jackson also introduces the idea of reading the fantastic through a psychoanalytical lens, referring primarily to Freud's theory of the unconscious, which she believes is integral to understanding the fantastic's connection to the human psyche. There are however additional ways to view the fantastic, and often these differing perspectives come from differing social climates. In their introduction to The Female Fantastic: Gender and

2278-643: The amount of property damage he causes, those expenses can be pretty high. He follows strict ethical standards in all his dealings, which sometimes surprises his clients. One of the mottos of New Hong Kong is, "Just because there are no laws, that doesn't mean there are no rules". Buck Godot is a Hoffmanite, a variant human race from a world with a heavy gravity environment. His rotund appearance conceals high muscular density, giving him incredible (but not quite superhuman) strength, stamina and metabolic endurance (he can drink high amounts of alcohol with little effect). He can also move deceptively quickly and efficiently for

2345-438: The author uses worldbuilding to create characters, situations, and settings that may not be possible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world folklore and mythology as inspiration; and although another defining characteristic of the fantasy genre is the inclusion of supernatural elements, such as magic, this does not have to be the case. Fantasy has often been compared to science fiction and horror because they are

2412-580: The central Indian principles of political science . Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie , including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart . Beowulf is among the best known of the Old English tales in the English speaking world, and has had deep influence on the fantasy genre; several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Norse mythology , as found in

2479-631: The circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings , were therefore classified as children's literature . Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement 's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of

2546-646: The convention. The first WFC was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon , cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of

2613-476: The creatures from the Alien franchise), who is known for being stingy about money and contracts. The drinks served at his bar can intoxicate the unwary almost immediately. Buck's drink of choice is the "ion sucker", whose containers also make useful weapons (as well as components for flower arranging). Other cronies at Al's Bar include Spug , a frog-faced alien cabbie who has trouble keeping secrets. Beyond these, Buck

2680-462: The custodian of The Winslow, an immortal, indestructible, sentient small fuzzy alligator-like creature that usually doesn't do anything more than say "Hi!", and is highly sought after by other species for various reasons. However, the chaotic nature of human expansion into space has resulted in two Great Checks: a powerful alien intelligence known as Lord Thezmothete, who prevents humans and other species from exploiting pre-spaceflight civilizations; and

2747-469: The difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Stanislaw Lem . Rosemary Jackson builds onto and challenges as well Todorov's definition of the fantastic in her 1981 nonfiction book Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion . Jackson rejects the notion of the fantastic genre as a simple vessel for wish fulfillment that transcends human reality in worlds presented as superior to our own, instead positing that

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2814-422: The dubious honor of being the only creature Buck will deal with for free; Al suspects that there's someone out there paying Buck to breathe) with his two talking laser pistols, Smith and Wesson , who have some history with Junior and lament that he "isn't speaking to them". In the 8-part "Gallimaufry" series, Buck travels to the eponymous space station – acting as a sort of United Nations in space - and meets

2881-526: The emergence of the Law Machines , intelligent robots that enforce the law in all places. The Law Machines always enforce the letter of the written law, to the extent that several planets were forced to change governments when corrupt or neglectful officials were arrested en masse. Since someone arrested by the Law is never seen again, human colonies are wary about accepting the presence of a Law Machine in their society. The Law's presence and methods have led to

2948-510: The fantastic is a liminal space , characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. However, this precise definition is not the predominant one in English critical literature, and the French term fantastique is used to differentiate the French concept from the broader English term of fantastic, synonym of fantasy. The restrictive definition of Todorov and

3015-429: The fantastic represents the unspoken desire for greater societal change. Jackson criticizes Todorov's theory as being too limited in scope, examining only the literary function of the fantastic, and expands his structuralist theory to fit a more cultural study of the genre—which, incidentally, she proposes is not a genre at all, but a mode that draws upon literary elements of both realistic and supernatural fiction to create

3082-554: The fantasy publisher Tor Books , men outnumber women by 67% to 33% among writers of historical, epic or high fantasy. But among writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance, 57% are women and 43% are men. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other language studies, cultural studies , comparative literature , history and medieval studies . Some works make political, historical and literary connections between medievalism and popular culture. French literature theorists as Tzvetan Todorov argues that

3149-417: The final two issues were published starting in 1997 by Studio Foglio . The series was later collected in a trade paperback as Buck Godot: The Gallimaufry . After successfully moving Girl Genius from a printed comic book series to a webcomic in 2006, Studio Foglio began to serialize the existing Buck Godot stories as a webcomic. The webcomic started running on January 9, 2007, and updated three times

3216-470: The first book, every title turns on the similarity between the word "myth" and the prefix "mis-" or the word "miss". The inaugural title, Another Fine Myth , puns on the phrase "another fine mess". Chapters are usually headed by made-up quotes by famous or semi-famous persons. The first book was advertised under that title, Another Fine Mess , from Oliver Hardy 's often-used catchphrase directed towards his film comedy partner Stan Laurel , supposedly "This

3283-435: The first time, women started to possess more masculine or queer qualities without it becoming as much of an issue. The fantastic during this time period reflects these new ideas by breaking parallel boundaries in the supernatural. The fantastic breaks this boundary by having the readers never truly know whether or not the story is supernatural. Buck Godot The first Buck Godot story appeared in issue #2 (summer 1982) of

3350-526: The following: In her 2008 book Rhetorics of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn proposes the following taxonomy of fantasy, as "determined by the means by which the fantastic enters the narrated world", while noting that there are fantasies that fit none of the patterns: Publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars with interest in the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention . The World Fantasy Awards are presented at

3417-528: The genre is inseparable from real life, particularly the social and cultural contexts within which each work of the fantastic is produced. She writes that the "unreal" elements of fantastic literature are created only in direct contrast to the boundaries set by its time period's "cultural order", acting to illuminate the unseen limitations of said boundaries by undoing and recompiling the very structures which define society into something "strange" and "apparently new". In subverting these societal norms, Jackson claims,

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3484-629: The genre's popularity. The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling status of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series, Robert Jordan 's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson 's Malazan Book of the Fallen sweeping epic, Brandon Sanderson 's The Stormlight Archive series and Mistborn series, and A. Sapkowski 's The Witcher saga. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of

3551-415: The major categories of speculative fiction . Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief , an acceptance of

3618-502: The modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths. This ability to find meaning in a story that is not literally true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world

3685-515: The second series halfway through.) In 2010, Airship Entertainment began re-releasing the story as a web comic. Though this has been offline since sometime in February 2016, along with webcomic republications of Buck Godot and What's New with Phil & Dixie , when Airship Entertainment's old website broke down. The second novel was later adapted into another eight-part comic series by Ken and Beth Mitchroney and published by Apple from 1987 through 1989. Neither of these two later series enjoyed

3752-470: The series after Asprin's death in 2008. After Myth-Gotten Gains , Meisha Merlin went out of business and publication of hardcover/trade editions changed hands again, this time to Wildside Press . Robert Asprin died in May 2008, but Nye intended that year to write the books which she and Asprin had planned ("We had big plans"). According to the series website, the publisher of mass market editions Ace Books has commissioned two. In 2010, Baen Books published

3819-468: The series was later collected into two full-color graphic novels published by Starblaze Graphics , and in 2007 Airship Entertainment (the Foglios' publishing concern) reprinted the material in a single volume. Four more issues followed, featuring an original story by Asprin and artist Jim Valentino which attempts to bridge the action between the first and second novels in the series. ( Apple Comics took over

3886-458: The several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction or doujinshi in or related to those genres. According to 2013 statistics by

3953-465: The social structure to emerge. The fantastic is never purely supernatural, nor can the supernatural be ruled out. Just as women were not equal yet, but they were not completely oppressed. The Female Fantastic seeks to enforce this idea that nothing is certain in the fantastic nor the gender roles of the 1920s. Many women in this time period began to blur the lines between the genders, removing the binary out of gender and allowing for many interpretations. For

4020-462: The twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film , television , graphic novels , manga , animations , and video games . The expression fantastic literature is also often used to refer to this genre by the Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy . Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by

4087-494: The unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies. Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable from one another. Horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as

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4154-589: Was William Morris , an English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Wood Beyond the World (1894) and The Well at the World's End (1896). Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H. G. Wells 's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it was not until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach

4221-477: Was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work into forms aimed at children. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys , intended for children, although his works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) created

4288-401: Was founded in 1949, the pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity, and the magazine was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, " sword and sorcery " fiction had begun to find

4355-443: Was once a security chief of the corrupt X-Tel Corporation, but "retired" from their service after an ethical dispute, damaging their headquarters and stealing a starship as he left (in what Godot later cheekily described as "taking his pension in a lump sum"). Buck mostly hangs around Asteroid Al's bar on New Hong Kong, waiting for work to come to him. His normal fee is in the five to six-figure range, plus expenses and sometimes, given

4422-548: Was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus . Myth with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature . The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play The Birds , in which an Athenian man builds

4489-482: Was written by Asprin alone for the now-defunct publishing house The Donning Company under their Starblaze Graphics imprint (with the last two published by Meisha Merlin , who picked up the contract from Donning). All twelve are collected in Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Meisha Merlin, 2006/2007). The "new" Myth Adventures series was co-authored with Jody Lynn Nye . Nye has continued

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