Customer Reviews

The Collected Beowulf

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I missed the individual issues of this story at my local comic shop, but the collected edition is now available. This is a spectacular comic version of the folk hero epic Beowulf (certainly not the first - it was adapted by First Comics in the late 80s, I believe, but this one is much better). Gareth Hinds does a great job with the story and artwork. He has chosen to forgo chopping the poem into word ballons and dialogue, opting instead to present actual lines from the poem on the pages, mixed in with the art. It seems to lend this adaptation more weight. Now, let's talk about the incredible graphic style: the original series was presented in 3 issues, each one concentrating on one of Beowulf's adventures (Grendel, the Sea Hag, and the Dragon). Each part is done in a different art medium. "Grendel" is heavy pen & ink with color, "Sea Hag" is painted on wood, and "Dragon" looks like fine lines and light watercolor accents. Add some other interesting visual touches, such as constellation charts for the night sky and howls appearing as winding parchment, and you have a true feast for the eyes. Gareth Hinds is truly talented. Give this book a try.

It's nice to see that Old English poetry has received so much attention as of late. Irish poet Seamus Heaney's recent verse translation revived interest in the poem, and about the same time an adaptation of Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead" (the author's own version of the Beowulf story), called "The 13th Warrior," did well at the box office. Around the same time Gareth Hinds hit comic stores with his funnybook adaptation of the poem, now collected in this volume.

The story is timeless. Beowulf, a Dane, comes to Sweden to help the Geats fight Grendel, who has taken over the great mead-hall the Geats built to celebrate victory. After some feasting and storytelling, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm off, and the creature flees howling into the night. Then, Grendel's mother shows up and Beowulf has to take care of her, too. Cut to late in the warrior's life. Now, he must face a dragon when all but his loyal squire have left him.

In other words, the stuff legendary poems are made of.

Hinds' adaptation liberally borrows from what little Anglo-Saxon art remains (mostly sculpture). The characters are all drawn in that blocky style, almost as if they are made of stone. The exception is Grendel, who looks like some dripping fiend that crawled out of a swamp (which is basically how he is described). The art captures the chill and danger of a time long past, when Grendels still walked the earth and people were not safe, even in the largest mead-hall. The entire poem is not represented - the action sequences themselves are left to the comic form - and what is used, is used for narrative purposes.

Still, this Beowulf would make an excellent companion to a classroom study of the poem. It uses an older (1910) translation, so there are some antiquated words that don't appear in the Heaney version. There is enough to capture the meaning of the poem, even if it doesn't appear in its entirety. And Hinds' drawings (ink, woodcarvings, and pencils all) paint a compelling, if bleak, picture of life in Europe's dark age. This version makes a welcome addition to the study of Saxon poetry.

Final Grade: B+

Beowulf is an amazing story of adventure & determination. As soon as the book starts you are sailing the seas to save a nation. Beowulf goes to a far off land and defends the people from the evil demon Grendel, who is killing and eating the people. Finding her son dead Grendels mother seeks revenge and kills once again. Beowulf is very angry with this and goes out to kill her. The story goes on as Beowulf kills the beast, gains fame and riches. In the end, his life is ended but his ledgend lives on. I would have to say that it is the best book I've ever read.

First, the binding on the book was coming apart. And, I wish the seller would have stated that the font was difficult to read not only because of the font type but because the colors "blend" on the page which makes it difficult to read.

Gareth Hinds, The Collected Beowulf (Thecomic.com, 2000)

I'll start right off the bat by saying that The Collected Beowulf would have been an entirely more fulfilling read if Hinds' default font hadn't been so stylized. There were times when I spent two or three minutes on a single paragraph trying to puzzle out whether some letters were Ts or Fs, in places where both letters made sense. That sort of thing bugs me almost as much as heavy dialect that changes writing into another language (think Riddley Walker here).

Other than that, though, quite an enjoyable (if very abbreviated) retelling of Beowulf here; Hinds takes the whole "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing literally, leaving the words to narration, and having almost no dialogue; the pictures tell the story. Think of it as a silent movie in graphic novel form, and you've got the idea. Hinds' expressive artwork does his story far more justice than the tough-to-read narration, and the (minor) liberties he took with the final part of the story, which he spells out in an afterword, do achieve Hinds' stated intention of improving the dramatic flow of the final third of the story. Good stuff, this, as long as you can get past the bits of the script that'll drive you nuts. ***

Gareth Hinds' work in this graphic novel is nothing less than impressive, though that is not so surprising as you review his collection of works on his website (garethhinds.com) - The level of detail in his images reflects the skill and passion of a refined artist and his respectful treatment of the original text gives a glimpse of a high appreciation of his subjects. This book is magnificently executed and complete. As such, his books are an ideal resource for teachers looking for a vehicle to inspire the elusive hearts of students, collectors looking for new art, or friends in need of a great gift. I recommend that you buy this book, enter into Hinds' artistic perspective of historic literature and then try your best to outdo the praises that were in this recent New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/books/review/McGrath-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I am a print-oriented person trying to learn to appreciate graphic novels. I am quite familiar with the story of Beowulf and enjoy its poetry and unsual words. Therefore, although I enjoyed the art work in this edition, I was disappointed with the text. It was physically difficult to read: (1) the font was often too small, especially in the first section of the book, (2) the words were sometimes a bit blurry (especially in the first section of the book), and (3) the font style was too elaborate, with the h, m, and n, for example, curving below the line, causing me to see y and g and other incorrect letters. I also thought that too often there was either way too much text on a single page or else too many pages with no text at all. It is my impression that those who are new to Beowulf, although they might enjoy the pictures, would find it difficult to enjoy the written aspects of the story because of these difficulties.

This is an incredible, richly rendered comic book telling the story of Beowulf. As you might expect, the story isn't 100% true to the original saga, but who cares, as it is tremendously entertaining and you can't stop turning the pages. It is a beautiful copy that you are afraid to handle for fear of ruining the pages. Perhaps buy one to archive and one to read...

At the time of this writing the comic book is now in the hands of one of the greatest teachers at Shelton High School (Mrs. Cornelius). A little background on how i got this is as followed, we just got done reading "Beowulf" in class and were assigned a little report type assignment. Many people chose their own creative ways to do the report and three students actually made a Video out of it (Which i do have to say was hilarious to watch... Try to imagine a plastic monster on a string jumping up and down in an aquarium being attacked by a hand with a pocket knife) My friend and I choose to do a few sketches for our report (Something Comic book like). So i searched the web for pictures of Grendel and stumbled upon the comic book collection by Gareth Hinds. I showed it to my teacher and she was absolutely amazed. After a couple of days i found out that the teacher was having a birthday and i decided to play a little trick on her, i came to amazon and ordered the comic and told the teacher that we would be doing our presentation on the comic book itself, she was thrilled. So we waited for the comic book to come and it finally arrived. When i first got it and read it at home it was ABSOLUTELY amazing. The quality of the art work was amazing and all the text was written in an Old-English kind of fashion. There was a kind of Dictonary at the very begining of the book too to show what certain words were used inside the comic and what they meant. The next day came and we did our presentation and the class was amazed at the quality of the book, i did see one thing that might of not made it "School Material" when you could actually see the mother of Grendel Breats (But i noticed when the class was reading through the comic that they didnt even notice it.) I was going to give my teacher the comic right after the presentation but had to deal with a few other things real quick and i couldnt do it the rest of the day so the next day i went to her before class started and said "I didnt buy this comic just for the report, Happy Birthday Mrs. Cornelius!" And she said "Are you kidding?!" and then led to say "Do you want me to pay you for this" in which i replied to her "No, its a birthday gift, the person that you give it to isnt suppose to pay for it". She absolutely loves it and i think anyone who buys this will too. The Artwork is amazing (And you can buy poster size copies of them off of Gareth Hinds website, in which you can also buy a Signed copy from the author himself), The text is amazing, the story has barely changed if at all, Its just one of the best investments/gifts i have ever bought for anyone. Dont hesitate, buy this comic.