Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get into some of the comics I read as a child. I was very interested in horror, sci-fi, mystery, everything genres, but the beginning of my childhood was mostly limited to DC comics, comic book-based books, the mighty Thor issues that my parents persuaded to buy when they went to town over the weekend, and the strange three packs we could find when we shop elsewhere. Especially department stores.
When we moved to town and finally got access to our dedicated comic shop, I wasn’t limited to a singular publisher. I do anything that isn’t just DC. I sample anything that caught my eye from the various indie booms of the 80s. Looking back, it’s amazing how my parents let me read. I really had no restrictions. Werewolves and vampires were probably how I came to Grendel’s first few issues.
I can say I really got into the franchise until the ’90s when Matt Wagner regained full rights to the character and published through Grendel: Dark Horse and the first Batman/Grendel crossover, but there were a lot of those Comico issues. From the end of the devil’s legacy, you pass through the devil’s interior and later smash the book. Much later, I chase after a reprint of Dark Horse, finding a collection on eBay to complete the Comico set (and more, some issues with the assortment of Magicians, Silverbacks and other Comico books).
But it was Grendel #13-15 that bothered me. Unlike many other manga I read.
“How deep does the darkness run?”
Reconceptualization and contextualization are the running motifs of the Grendel series. It originally happened with the Devil in the act of summarizing and closing the story set forth from the first series, and Christine Spur continued to take over Grendel Mantle in the second series, and did it again when the series continued and changed. With Grendel: Wagner, Bernie Millea, Joe Matt and Bob Pinacher’s Indian Indian in Grendel’s idea changed, almost transforming into an evil spirit, and for the first time he debilitated mental illness in the franchise.
The story follows someone from Grendel’s former lover and confidant Brian Lee Son to New York City, where he hides Christine’s notes for the Journal of Devil in the Devil and the original Grendel, Hunter Rose. And he appears to succumb quickly to the noise and the squatters, and goes crazy as he tries to become the next Grendel. The dissonance of Song’s life is beautifully presented in the way the story is told.
It is a complete storm of all creative teams that overlap with the story, showing a descent into madness. It includes Wagner’s dialogue and narration. Among them, NYC is interrupted by characters casually spitting racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs and rhetoric. It is expressed through Bob Pinach’s lettering and represents the diverse levels of the story. Song’s notebook, Grendel’s thought chicken scratch (Song writes in his notebook, wondering about his mental stability), various concrete chorus of NYC Street voices, conversations between the characters themselves.
and through the art of Bernie Millea, Joe Matt and Matt Wagner. Mireult’s art highlights this claustrophobic New York City. Brian Lee’s illness and anxiety were sung as he fell deeper and deeper under Grendel’s influence. It’s a patchwork of masks that are almost all tasteful, yet still unhinged. And then Brian began to see Grendel’s vision. It’s even more interesting through the colours and effects that add a little hallucinating darkness and static noise.
“There is no hope for the evil… There is no luck for the lost.”
While Supernatural was part of the Grendel franchise with Argent from the start, Grendel: Wagner, Millea, Matt and Pinach’s Inside Indians wonder about Grendel’s spirit and its negative impact. Whether it’s an outside ownership unit or whether Brian Lee Song is slowly going crazy after his lover’s death, his old boss’s trauma, his friction with life in New York, and his obsession with Hunter Rose’s magazine as he works to become the next Grendel.
It was an incredible experiment in storytelling, which drove the franchise forward and, more interestingly, brought new ideas to look at the effects of violence on individuals. Being able to contextualize in some ways, as in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Or, as the story changes again later, as Grendel’s mind changes again as an impact on society as a whole. Wagner has always been good at turning franchises in new directions, and this arc really shows that there is no limit on where he takes it.
Classic comics big summary: Grendel – The Inner Devil
Grendel: Inner Devil
Author: Matt Wagner
Artist: Bernie Mireault
Colorists: Matt Wagner, Joe Matt, Bernie Millair
Letter: Bob Pinaha
Publisher: Comico (original issue) | Dark Horse (reprint and collection)
Release date: October 2nd – December 4th, 1987 (original issue) | September 19th, 2001 – November 21st, 2001 (reprinted series)
Collected by Grendel Omnibus – Volume 2: Legacy
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