Comic Fantasy
What is Comic Fantasy / Humorous Fantasy?
Probably the lightest of all fantasy sub-genres, Humorous or Comic Fantasy is fun first, fantasy second. Basically, it just presents a fresh and interesting environment that will generate fresh and interesting humor.
A hallmark of this type is the heavy use of puns and parodies of other works. This can take many forms: making fun of the genre itself is probably the easiest target, because most other fantasy takes itself so very seriously. Another technique is to add ridiculous elements to tropes, such as a magic sword that talks, but only when spoken to politely or some such thing. Giving protagonists an exaggerated flaw that introduces some difficulty in achieving or maintaining the expected hero's bearing can be quite funny, but many times the hero himself plays the “straight man” in these stories, while the other characters are made ridiculous.
The action usually takes place in an imaginary world, although medieval settings are ripe for humor as well.
Comic fantasy can be divided into a few even more specific subgenres: parody fantasy where another specific work (usually a popular one) is parodied, humourous fantasy where the point of the tale is to amuse, and dry humour where the humour is not the end goal of the story, but is nevertheless present in a strong degree.
Indeed, some of the more “serious” epic fantasy books incorporate a dry, sarcastic humor that make them quite funny, in a dark sort of way. You might refer to these as “darkly humorous” fantasy. Books that fall in this category would be the Harry Dresden series by Butcher, The First Law (and other works) by Abercrombie, and Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora.
Comic Fantasy Characteristics
Level of Magic
Magic, if it is present, will probably be exploited more for its comedic potential than for actual results, such as failed incantations or unintended consequences.
Level of Characterization
Most characters are identifiable types: the sultry woman, the sassy girl, the strong and silent knight, the slyly perceptive idiot.
Level of Plot Complexity
Although the tone and intent of the works are light, there is a level at which they can be considered fairly intellectual and worth some work.
Level of Violence
Usually not much, and not graphic.
Related Types of Fantasy
Any type of fantasy is suited to the comic treatment. If the comic fantasy is a parody, the Epic/Quest Fantasy subgenre tends to be the target. Some of the modern Gritty Fantasy books (for example, Abercrombie's The Blade Itself) tend to be quite humorous in nature and while not specifically a fantasy comedy, they can be funny.
Humorous Fantasy Isn’t For You If…
You don't like humor, puns, sometimes sophisticated wordplay. If you like to get lost in action or adventure, you probably won't find that escape here, since it's secondary to the comic opportunities presented.
Best Comic Fantasy Books/Series in the Genre
Discworld series Terry Pratchett
The Portable Door and most works Tom Holt
Practical Demonkeeping and most works Christopher Moore
Bartimaeus trilogy Jonathan Stroud
Xanth series Piers Anthony
Anansi Boys Neil Gaiman
Apropos of Nothing series Peter David
Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series Jasper Forde
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland Diana Wynne Jones
MYTH series and PHULE Robert Asprin
Xanth books Piers Anthony
The Princess Bride William Goldman
A Series of Unfortunate Events Lemony Snicket
Other Humorous Fantasy Recommendations
General Recommendations
The Thirteen ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear A. Lee Martinez
Master Li series Walter Moers
Soon I Will Be Invincible Austin Grossman
Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse Robert Rankin
The Anvil of the World Kage Baker
Lex Trent series Alex Bell
Split Heirs Esther M. Friesner
The Illmoor Chronicles David Lee Stone's
Tales of the Dark Forest Steve Barlow & Steve Skidmore
“Serious” Fantasy Books with “dry” Humor
The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch
The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie
Jhereg series Stephen Brust
The Magicians Less Grossman
The Dresden Files Jim Butcher
Parody Fantasy Books
Bored of the Rings Henry Beard and Douglas C. Kenney
Henry Potty and the Pet Rock Valerie Estelle Frankel
Barry Trotter Michael Gerber
Do you have your own comic fantasy suggestions? Share them in the comment section below!
I am shocked that Good Omens wasn't on the lists here. But maybe you left it off since you already had Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman on here.
walter moers' "the city if dreaming books" is much better than the The Thirteen ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear. that one deserves to be on the Best list, even if he is german and translations never work as well as in their original language
you've switched A. Lee Martinez and Walter Moers
A lot of very valid points brought up in this article. I myself have written what I would refer to as a ‘Humorous Fantasy Novel’…’the Occasionally Disgusting Adventures of Brian and Sprig’ (available on Kindle and print through Amazon). Yes that’s right – I plugged my book, so sue me! Anyway I personally dislike books that parody existing novels and ideas. It smacks of unoriginality (obviously) and seems like a waste of time and effort both for the writer and the reader. It’s one of those things that just gets under my skin, sort of like Ryan O’Neil crying over Farah Fawcett & Tatum O’Neil in public all the time. I see a lot of these sort of books in Borders etc. ‘Jane Eyre’ zombie books, ‘Harry Potter’ take-off’s etc.
Dark Humor. I do like a bit of dark humor, and no-one does ‘dark humor, or humour’ better than the great British author ‘Tom Sharpe’, although his work is not fantasy strictly speaking. I definitely identify with the hero character or main character being a basically normal and unremarkable character, which is how I wrote my main character. Douglas Adams comes to mind in this respect with ‘Arthur Dent’. I’m British in origin so dry humor comes with the territory, as does sarcasm, self deprecation and guilt.
Keep it simple. Some of the very best Sci-fi works can be very hard going, both in concept and mathematical detail. Those super 200,000 word plus behemoths that give you carpultunnel syndrome when you try to read them on the train ride home. I still haven’t gotten around to ‘Harry Potter’. There is also the danger I feel of having too many characters and environments when the author tries to throw too many elements into the mix. I have to pull back myself sometimes and remember to keep it simple when I’m working on my books, without being overly wordy.
Sex and Violence. I do have some sexually deviant behavior in my novel, something I think novelists tend to shy away from, but I like to go into great detail about those more disgusting elements. Some people might call this ‘toilet humor’ but I try to be a bit more sophisticated than that. For violence - I feel it’s quite important that if you ARE going to have violence or violent characters doing foul deeds, that they should have some sort of comeuppance, especially if you want your book to be considered humorous. For instance, I wrote one chapter in my book where a female character is tortured - but I make sure that by the end of the Chapter a humorous turnaround has taken place and that the reader is not left with a sour taste in their mouth.
Keeping your own agenda out of your work is also important too I feel, and on my 2nd book I have to be my own worse critic, sacrificing chapters that probably appear to readers more like ‘personal rants’ under the guise of humor. Wordplay. I love wordplay, comic miscommunication, puns, anagrams and the like and enjoy how writers manipulate and fool us with wordplay.
That's right, I'm an idiot. I posted the same thing twice. S**t happens!