Grendel: God and the Devil TBP Review

Penciller: John K. Snyder & Tim Sale
Inkers: Jay Geldhof & Bernie Mireault
Colorist: Jeremy Cox
Publisher: Dark Horse

Matt Wagner has gotten some recognition over the years for his mainstream DC books like Sandman Mystery Theater and Trinity (not the current ongoing series). I have been a fan of his since the 80’s, but I have to be completely honest before you read this review. I have never read a single issue of Grendel. I remember seeing the comics by Comico in the 80s and always liking Grendel’s costume. I was a huge fan of Mage and I even recall that there were some Grendel back-up stories in the Mage comics, but I never bothered to read them. So lucky for you and I that Dark Horse has been reprinting the old Comico stories in comic format and TPB format with new colors since 2000. The original stories were printed in Grendel # 23-33 and then reprinted in a 10 issue miniseries with a prologue (issue 23/0) drawn by Tim Sale.

It is the year is 2512 and several centuries have passed since the mask of Grendel has been worn, and in that time humanity's survived a third World War, the fall of Western Civilization, and the rise of an all-powerful Catholic Church state. America has been separated into a number of corporate systems dominated by that church. The new Vatican seems to be in the mountains of Colorado and fanatically controlled by Pope Innocent XLII. There are two men that make a stand against the church’s corruption. Orion Assante is a corporate auditor and aristocrat determined to expose the pope for who and what he really is. The second is a mysterious madman wearing the all-too-familiar face of Grendel. This time around the man behind the mask is a factory worker named Eppy Thacher who is driven by his belief that God hates him and his addiction to the drug Grendel. Innocent turns out to be the vampire Tujiro and hires Pellon Cross head of the mercenary group known as Confederacy Of Police (COP) to help establish a second inquisition and take care of Grendel. This was all part of his plot to develop a new weapon to block out the sun. In the end Assante leads a private army to destroy this weapon, Cross (now a vampire) leads an army of vampire/cops against the Vatican, and Grendel and Tujiro fight to the death.

I really didn’t know what to think when I read the prologue. The narrative focuses on the tribulations of Cardinal Emmett Fairbanks, whose domain is Laserus, apparently the LA metropolitan area in this future. I was completely lost between issues zero and one. It wasn’t until I read the entire trade that I could appreciate it’s effective foreshadowing. It was the satirical content and Tim Sale’s art that drove me to keep reading. Coming into this book with no previous knowledge of Grendel was kind of tough. I was left in the dark with much of the complexities involving politics and religion. For example the lead character (well, one of the three) Eppy, has a problem with stealing, murdering, and starting riots. It’s very uncommon for a protagonist to have this sort of moral relativism. Half way through the book I got completely lost. I have read tons of books on the corruption of religion and politics, but the dialogue was heavy and drawn at times. But, damn am I glad I stuck with this book to the end, because the payoff was intense and massive.

I found Eppy’s dialogue quite funny. I really got the sense that this Grendel was unique, because the more and more I kept getting closer to the end, I could tell he was losing it. Assante’s inner monologue reminded me of those old Slam Bradley or Dick Tracey strips. For a story that was this dark, I figured they would have gone with another artist. When I first saw Snyder’s work, I didn’t think it was going to work. However, the more I kept reading; the more his exaggerated anatomy grew on me. His depiction of this ruined future really set the stage for the story to move along. His artwork is definitely built on clarity and color and reminded me of Keith Giffen’s work on Trencher. Unfortunately it does feel a little dated and at times, it’s hard to follow those fight scenes. Jeremy Cox’ coloring is completely stunning and make Snyder’s art brighter and more distinctive. Even though he makes the characters brighter, that dark tone manages to pop up. I’m not sure if Grendel’s tale is one huge saga spanning different centuries, but I can tell you that this particular book works well as a stand -alone story. For my first introduction to the Grendel universe this book keeps me intrigued and wanting more. As complex a story and dialogue heavy as this book is, after a first reading I was content with the entire story. I suggest any fans of Criminal, Berserk, 100 Bullets, Zen, Mage, or just people that appreciate a good solid story to pick this up. B+

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite TPB Review

Writer: Gerard Way
Artist: Gabriel Ba
Colors: Dave Stewart
Covers: James Jean
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

The only time I had hear of My Chemical Romance was when my brother asked me if I wanted to go to one of their concerts about five years ago. I wasn’t into the whole scremo and emo music, no matter how many times my brother tried to get me into it. Then I hear that the lead singer of MCR was going to do a comic book. So I laughed and sneered at the thought of a guy wearing make-up and singing about being sad writing a comic book. To me it was just another case of a semi-celebrity using his popularity to get to write a comic. So I read the first issue, mainly to butcher on my website and I ended up loving every single moment of it. Waited for the trade and was pleasantly blown away by the rest of the story.

The story of Umbrella Academy is much like X-men or Doom Patrol, if I had to compare it to other comic books. The Professor X or Doc Niles of the book is Sir Reginald Hargreeves (The Monocle) and he adopts seven infants that will grow up to save the world. They are a dysfunctional group of superheroes who try to live as a dysfunctional family. As kids they just referred to each other by numbers, but as adults they each have their own code name which include; Spaceboy, Rumor, Kraken, Séance, Future, White Violin(okay not all the codenames are that great), and Horror (who didn’t live long enough to get a decent codename). After a brief background the story jumps ahead to 20 years and kicks off with Spaceboy getting a call from Dr. Pogo (a talking chimp) with the sad news that the Monocle is dead. This brings the rest of the cast together with the White Violin a warning about a new suite and Future comes back from the future after being gone for almost 20 years.

The issues keep the same kind of feel of bizarre spectacles, twist and turns, and compelling mysteries. Introducing new villains such as the Conductor and moving the storyline along through flashbacks and some insane revelations. Once you think you got someone figured out, you really are in for a shock. The title Apocalypse Suite is dubbed from the Conductor as he claims that if played accurately it would bring about the end of world. This is where one of the siblings comes in….the White Violin, who ends up killing Dr. Pogo and her brothers and sister have to do battle with her to stop the end of all that is. Without going into too much detail, all hell does break loose and there is plenty of gory action for everyone. Almost all of the characters in the story get a moment or two to shine, and not always in the most obvious of ways. There is even a mansion that gets destroyed ala X-men every three years.

With his use of eccentric dialogue, nicely paced foreshadowing, and secret histories Way really had me hooked from beginning to end. This book doesn't break any new ground as far as comics go. The way I see it everyone who has ever read comics has one or two good stories in them. There are countless of Justice League, Fantastic Four, Doom Patrol, X-men and Avengers stories out there, but is the few that are done right that stand out above the rest. To me that is what this book accomplished. It had a strong story from the beginning, with just the right amounts of insanity, dark humor, suspense, heart, darkness, and hope to keep me coming back for more. By the end of the volume, I was really sad that I wouldn’t be reading the further adventures of the Umbrella Academy until November.

Of course Way’s vision wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t have the perfect artist to compliment his story. That talent came in the form of the expressive and vivid artwork by Gabriel Ba; whose artwork reminded me of a cross of Mike Mignola, Michael Oeming, Tim Sale, and Guy Davis, but with more of fluidity to his shapes and forms. His layouts are dynamic, I enjoyed his work on Casanova by Matt Fraction, but this is a whole new level. His facial expressions were cute and creepy as if Tim Burton or Edward Gorey had design the characters. Ba does a fantastic job of grounding the insane stuff, giving enough attention to details of the weird such as the gorilla spacesuit or the walking Eiffel Tower to make them seem realistic within every panel. Of course having drawing a chimp whose brains are splatter all over the floor, I’m sure he got to break loose those hidden talents. The colors by Stewart only make the comic stand out from most new books on the market. It wasn’t all perfect though, at times, particularly during the flashback sequences, I had a hard time distinguishing between characters. I guess that’s why Way put someone in a monkey suit and put a chick in a violin outfit.

I’m sure fans of My Chemical Romance have already checked this series out, but if that is the reason some of you aren’t reading this book; I can assure you that Gerard Way is talented in writing comics as well. If you like Hellboy, Atomic Robo, the Goon, and X-men,, Scryed, Doom Patrol you'll most likely LOVE Umbrella Academy. If you like weird, fun, and well plotted, paced story buy this book. If you like My Chemical Romance, I’m sure you have already bought this book. It was a real treat to read. This volume also contains the Free Comic Book Day special and the short story originally featured at darkhorse.com .Dark Horse plans to release The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite Limited Edition in November and it would make a fantastic gift for those friends that haven’t read it yet. A-

The Chronicles of Conan: The Corridor of Mullah-Kajar & Other Stories

Writers: J.M DeMatteis, Len Wein, Larry Hama, Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas.
Artists: John Buscema, Neal Adams, Ernie Chan, Bob McLeod, Vicente Alcazar, Yong Montano.
Publisher: Dark Horse

Ah yes, as time passes, so comes another volume of Conan. The 15th volume Dark Horse has put out of The Chronicles of Conan, this trade encompasses seven stories of the Barbarian from Cimmeria

The first story in this volume called "Crawler in the Mist" starts out with Conan being rescued by some nomads, having laid in the desert sun, poisoned and weak. As Conan comes to, he finds his rescuers are traders and soon realizes that they mean to trade HIM as a slave. Conan being well... Conan, whoops some arse and sends two of his slavers fleeing, the third unable to run, left chained to the mighty Barbarian. Deciding not to cut off the slaver's hand and be free of him Conan drags the trader along with him as he looks for shelter with night approaching Wandering through the desert Conan and his "traveler" eventually come upon a city...seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The trader warns Conan of this city being home to a monster that prowls the streets at night taking anyone foolish enough to be wandering out of their homes, Conan scoffs at his companions' plea and they enter the city laying down on the streets for sleep. Deep in sleep Conan is awakened to hear his friends' cry as a huge red slug-like creature takes hold of the trader. Amidst the battling, the slug creature severs the chain linking the trader and Conan, fleeing with the helpless slaver in tow, Conan in pursuit. From here the rest of the story plays out Twilight Zone-like so I won't ruin it for you, other then to say it ends somewhat sadly.

The rest of the stories within this volume play out pretty close to the first one, Conan either runs into trouble or goes looking for it, a tussel ensues and the foe is defeated. All the tales are enjoyable to an extent. Certain readers will definitely get more out of these collected Conan volumes then others. Those not big on reading loads of text I can tell you right now will have issues with this Conan volume. At about 190 pages this sucker feels like twice that in overall dialogue I personally like the expanded dialogue as it gives more depth to the story an characters BUT...then again I am a fickle/weird comic reader.

The art within each story varies with the artist. For the most part John Buscema does a majority of the art within this volume and it is alright...it's not mind-blowing but half this stuff was in the 70s and 80s so you gotta cut the guy some slack. The best page out of this whole volume though in both story and art is in, "The Phoenix on the Sword". Art by Vicente Alcazar an Yong Montano, it displays Conan looking to tear apart those before him, an image of Kull of Atlantis above him, Roy Thomas writing of the parallel in this scene between Conan & Kull.

I don't know what it is but this page just kinda hits you in a right way...almost makes me wanna go back and read up on Kull of Atlantis, (another creation of of Robert E. Howard's).

In closing, this volume as a whole is GOOD. Not great but good. If you like Conan you'll dig this volume and for those that have never read of the mighty warrior borrow this volume from a friend...you may just be glad you did.