For many Homes Basic fans, Portown looms large in the imagination. Holmes' short, evocative description of the place provided both a handy home base for launching the sample Zenopus dungeon adventure and had enough meat in it to provide the seed for a long term base for a campaign.
Portown, like many early D&D locations, was never visually depicted so fans were free to let their imagination roam; I've read interpretations ranging from small fishing ports to bustling cities. Personally, I've always envisioned it as a small trading city of around 10,000 - big enough to support merchants, temples and assorted factions but small enough for low level PCs to make a difference; a Lankhmar writ small as it were.
From a purely visual perspective though, I've never really nailed down a look for Portown in my mind's eye. Recently, I ran across Mike Mignolas illustrations for a 4 part comic series which illustrated a set of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. Have loved his work for years, and I think I may have just found my mind's eye look for Portown.
Besides the main link below, here are a few more of his pieces depicting Lankhmar:
- http://photos1.blogger.com/img/198/4480/640/fafhrd%201.jpg
- http://photos1.blogger.com/img/198/4480/640/fafhrd%202.jpg
That said, what does your Portown look like?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLelXRGWwAA8RZT.jpg
I've long suspected a link between Portown and Lankhmar - others have pointed out the San Francisco connection the two share.
ReplyDeleteI loved Mignola's art when I first read these back in the day, and the mental imagery certainly stuck! My Portown is a blend of Vance, Leiber, and Howard.
Thanks for sharing that great art. I would use that to illustrate Portown in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this before, which isn't surprising, since I'm so far out of the comic/graphic novel loop!
ReplyDeleteGreat imagery, and definitely very "Holmsian", even if Leiber's Lankhmar pre-dates Holmes' Portown.