The subgenre rose in the nineteenth century. Elements of fantasy comedy can be found in such nineteenth century works as some of
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales,
Charles Dickens' "Christmas Books", and
Lewis Carroll's
Alice books. The first writer to specialize in the subgenre was "
F. Anstey" in novels such as
Vice Versa (1882), where magic disrupts Victorian society with humorous results. Another American writer in a similar vein was
Thorne Smith, whose works (such as
Topper and
The Night Life of the Gods) were popular and influential, and often adapted for film and television. Humorous fantasies narrated in a "gentleman's club" setting are common; they include
John Kendrick Bangs'
A House-Boat on the Styx (1895),
Lord Dunsany's "
Jorkens" stories, and
Maurice Richardson's
The Exploits of Englebrecht (1950). According to
Lin Carter,
T. H. White's works exemplify fantasy comedy,
L. Sprague de Camp and
Fletcher Pratt's
Harold Shea stories are early exemplars. The overwhelming bulk of de Camp's fantasy was comic. Pratt and de Camp were among several contributors to
Unknown Worlds, a
pulp magazine which emphasized fantasy with a comedic element. The work of
Fritz Leiber also appeared in
Unknown Worlds, including his
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, a jocose take on the
sword and sorcery subgenre. In more modern times,
Terry Pratchett's
Discworld books,
Piers Anthony's
Xanth books,
Robert Asprin's
MythAdventures of Skeeve and Aahz books, and
Tom Holt's books provide good examples, as do many of the works by
Christopher Moore. There are also comic-strips/graphic novels in the humorous fantasy genre, including
Chuck Whelon's Pewfell series and the webcomics
8-Bit Theater and
The Order of the Stick. Other authors of the genre in modern times include
C.K. McDonnell,
Jasper Fforde,
Neil Gaiman,
Robert Rankin,
John Brosnan,
Craig Shaw Gardner,
David Lee Stone and
Esther Freisner. ==Other media==