One thing I personally get out of writing these reflections every week is revisiting some of my favorite comics. I think it’s given, but I mean more than just rereading my favorites. That’s a joy in itself. This gives us a new perspective on this aspect of reading. Sometimes there is more information and understanding over the decades, letting you know and reevaluate what you’ve read before.
I realized something new that I had never seen before. You can see a variety of connections that you couldn’t do before. I’m currently reading the material surrounding it, so I can understand the broader context of the work that exists. And you can apply the changes from the first (or second or third) read to the current one. As if the situational context of the sixth sense changes when it is the second viewing.
“I mean, I think we can always call Etrigan and ask for help.”
Issue 4 of 1986 reintroduced the Demon series by Matt Wagner, Art Nichols, Adrien Roy, Anthony Toryn and John Costanza, as well as Jason Blood and some of his supportive cast into the DC Universe. Picking up more or less in Jack Kirby’s The Demon series threads, but gives Merlin’s revival and newly revived quest a newly revived quest that separates from Etrigan. And it changes and shifts with rereading.
This series has a particularly intimate story. That doesn’t mean it’s confusing, it’s that it’s happening a lot. The storytelling that Wagner employs is rather complicated in structure and dialogue. It’s like you have to really pay attention to even your first reading. Although there is no need to know what happened before (though that helps), the work itself has a quest plot with complex layouts, long prose and poetry sections, multiple narrators, and deliberate obfuscations. It’s the type of story you come to a conclusion, make an epic publication, and then return to page 1 to quickly reread the new context.
Wagner’s art here is also intriguing. Early in his career here, his style is a little different from what it develops. Like that early magician and Grendel, it is more rounded. We are all exaggerated in a different way than the square work after him, where we all are more familiar. It reminds me of Sam Keith (probably the opposite) and Osamu Tezka, as he worked with Wagner early in his own career. There are shadows and smooth lines maintained by Art Nichols ink.
The interesting expressionist sequences of Adrienne Roy and Anthony Tollin seem to exchange problems. The color palette has a relatively dark approach, but is offset by the bright primary colors of Etrigan’s only color pattern. The opposite of what you expect, on the surface, the evil elements are brightly colored parts. And John Costanza has won the title as one of the great letters in comics, dealing with the vast amount of text and rhyming prose.
“Course you can ask the devil all the questions you like, but they only give you what you like.”
Wagner, Nichols, Roy, Trinn and the Devils of Costanza turn into multiple measurements. Just as Etrigan the Demon lives and transforms in Jason Brad’s body, it moves and recontexts. This is Wagner’s interesting first entry into his work with DC, and is an indication of how ambitious he is for storytelling, even at major publishers. It reintroduces and redefines the work of Jack Kirby for those who come after the crisis, giving us a story that actually screams for rereading.
I also wanted people to read the story following this setup. I’m back in the run in the third volume of Action Comics Weekly, Cosmic Odyssey, and Alan Grant’s The Demon. See things again from a new, old perspective.
Classic comics big concept: Devil – from the darkness
Devil: From the darkness
Writer & Pensiler: Matt Wagner
Inker: Art Nichols
Colorist: Adrienne Roy & Anthony Tollin
Letterer: John Costanza
Publisher: DC Comics
Release date: September 9th – December 9th, 1986 (original issue)
Read past entries with the classic comics big summary!
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