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GRENDEL:
DEVIL BY THE DEED
The
first tale in the Grendel Saga.
 Writer:
Matt Wagner
Artists: Matt Wagner and Rich Rankin
Original Color Art: Matt Wagner
Reprint Color Artists: Bernie Mireault and Kathryn Delaney (Dark
Horse edition)
One-shot published by Comico 1988
Republished by Dark Horse 1993
$3.95 (Dark Horse edition)
Reviewed
by Alasdair Watson
This is one of those books that one can lend to non-comic reading
friends with a straight face, and they'll almost always come back
asking if you've got any more like it. Slightly embarassingly,
there really isn't very much like it. There really ought to be
though, because it's very good.
| "The panels come back together
to form the unit of the page with what seems an almost effortless
elegance." |
It's the story of the original Grendel, the brilliant and villanous
Hunter Rose. The tale is narrated by Christine Spar, who will
go on to assume the mantle of Grendel herself in the slightly
more conventional DEVIL'S LEGACY. But where DEVIL'S
LEGACY is a more conventional comic work, with more 'normal'
page layouts, and a clearer demarkation between good and evil,
DEVIL BY THE DEED is a very distinctive work indeed. There
aren't many comics that one can honestly say were 'designed' rather
than just 'illustrated', but this is one of them. Wagner has an
extremely strong grasp of how to make use of the page as a sort
of meta-panel, incorporating all the required narrative elements
within it. They may be divided in a panel-like manner (although
much more elegantly than most comics manage), but the panels come
back together to form the unit of the page with what seems an
almost effortless elegance.
The whole style of the work evokes another era; it is resonant
with the works of art of the period when the tale is set, evoking
mood in a subtle and effective way. Despite the fact that the
narrator exists in our future, the art casts us back into the
past, creating a beautiful juxtaposition of narrative styles.
| "In creating Hunter Rose,
Matt Wagner has given us a villain of great power and charisma." |
The story itself is no less impressive. Despite the fact that
the title character is a villain who clearly shown to be manipulative
and untrustworthy to the point where even his diaries (the 'source'
information for much of the narrators commentary) must be treated
as suspect evidence, despite the fact that he a murderer and mobster
of the worst sort, it is still him we find ourselves rooting for
throughout the story. In creating Hunter Rose, Matt Wagner has
given us a villain of great power and charisma. A parallel might
be the character of Alex in Kubrick's adaptation of A CLOCKWORK
ORANGE, who if not sympathetic in any way, is still charismatic
enough that the audience find themselves drawn, almost against
their will into his support. Grendel is perhaps slightly more
sympathetic than Alex, but then, it would almost be impossible
not to be.
The tale chronicles the life of Hunter Rose, paying particular
attention to the period in which he adopted a young daughter (who
would go on to become the narrator's mother), and how this one
act of human decency ultimately lead to his downfall, rendering
Grendel an almost tragic figure, with his "fatal flaw" proving
to be his very humanity.
This book may be somewhat hard to get hold of, but it is well
worth the money.
Recommended.
Alasdair
Watson is a regular contributor to PopImage .
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