Yet another review at the FPI blog. This time it’s the second Umbrella Academy series:
Umbrella Academy: Dallas issues 1-3
Halfway through there’s a fight scene that I read and immediately thought of the phrase “orchestra of violence” to describe it. It really is that good.
Matt Wagner’s Grendel is over 25 years old this year. It’s had a long and rather troubled publishing history, but now, thanks to Dark Horse Comics, the whole series is being reprinted. Initially I was just going to review the latest reprint; Grendel: God And The Devil, but after reading it and thinking about it for a while, realised that it’s necessary to discuss the entire series.
From the very start Grendel was a fantastic exploration of the nature of evil, although when he started Wagner had no idea of how epic the series would eventually become. What started out as a highly stylised tale of a criminal assassin evolved into a sweeping epic tale that’s reaching it’s zenith with the current reprints.
The Devil is Born: Devil By The Deed.
(Two starts to the series: On the left; my choice of start point Grendel: Devil By The Deed. On the right; Wagner’s actual first comic featuring Hunter Rose. Both published by Dark Horse Comics.)
My earliest Grendel comics were all about Hunter Rose. I discovered the character as a backup strip in Wagner’s other signature series Mage. At this point Wagner had already had one abortive attempt at the character, the results of which he’d steadfastly refused to reprint until this year, when he finally allowed the publication of The Grendel Archives. These very earliest appearances of Wagner’s Hunter Rose incarnation of Grendel were very definitely a false start for the series. I believe that the Grendel saga starts properly with the material collected in Devil By The Deed and The Grendel Archives really are for the hardcore fan only.
In Grendel: Devil By The Deed we’re introduced to Hunter Rose; a brilliant and successful writer with a tortured, brutalised past. His brilliance is only matched by his capacity for wrongdoing and he embarks on a terrible career as an assassin. Opposing him in this is Argent, a twisted, mysterious wolf-like creature who takes a personal stake in bringing the Grendel down. Devil By The Deed is a short story, a mere 37 pages long. But it’s power and beauty laid the foundations for the entire series that was to follow. Wagner designed the book beautifully; crafting each page as a single art-deco inspired unit, without speech, with the events reported through captions from the biography produced following Hunter Rose’s death. Today, 22 years after the original publication in collected form, it’s still ground-breaking, still beautiful.
(Page from Grendel: Devil By The Deed in it’s recently reprinted, newly recoloured in black, white and red stylings. Art by Matt Wagner, inks by Art Nicholls. Published Dark Horse comics.)
The Devil is Vengeful: Devil’s Legacy.
And if Devil By The Deed would have been it for Wagner’s Grendel saga it would be enough. But Wagner saw a way to continue the series. The mask would pass to another and the Grendel cycle would continue. Following the death of Hunter Rose, he switched the series to concentrate on Christine Spar; the biographer responsible for Devil By The Deed and the daughter of Hunter Rose’s tragic ward. In the second collection of Grendel material; Devil’s Legacy, Christine Spar finds herself slowly and tortuously manoeuvred, by forces completely beyond her control, into taking up the mantle of Grendel. Not this time as a force for crime, assassination or evil, but as a terrible instrument of vengeance.
(Volumes Two & Three of the Grendel series: Devil’s Legacy, art by the Pander Brothers & The Devil Inside, art by Bernie Mireault. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
This time around Wagner decided to merely write, rather than illustrating the series. The art duties went to the Pander Brothers, whose art style of dynamic, razor sharp edges meets Dave Stevens characters was completely at odds with Wagner’s style yet suited the action and extravagance of the story perfectly. This fitting of artist to the mood of the storyline was something Wagner continued with each new story-arc of Grendel and it (almost) always worked.
(Three examples of the dynamic art stylings of the Pander Brothers from Grendel: Devil’s Legacy. Top; pencil art from cover to Grendel #5. Bottom; finished art from #5 & cover to #7. Pictures borrowed from Vivat Grendel website.)
The Devil is Discovered: The Devil Inside.
Where Christine Spar’s Grendel was an exploration of a gradual loss of reason and free will set against the bright lights and beautiful people of New York society, the storyline following Spar’s inevitable death was so low key and depressing that it saw the book haemorrhage readers. Yet Grendel: The Devil Inside is the most important in terms of understanding the essence of Grendel. At this point everyone began to imagine they knew what Wagner was doing with Grendel; new storyline, new character picks up the mask, clashes with authority, meets grisly death.
But Wagner had other plans. Instead of Grendel being a strong, determined, misguided character a la Hunter Rose or Christine Spar, the Grendel in The Devil Inside; Brian Li Sung is a pathetic, tragic man. Devastated by the death of Christine Spar, he finds his life disintegrating as anger and rage slowly take hold and the mantle of Grendel is assumed once more. Yet even as he takes on the role of Grendel, Brian fights against it. In many ways, his is the most heroic battle of all. It’s a struggle he just can’t win, but it does finally show us that Grendel is not just the mask, not just the person, but something else, something far more. Grendel is a spirit, a force of nature. Powerful and intelligent, capable of altering perceptions, fostering feelings of anger, rage, hopelessness and fear to finally find expression through death and destruction. That Brian realises this before his death, that we finally see Grendel for what it has always been is a revelation and a stunning one at that.
Again, Wagner’s choice of artist is perfect. Bernie Mireault’s art is claustrophobic, introverted and dark. A complete antithesis to the near gaudiness of the Pander Brothers, but perfect for the low key tale he’s responsible for telling. And Mireault is also responsible for providing Wagner with the idea to take his series to it’s final, epic conclusion. But more on that in a moment.
(Bernie Mireault’s atmospheric, claustrophobic style on Grendel: The Devil Inside capturing the conflict between Grendel and it’s host. Art borrowed from Mireault’s website.)
The Devil is Influential: Devil Tales.
Following the incredibly muted response of readers to this pivotal story in the series Wagner seemed stung and retreated to familiar ground, telling tales of Hunter Rose, the first Grendel in the next volume in the series: Grendel: Devil Tales.
What Devil Tales did prove is that Wagner as an artist was capable of great invention and experimentation. Whereas his previous Grendel artwork was the flowing, art-deco styling of Devil By The Deed; Devil Tales saw Wagner adopt a strict artistic rule for his two stories. The first was based on a 25 panel grid page, whilst the second made extensive use of large vertical panels across the page. Both art styles work wonderfully well in the context of the stories he tells. Wagner’s Grendel in Devil Tales is barely present. It’s the spirit of Grendel that is important, the effect that he has upon others, whether it be the detective investigating a diamond market or the small time hood who finds out a little more than he should about the devil.
(Matt Wagner’s artwork from the two tales in Grendel: Devil Tales. On the left, Grendel arrives and Wagner bursts out of his carefully constructed 5×5 panel page layout. On the right, the Harvey Kurtzman-esque vertical panels. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
Both tales in Devil Tales are crisp, concise and exquisite exercises in storytelling. Both further the legend of Grendel and act as a mere prelude to the next evolution of the character. Because at this point Wagner had decided where he wanted to take the series. The Devil became epic.
It was all triggered by a throw away comment made by Bernie Mireault:
“Can Grendel inhabit a crowd?”
The following 20 issues of the series saw the evolution of Grendel, no longer just a game of pass the mask, Grendel inhabits more and more people until eventually an entire society becomes part of the Grendel spirit and the very idea of Grendel becomes more to do with the nature of agression and the way this can be channelled and controlled. Sadly, the pivotal issues 20-22 are reported by Wagner as being impossible to reprint due to deterioration of the artwork. But in these complicated, difficult (and at times, near incomprehensible) issues the story careers ahead across the centuries, with the Grendel spirit inhabiting more and more people against a backdrop of increasing social unrest, outright war and ultimate nuclear war and environmental breakdown. Throughout it all, the Grendel spirit plays a key role in triggering the disaster, engineering it’s rise from a clichéd pop culture icon to a figure of immense importance, particularly to the church, where Grendel was synonymous with Satan.
(Grendel Volumes 4 & 5. Grendel: Devil Tales, art by Matt Wagner. Grendel: God And The Devil, art by Sale, Snyder, Geldhof. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
The Devil is Ubiquitous: God And The Devil.
At the start of Grendel: God And The Devil we’re at the point where Grendel infects many things; the corrupt church, the corrupt corporations, the bitter and angry populous. Grendel is everywhere; the Devil is ubiquitous.
Grendel: God And The Devil is first and foremost a really meaty, detailed and involving read. None of your decompressed storytelling here. Reading God And The Devil feels like reading prose. The buildup is slow, careful and complicated. There is a real pleasure in the words, the characters, the subtle action is no less devastating in it’s effects. All in all, it’s my favourite storyline of a series I’ve loved for many years. Sure, there are times when Wagner’s writing stretches itself too far and he has an annoying habit of overplaying his metaphors. But aside from that I can find little wrong with Grendel the series in general and Grendel: God And The Devil in particular.
(Tim Sale’s artwork in the introductory issue to Grendel: God And The Devil. Church in the foreground, Devil in the background. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
As we join the story elements of Grendel are everywhere as a tale of great political and religious intrigue unfolds. In addition to the general infestation of society by Grendel spirit, there are two individuals who take on the mantle of Grendel here; Eppy Thatcher, a derranged, anarchic, church-hating madman and Orion Assante; a man driven to investigate the corruption of the church and with no idea of the trouble he’s about to find himself in. Where Eppy Thatcher is the uncontrollable aspect of the Grendel spirit, Orion is the controlled, cunning side. Wagner uses both men to illustrate the very nature of Grendel and how it has evolved from a force of rage to a force of controlled aggression. Having both Eppy and Orion in the role of Grendel makes this point extremely well. As the story unfolds and an ancient evil returns from the tiem of Christine Spar, it’s Orion Assante’s controlled aggression that is needed to organise against the church yet the manic frenzy of Eppy Thatcher’s Grendel that can finally destroy the monster threatening the world. At the end of this volume, Grendel is ascendant, the church is in ruins and Orion Assante stands alone, controlled, a Grendel without need of a mask controlling a world where the idea and ideals of Grendel are the accepted norm. Grendel is triumphant at the end.
Many threads from this story ultimately bear fruit in the next volume, but this is still a self contained, long form tale. You could read it as a stand-alone volume, but that would merely rob you of the great enjoyment to be had from reading the entire saga. The art is handled first by a young Tim Sale and then by Jay Geldhof and John Snyder. Not as showy or dazzling as earlier volumes, but does what it has to do, driving a detailed, complicated story on to it’s conclusion.
(Grendel Volumes 6 & 7. Grendel: Devil’s Reign is where I leave the series. Grendel: War Child continues the title, but lacks the epic scope and appeal of the saga. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
The Devil is Triumphant: Devil’s Reign.
After Grendel: God And The Devil volume we have just two more in the saga. The next is Devil’s Reign, by Wagner and Tim Sale and due to be collected in March 2009. A direct continuation of God And The Devil, it sees Orion Assante taking on the mantle of Grendel-Khan and marshalling his forces; troops describing themselves as Grendels against first a vampire army and then the threat of all out war against Japan. The Grendel-Khan triumphs and with the victory, Grendel itself essentially takes over a world remade in it’s image.
The Devil is Diluted: What Matt Wagner did next…..
After finishing Devil’s Reign Wagner had one last major tale; Grendel: War Child. However, by this time I felt Wagner had rather lost his momentum and this tale of a cyborg Grendel; a Grendel-Prime created by Orion Assante, doesn’t really add anything to the epic tale that has gone before.
(Wagner’s subsequent returns to Grendel: Crossovers and short stories. Published Dark Horse Comics.)
Since finishing the saga, Wagner has returned to Grendel many times. He’s written and illustrated two Batman/Grendel crossovers and continued the Grendel stories of Hunter Rose with various short stories contained in Grendel; Black, White and Red and Grendel; Red, White and Black. His last Grendel series was Grendel: Behold The Devil, where Wagner returned once again to Hunter Rose. Personally I think he’s making a mistake and is actually diluting the grandeur and achievement of his original series by this continual looking back (and I said so here). The very thing that made Grendel one of my favourite series of the 80s was the epic nature of the storyline, the continual push forward, the evolution of Grendel as both character and title. Everything post that seems pale and rather insignificant by comparison.
The Grendel saga, starting with Devil By The Deed and ending with Devil’s Reign is a truly epic adventure in comics. It’s one that will bear re-reading time and time again. This is, to my mind, Matt Wagner’s finest creation and one I’d recommend to you all.
Thanks to the following for resources & images:
Vivat Grendel website, Dark Horse Comics website, Matt Wagner’s website.
Beanworld Holiday Special
by Larry Marder
Dark Horse Comics
I’ve been a huge fan of Larry Marder’s Tales of the Beanworld since first picking up an issue back in the mid 80s. When the series stalled in the early 90s after Marder took up a position at first Image Comics and later Todd McFarlane’s toy emporium I began to despair that I’d never see another original Beanworld comic. But I should have had more faith in Marder. Because, some 14 years after the last issue came out, he’s finally back in the Beanworld with this Holiday Special from Dark Horse. And if you’re expecting any kind of un-biased viewpoint here, you’re going to be disappointed.
Beanworld has always been about more than just a quirky tale of strange little bean characters. It’s billing on the front cover as “a most peculiar comic book experience” really doesn’t do justice to the complexities of Marder’s story. Whenever I tried to introduce it to customers and friends there were two reactions after reading it; complete bemusement or complete adoration.
For Beanworld is not a simple thing. Just have a look at the map below to get an idea. It looks so simple, mapped out like that:
But Marder has created a complex reality within this simple framework, with a complete ecosystem. Every element, every character of the reality has an important role to play in Beanworld life. It’s a beautiful and complex allegory of the wonder of nature. Similarly his characters are all incredibly simple, highly iconic things. This means that the Holiday Beanworld doesn’t seem to feature characters over 20 years old, they look very fresh and modern.
So with the return of Beanworld Marder is obviously faced with the difficult decision of how to simply and effectively reintroduce his wonderful beans without completely bogging down the comic with backstory. Does Marder manage it? Of course he does.
The holiday special tells a tale of the Pod’l’pool Cuties (baby beans) and their reluctance to talk to each other. No big deal? Not in Beanworld. If the Cuties don’t talk to each other, how are they going to communicate when they grow up to be Chow Raiders? After all, once Gran’Ma’Pa offers it’s daily gift of the sprout-butt, skillfully caught by Mr Spook it needs a lot of communication to find just the right Hoi-Polloi Ring in the Ring Herd and get it back into the Chow pool for the Beans to grow.
And that last paragraph should give you a little idea of exactly how wonderfully complicated Beanworld is. And how delightful. But the way this Holiday Special is constructed walks a perfect line between enough background to make it understandable and enough mystery to hopefully have you as intrigued and adoring as I remember being after my first Beanworld experience. The Big*Big*Picture is something none of us readers have just yet, we’re waiting for at least some of the mysteries to be revealed in the new Beanworld graphic novel “Remember Here When You Are There!” appearing later in 2009. In the meantime we have this Holiday Special, neatly and cleverly bringing in all of the Beans and the wonderful, unique vision of the Beanworld.
After this, your next stop should be to pick up the first of two hardback collections of all the previously published Beanworld stories, coming from Dark Horse in Feb 2009 (Beanworld Book 1: Wahoolazuma).
Larry Marder’s Tales Of The Beanworld. There’s nothing like it in comics. There’s never been anything like it in comics. It’s unique, magical, wonderful.
Pick it up, but like it says on the back page ad: “Research indicates that thinking about Beanworld can be habit-forming”.
And it’s a marvellous habit to have.
For more Beanworld information head to the following websites:
Larry Marder’s weblog: Larry Marder’s Beanworld.
And three excellent fan created resource sites: Beanworld Wiki, Beanweb, Gunk’l’dunk.
Eddie Campbell brings us news of The Spirit: New Adventures finally being re- printed.
It’s currently only on Amazon but I’m sure Dark Horse will have details up at some point. This is great news, although seeing as all of the really great works happened in the first 3 issues I’m not entirely sure it’s going to be worth the £30+ price tag.
But that Alan Moore story is still one of my faves: it’s available to read here.
By Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba
When I last reviewed Umbrella Academy here it was on the basis of two issues and I concluded that:
Way spends the two issues I’ve read throwing as much weirdness as he can muster at the reader and although I did enjoy it there’s an energy in the book that just didn’t properly connect for me. It’s almost as if he’s trying far too hard to fill every page with some strangeness or other. Maybe the subsequent issues will improve; maybe it will connect a little more then. But, despite all of the obvious problems with the book; the lack of originality, the formulaic plot, the bloody obvious lifting of ideas, concepts and characters from other writers, I found myself enjoying it in much the same way I enjoy a good episode of something like Heroes – big, dumb hokum. Umbrella Academy is just the same, it’s a fun little comic.
I’ve now sat down with the collection of Volume 1 and I’ve got to say it’s the best Grant Morrison book I’ve read for a long time. I mean that not as a snipe, but as a fullsome compliment. Because what didn’t connect last time quickly snapped right into place this time and I found myself wondering what I found so disconnected the first time around. It really was that good, this first book by Gerard Way. It may be fairly obvious where he’s taking inspiration from, but the story is so much fun, such a great ride that you really don’t mind at all.
The quirkiness, the humour, the masterful way Gerard Way tells his story; seemlessly intercutting across time and never letting the pace slacken but never crowding the reader with too much at any time. All of this makes it seem amazing that we all doubted he could do it, this rock star playing at writing comics. Way has drawn from a host of influences but adapted them, utilised them well and the end result owes much more to Way’s own creative drive to do it on his own terms than merely a additive affect of those influences.
It starts with a team born to weirdness. After witnessing the (literal) birth of the Umbrella Academy we jump ten years and a fledgling team reappears to battle the Eiffel Tower (it’s not a tower, it’s a spaceship) and Zombie Gustav Eiffel. Wacky just doesn’t begin to cover it at this point and you just realise this is a book to just go with the flow on.
(Zombie Robot Gustav Eiffel. But of course. Art from Gabriel Ba. The Umbrella Academy (c) Gerard Way. Published Dark Horse)
Another 20 years on. The Umbrella Academy has disbanded in acrimony. But the death of their “father” brings the team back together. But this has been foretold and everything, from family reunions, lost loves, chimp manservants, a future self coming back to the present day as his 10 year old self – all of it points towards the apocalypse happening any day now.
And in the race to avert this coming apocalypse we get at least some of the questions answered: why Spaceboy went from 10 year old boy to man’s head on mutant gorilla’s body? where the time travelling 10 year old went? why a chimp? what happened to number 7 and why she may not be as lacking in special abilities as her “father” always said she was.
(Spaceboy, Talking Chimp manservant, dead fathers. That’s the world of Gerard Way’s head for you. The Umbrella Academy (c) Gerard Way. Published Dark Horse)
My enjoyment of the Umbrella Academy isn’t just in the plot and the story. It’s everywhere, on every page. A host of quirky little touches abound here, from the playful chapter titles to the throwaway extras at the end of the chapter. Everything may, or may not be important to the longer story. It’s little touches with the art as well, such as the moment we see the babies for the first time and all seven of them have teeny masks on. Something about this panel just boils down the essential wonderful strangeness of the book for me. Why masks? Is it important? Was it in the script or did Gabriel Ba throw it in there as a gag? We’ll never know, but it just works, brilliantly and effectively to emphasise how delightfully weird it all is.
And whilst we’re mentioning the artist; Gabriel Ba’s artwork is equal to the task of seeing Gerard Way’s weirdly wonderful tale onto the page. He’s doing incredible things with the pages and there’s not a single page, not a single panel where the art doesn’t just work brilliantly.
I mentioned the obvious Grant Morrison influence earlier. But the major influence, both on the writing and the art and even the very concept is Mike Mignola. The whole idea of the Umbrella Academy and it’s collection of strange and grotesque characters is very similar in style and tone to the world of Hellboy. But whereas it took Mignola a while to find his feet with his creation, Way and Ba appear to have hit the ground not just running, but dancing a jig and throwing in a few jumps at the same time.
I believe the writer has some album or other to get done with some band he’s in. But once that’s over with he’s back on tour and back writing comics. I see a long future in comics for him at this rate.
More good Beanworld news.
In advance of the upcoming February release for the reprint of volume 1, comes an all-new Beanworld holiday special, due 18th December 2008.
I’ll be wanting that underneath my tree.
The return of Larry Marder’s most wonderful comic – Tales Of The Beanworld happened today. There’s a new 8 page Beanworld strip over at My Space Dark Horse Presents.
The world is a much better place for a bit of Beanworld. More to follow later in the year. And we have the books being reissued at some point as well.
Short and sweet review of Criminal Macabre up at the FPI blog.
Latest Propaganda online at the FPI blog is Gerard Way’s first comics work:
The Umbrella Academy
Over at his blog, Larry Marder posts more news about the resurgence of Beanworld. And good news it is as well. Here’s a transcript of the PR release:
Dark Horse Comics proudly announces the arrival of a most peculiar graphic novel experience — Larry Marder’s Beanworld!
Beanworld has captivated readers from grade school to grad school since its first publication as a series of comic books in the 1980s. Starting in early 2009, Dark Horse will present Beanworld as a series of affordable graphic novels collecting all existing Beanworld stories, with new material to follow in the same format, beginning with the all new graphic novel Remember Here When You Are There! To whet the appetite of new and loyal fans alike, Dark Horse will also release an all new Beanworld webcomic this Fall, with a full color Beanworld comic book to follow in time for the holidays!Series creator Larry Marder explains, “Beanworld is about the affinity of life. It’s like A Bugs Life meets Mutts, as told by Dr. Seuss & Joseph Campbell. It’s a weird fantasy dimension that operates under its own rules and laws, but also reflects deep truths about our world in doing so. All the characters, whether they are friends or adversaries, understand that ultimately they depend on each other for survival. Beanworld isn’t a place, it’s a process, and I can’t wait to share that process with a new generation of readers!”
“I couldn’t be happier to welcome Larry Marder’s wonderful stories home here at Dark Horse! I’ve always felt this is where they belonged, and I’m thrilled to be bringing them to today’s readers,” says Dark Horse President, Mike Richardson.
“Wahoolazuma! Larry Marder’s personal Look-See Show is back on the boards! Beanworld is simply a joyous experience,” said editor Diana Schutz, “total eye-candy, and it’s good for you, too!”
“When Beanworld was first published, many people said it was ahead of its time,” Marder says. “Looking at today’s world raised on Pixar, Cartoon Network, and manga, I think it’s fair to say that Beanworld’s time has come. I’m looking forward to working closely with the team at Dark Horse to introduce the Beanworld to this comics-literate world!”
Look for Beanworld adventures, new and old, in the coming year!
Great news. I’m guessing the “affordable” reprints will mean manga sized reprints, a perfect size for the modern audience to really appreciate the wonder of Larry Marder’s series.
fictions 