Skippy, in your case I'd start from something else than the traditional-style fantasy. Neil Gaiman's
Stardust plays with old fairytales and has a lot of sarcasm and evil jokes, and Guy Gavriel Kay's
The Lions of Al-Rassan is more "alternative history" than fantasy: one of the main characters is based on El Cid and it is very much like early medieval Spain, but Kay has taken more liberty by placing the story in an imaginary world. That's two very good ones off the top of my head.
