Beowulf - Dragon Slayer!

Beowulf - Dragon Slayer adapts the famous Old English epic poem into comics form. It was not first to do so and far from the last. Michael Uslan and Ricardo Villamonte are the creative team on this effort. Save for Beowulf getting a strange superhero-like visual treatment (his helmet is supposedly a minotaur skull), the story begins much like it does in the original Anglo-Saxon poem. A monster named Grendel assaults the hall of King Hrothgar and when Beowulf gets wind of this, he heads out to help. 

Once again, this series was part of DC's attempt to grab some of the Conan the Barbarian business with a raft of heroes from various mythological settings. Beowulf stands up quite strong amongst this company which saw most all of them gone after a year. 

The one previous attempt to adapt the poem was Thane of Bagarth by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo over at Charlton comics. The setting of this back-up series for the Hercules comic was after the events of the Anglo-Saxon epic. The adaptation has quite a legitimate feel, not unlike that of Prince Valiant. But eventually it gives way to a science fiction influence. The same thing will happen at DC. 

Beowulf and his men along with Nan-Zee head off for a quest into Hell where they fight all manner of creepies and even a tame dragon and ultimately do encounter Satan. The point of this meandering lost on me, save that it prolongs the story. The upshot is that he is sent on a quest by Satan to find two things to perk him up sufficiently to defeat Grendel. 

The quest through Hell continues. Grendel is still threatening Hrothgar's kingdom while Beowulf and his compatriots confront sundry menaces including a serpent. It is from this serpent's venom that Beowulf derives some powers enough to face Grendel, almost. Now he must find called Zumak. 

Having survived the rigors of Hell, Beowulf and his band run into warriors dedicated to fighting Vlad the Impaler and they get swept up in that conflict. They discover that the Zuman is not there. 

The introduction of flying saucers well and truly jumps this little series off the rails. Not unlike the earlier Charlton series we get sci-fi tropes dumped into a Beowulf environment. Strange to say the least. In this instance we get Atlantean servants of the space gods who pick up Beowulf and Nan-Zee just in time for the to witness the destruction of the advanced city. Beowulf even meets another epic hero from an even earlier tradition. 

Cast adrift the pair eventually arrive in Crete where they are led to the famed Labyrinth in which they find a Minotaur and ultimately the Zumak. Beowulf is now fully-charged and ready for Grendel as he and his gal head for Heorot at last. Meanwhile Grendel who is plotting against Satan. The arrival of Ric Estrada on layouts made this the most readable issue of this benighted series. 

This little series was a major disappointment for me. I'd hoped they had told a good yarn about the great Anglo-Saxon hero, but that's not what happens. Uslan's script is meandering, and Villamonte's artwork is at times bewildering. The addition of Nan-Zee affects the story not at all, save that it gives Villamonte the chance to draw a chick in a bikini for the entire brief run. The character I'm most interested in is Grendel, who we do get at length dragging away victims and bellowing about his sad lot to Satan. One character called the Shaper is a magician and some of his spells are fun to decode as they are the same variety as what Zatanna uses. One reads "Happy Birthday Cindy".

But comics were not done with Beowulf. 

Beowulf is one of those pieces of classic literature to speaks to my fanboy heart. Not unlike the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, or the Nordic sagas, we have a story which bonds reality with myth in a way which makes it immediate and potent. The poem serves a lot of masters, but at its core it's the story of a noble man who wants to defend people from predators and who wants to make the society better. The story has not been adapted to comics all that many times. Classics Illustrated never touched it (to my knowledge). But the first time I ever chanced across the poem itself being adapted to comics was when Jerry Bingham produced it for First Comics as their initial graphic novel in 1984.

I've never been completely satisfied with the result. To be fair, I'm not a huge Jerry Bingham fan, always considering him a workmanlike talent who was able to produce pages which successfully evoked both Neal Adams and John Buscema without the immediacy or drama of either. But compared to the soulless stuff I see on the stands today, he was a master. Still, he was above average of the day, and I like his stuff more and more as the years grind away. It turns out Beowulf was a labor of love, produced by Bingham pretty much on spec and finding a home at First Comics when he bargained to draw some of their books for them. I like that a lot. 

Bingham discussed the "graphic novel" several years ago on his blog here. He discusses how he came to be aware of the poem and how he finally was able to bring this remarkable work to fruition. He also discusses some of it weaknesses, weaknesses I agree make it less than a work which was completely successful. To my mind it lacks the grit and necessary darkness of the poem, allowing superhero tropes to overwhelm a story which is at its core a horror tale. You can also see quite a bit of the artwork from the series.

But whatever the deficiencies might have been to my mind, Jerry Bingham was able to bring Beowulf to the page and then bring it to the newsstands and that's no mean accomplishment. I congratulate him and wish him well. He seems to have done well for himself outside the world of comics and for a guy who I considered a middle of the road talent has become quite a compelling painter. But when the name Jerry Bingham comes up for this comics fan, the first thing I will think of is Beowulf. I rather think he'd like that. 

Here are later adaptations of the poem that I've come across. 

(2006)

(2007)

(2008)

(2016)

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Warp The Phantasmagorical!

I'm rather a fan of Warp. After reading the detailed article in Comic Book Creator from Twomorrows Publishing, I'm even more fascinated by this Broadway play which attempted to translate the excitement and philosophy of Marvel Comics to the live action stage. With so much attention these days on the cinematic Marvel Universe, it behooves us all to take a glance at what was the first attempt to translate the adventures of those kinds of heroes to a live setting.

The article interviews the creators of the play Stuart Gordon and Edmund St.Bury (pen name for Lenny Kleinfeld) among others who were involved in the earliest days. Chicago's Organic Theater was one more hippie experiment in 1971 trying to put on thought-provoking drama in a time when lots of pop culture seemed to be designed to be enjoyed while high. The play Warp falls into that category. Early attempts to get permission to adapt Marvel Comics outright were rebuffed and the creators took it upon themselves to write their own "Marvel" comic story.

A normal man, a humble bank teller turns out to be the cosmically super-powered Lord Cumulus and heir to Fen-Ra becomes a hero battling the dark forces of his brother Lord Chaos and along the way encounters beautiful babes such as the warrior-chick Sargon and the insect queen Valeria. Lots more happens and other characters abound, but you get the gist. We have the makings of a cosmic hero saga. The play's narrative was divided into three parts and produced and performed over the course of several nights. In the days of small theater, the physical requirements of the show proved too much for some of the actors and the costuming was at once quaint and daring, making full use of the handsome bodies of the young actors who occupied the roles.

After a few years on the low-rent stages of Chicago it was thought a good idea to bring the play to Broadway. The production was upscaled, and circumstances were such that it started right out on the Big White Way as opposed to spending some useful months off-Broadway to hone the show to its larger setting. It proved disastrous and the show closed quickly.

Part of moving the play to Broadway involved redesigning aspects of the production and for that the greatest artist of the time was brought in, Neal Adams. Adams was at the height of his powers and brought his considerable talent to give the production a flair and a polish it might have been  lacking. While his designs might've been better suited to a comic page than a live stage, they were evocative and memorable. Adams also did many promotional pieces for the production which did a great job of selling the play in advance. 

It was revived in Chicago some years later which led eventually to a comic book adaptation by First Comics, one of the early publishers of the 80's looking to find purchase in the new Direct Sales market. The series lasted less than twenty issues, but the first nine are some of my favorite comics, adapting the three plays. Featuring artwork by Frank Brunner and writing by Peter B. Gillis, they are delightful comics, though the creators of the play say the series strips out the humor which was a vital part of the plays themselves.

A Warp movie might be fun too while I'm thinking about it. Given moder special effects, it could be a wonder to behold. 

Here is a collection with the first nine issues. I don't have it, but I wish I did.

 This Post is a Revised Dojo Classic. 

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Nexus Omnibus Volume Seven!

There are eight volumes in Dark Horse's Nexus Omnibuse series, but I acted too slowly to get the eighth and now I'll have to do without. (I almost all of those contents in the original so it's not that big a problem, save to the completist mind.) This seventh volume picks up the misadventures of Nexus and Sundra and the gang after the demise of the regular series from First Comics. The best news is that Steve Rude is back in a big way, partnering again with Mike Baron. These two are the fathers of Nexus, in form and content and the series works best when they both are in attendance. 

The first installment here is a retelling of the origin story. The tale has been told a few times over the decade since Nexus was created, but this one is the most complete and lavish. It also spends a good deal of time focusing on Horatio Hellpop's father, the man who saw that it was his duty to murder millions and the first man to fall to the justice of Nexus. Sundra looks ravishing when Rude draws her. 

This is followed by Nexus the Liberator, a four-part tale by Stefan Petrucha and John Calimee, the first time that Nexus had been produced without either Baron or Rude in attendance. It's still  pretty decent, a story about a world overcome by religious zealotry and ruled by cruel men who proved remarkably hard to kill. It falls into the category of an untold tale since the timing puts it very early in the career of Hellpop's Nexus. This series is outside of the overall numbering of the Nexus series as calculated by Baron and Rude since neither of them contributed to it. 

Then we are treated to Nexus - Alien Justice, perhaps the most beautiful Nexus issues ever created. Three long stories in which the mad Merk sends Horatio packing and signs up new Nexi. First he tries out aliens such as the Giz, the Quatros, the Thunes and the Demons. That doesn't work at all and so he finds four human psychopaths to give unlimited power to. Only their own deficiencies make them less of a menace than they might have been. It's up to Horatio and Sundra to put down these threats and they are given power by another of the Merk's race to do so. But before that there was a tragic story of Nexus and Dave returning to Thuneworld and finding grinding heartache on this dark Seuss-like world. It's easily one of the best Nexus stories ever told, and a game-changer for Dave. 

Then things get a bit wonky as the rest of the volume is filled with non-Nexus features or better sidebar Nexus features. First we are treated to Hammer of God - Pentatholon which stars Judah Macabee. This story by Baron and artist Neil Vokes is a light-hearted romp as our hero tries to win and still maintain his dignity. It doesn't go well. 

Mezz Galactic Tour 2494 was written by Baron and drawn by Mike Vosburg. It's well crafted, but a bit difficult to decode at times. I always like the look of Vosburg's work, especially when he draws women. This is a strange light-hearted entry, but again no Nexus really. 

Hammer of God - Butch has Judah Macabee attempt to join the Gucci Assassin's Guild with the sole mission of finding his long-lost cousin Butch. He succeeds eventually in this three-part tale by Baron and artist Shea Anton Pensa. Pensa is a typical artist of his time, good but it seems a little too standard action comic for my tastes. 

The volume closes out with a offbeat pieced by Baron and Vokes, published by both Dark Horse and First featuring Clonezone.The Clonezone Special is in black and white and brings back the crocodilian commedian who had been the back up in Nexus for many issues. This time he's running a telethon and for anyone familiar with Clonezone's antics, you already know things do not go smoothly at all. This was actually pretty funny as Clonezone is good in small doses. 

I wish this volume had included more pure Nexus material, but I see the logic of including this stuff from the Nexus universe. As I said there is an eighth volume, but I don't have it. so we wrap up my month-long look at Nexus here. Stay out of trouble you all, you never know when the universe might decide to wreak some justice. 

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