Customer Reviews

Grendel: Devil By The Deed (Grendel (Graphic Novels))

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

 

 

This book is a visual and literary masterpiece. Matt Wagner took a novel approach to the comic book format and created the poetic dark story of Hunter Rose aka Grendel, the most sadistic and romantic killer in comic book history. It chronicles the birth and death of Grendel in a smoothly flowing pictorial, with text inserts. This book is a must read if you are a fan of the dark and twisted. This is not a children's book by any means

You just do not see much about the wildly popular Grendel Comics from Comico written by Matt Wagner and the Pander Brothers. That is unfortunate, but maybe it is time for a new generation to discover the character. With the 25th anniversary editions coming out, and the original Comico comic books being reissued by Dark Horse they are slowly coming back into circulation, it is time to find out and read about the Grendel story. The premise of the Grendel series was that various people snap and then take on the character exacting bloody revenge on the problems and issues of the day. Some are darker than others, some explore human issues, those times where we could be stronger about our principles and morals but fail abjectly.

The Devil by the Deed looks at the Hunter Rose period, the original serialization is hard to find, but the anniversary edition is worth reading. Dark Horse has done a wonderful presentation of the original material, and the book is just as rich, dense, and enjoyable as it was the first time around as a comic book. They are well worth picking up and taking a look at the implications and conclusions. Grendel is a machine in many ways through these, there is no way for the character to accomplish his goals, without changing everyone around him, friends, family, and everyone else. What the Grendel character never seems to understand or realize is that change will only come with him as a leader, not as a source of violence and destruction. The series is overall interesting, and worth reading.

Grendel will influence you, these are much more than comic books, in many ways, Matt Wagner has hit on one of those few universal meme's, power, revenge, anger, that consumes the actor in the end.

Matt Wagner's original GRENDEL story deserves to stand with the other important comics works of the mid-80s - Watchmen, Dark Knight, Elektra: Assassin - and I'm not sure why it's not treated with the same amount of respect and fondness. Here we have the quintessential anti-hero in Hunter Rose, and his subsequent rise and fall. The Grendel books that followed have been of varying importance and quality, but this story arc was groundbreaking in its presentation and page design and even its characters. Worth reading if you're at all interested in what comics are capable of.

While Devil by the Deed still stands as an important and quite beautifully realized milestone in comics history, I did find the decision to recolor the work in the 'black, white, and red' style to be a mistake. The coloring of the original version of the story had always been one of my favorite aspects of the work, and I do not think the revision was necessary or desirable. While it is nice to own a hardcover of the story (which is mostly undiminished by the alteration), I may have thought twice had I known about the recoloring. That'll teach me to do a little research, I guess. Fortunately, I do still own a copy of the 1993 re-issue (I've never run across a copy of the original Comico collection).
I can at least content myself with the fact that this version of Devil by the Deed still stands lightyears ahead of the alterations that Image did to the original Mage collection.

Way back when, Comico and Graphitti Designs issued "Devil By the Deed" as a magazine sized hardcover. I've been with Grendel since 1986 so I'm lucky to have it - but to truly appreciate the grandeur of the story and art you NEED an oversized reissue.
Demand yours for the 30th anniversary!

The art work is very much like something you would expect from a talented highschooler; the writing is like a movie treatment written by a highschooler who is NOT remotely as talented as his mother says he is.