A question about Grendel

[hoshishoju-migration]

In the process of going through a large collection I purchased, I came accross a Grendel Title form Comico dated 1989. Is this the same Grendel as the Dark Horse? I only ask because there are similaritites to the costume, and I am completely unfamiliar with the Dark Horse Grendel. Thanks in advance.

[shadroch]

Yes,and No.

The Grendel character started out as a young man named Hunter Rose. He died and the Grendel character was then picked up by his adopted"niece" Christine Spar.Various Grendel series have featured different civilians as alter-egos to the masked character,some series are set in te distant future,others in the not so different..

So,while the Grendel ethos is common to each series,the supporting cast is different.

Matt Wagner created the character and has been the guiding light thru-out the franchise.

[hoshishoju-migration]

is there a market for Grendel? I mainly deal in Bronze and Silver age, but got this at a good deal.

[shadroch]

Well,its certainly not a 'hot' book.

Wagner certainly has his fans so the title is not dead,but it is fairly easy to obtain at or around cover-price.I have a few gaps in my collection I wouldn't mind filling.

Of course,if you have any of the black and white earlier series,they are both hot and in demand.

[mrwoogieman]

Well said Shad!

 

I have nothing substantive to add, but I LOVE GRENDEL!

[Zanarkand]

I picked up the entire 40 issue Comico run for about cover price. The original 3 B&Ws though, while not rare, usually cannot be had for less than guide. In the neighborhood of $100 apiece.

 

The black & whites were from 1983, so a 1989 book has got to be from the main run.

[hoshishoju-migration]

Yeah the one that I found is #30, but I just ran into a couple of boxes of Comico stuff. I see a stack of other Grendel, So I will have to go through it. Thanks for the info.

[Zanarkand]

The original 3 are easy to spot. They're bigger, more like GA sized. And they don't tend to come in high grade. From the census:

 

#1 - 55 total, 5 9.4, 3 9.6

#2 - 22 total, 4 9.4, 3 9.6

#3 - 29 total, 11 9.4, 3 9.6, 1 9.8

[heartened]

The original 3 are easy to spot. They're bigger, more like GA sized. And they don't tend to come in high grade. From the census:

 

#1 - 55 total, 5 9.4, 3 9.6

#2 - 22 total, 4 9.4, 3 9.6

#3 - 29 total, 11 9.4, 3 9.6, 1 9.8

 

Actuallly, #1 and #2 and oversized, but #3 is regular comic size. #3 has always been the easiest to find. I have found #2 to be the toughest.

 

These were hard to find even in the mid-80s.

[mrwoogieman]

The original 3 are easy to spot. They're bigger, more like GA sized. And they don't tend to come in high grade. From the census:

 

#1 - 55 total, 5 9.4, 3 9.6

#2 - 22 total, 4 9.4, 3 9.6

#3 - 29 total, 11 9.4, 3 9.6, 1 9.8

 

Actuallly, #1 and #2 and oversized, but #3 is regular comic size. #3 has always been the easiest to find. I have found #2 to be the toughest.

 

These were hard to find even in the mid-80s.

 

There's one more too, Comico Primer #2 featuring the first appearance of Grendel. Can't forget that one!

[Norrin_Radd]

The original 3 are easy to spot. They're bigger, more like GA sized. And they don't tend to come in high grade. From the census:

 

#1 - 55 total, 5 9.4, 3 9.6

#2 - 22 total, 4 9.4, 3 9.6

#3 - 29 total, 11 9.4, 3 9.6, 1 9.8

 

Actuallly, #1 and #2 and oversized, but #3 is regular comic size. #3 has always been the easiest to find. I have found #2 to be the toughest.

 

These were hard to find even in the mid-80s.

 

There's one more too, Comico Primer #2 featuring the first appearance of Grendel. Can't forget that one!

 

I bought two HG copies from a dealer in 2002.

 

Have since sold them.

[helionaut]

Primer #2 seems to be fairly easy to find, especially when compared with the original 3. I bought #3 around 1986 for $2, then in 1993 a friend found a #1 in LA for me for $50. And he got Matt Wagner to sign it for me at an in-store, with a sweet Grendel head sketch. It took years before I finally found a #2. Wagner supposedly hates the art so much that they'll never be reprinted. It's definitely not the Wagner of today, but a much more overtly manga-style.

 

From the end of that run, the next appearance was as a backup story in Mage 8-14 (first series), a beautiful art-decoized, full-color retelling of the same events, but in greater depth with text pieces and better art. Somewhere before that was "The Devil's Vagary," a 12-page story that came out of a slipcased set of 12-page books from Comico that was sort of a sampler of all their books. It's tough to find, but not really expensive. After Mage I finished, he started the second Comico Grendel series that focused on Christina Spar. I tuned out after the first couple issues. I didn't care for the Pander Bros. art and the story left me cold. But you should check out #17-20 for a pair of 2-issue stories with art by Wagner concerning the Hunter Rose Grendel with a sweet Mage backup story, as Mage II took forever to get on the boards. I've never read any of the other Grendel stories except the ones Wagner draws himself (the Batman cross-over, for example), and I think they have only been Hunter Rose stories.