2017 Comic Challenge 313 Grendal #03

TITLE-Grendal #03
PUBLISHER-Comico

And with the third and final issue of this run of Grendal we get the tale of the first time Hunter Rose and Argent fought.

Someone has been killed. Hunter takes the dead man's daughter off to safety then goes off. He runs into Argent.

While they fight a police officer and a detective come and start a murder investigation. I am sure back when this came out this scene was pretty innovation,but today in the age of Law and Order being on 20 channels all day long it is kind of boring.

During the fight some guy that looks like John Bryne finds the child.Grabs her and runs off. And the issue ends with Argent defeated and Hunter Rose discovering that the child is missing.

Yeah like the two previous issues I can see why this was a hit back in the early 80s. And it is worth reading. But do not buy the issues. There is much cheaper ways to get them.

Grendal #03 gets a borrow.

2017 Comic Challenge 312 Grendal #02

TITLE-Grendal #02
PUBLISHER-Comico

And with this second issue it is Argent's turn to give us a personal history lesson. It isn't bad and honestly much more interesting than Hunter Rose AKA Grendal's.

The rest of the issue is odd. It feels like I should know who a bunch of these people are. But as far as I know the only appearances Hunter Rose made before this series was in Comico Premier. And I have read those,even if it was a long ass time ago.

The slight change in art style while telling Argent's history is a neat touch. But like with issue one get this as a reprint or in a trade. No way is it worth whatever inflated price Mile High Comics is charging for it.

Grendal #02 gets a borrow.

2017 Comic Challenge 311 Grendal #01

TITLE-Grendal #01
PUBLISHER-Comico

I have read issues of Grendal before. But not too sure I have ever read this first issue. Back when it was black and white and Matt Wagner wrote and drew the series.

I have this issue in one of the reprints that is out,but cause I was not home I went with a scan I got years back.

Grendal and Argent are on a city rooftop. And Grendal starts to tell his history. From being a child prodigy. To taking over one of the local mobs and cleaning up various parts of the city.

Wagner's art is cartoony but still so action packed. I am just guessing here,mostly cause certain panels remind me of Silver Age Marvel,but I am thinking Wagner is a big fan of Don Heck.

This is worth tracking down as a reprint. I am sure it is out in trade form from at least 2 companies,seem to remember Dark Horse putting out Grendal Omnibus volumes.

Grendal #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 287 Grendal #09

TITLE-Grendal #09
PUBLISHER-Comico

Under that interesting cover by the Pander Bros is a neat exercise in comic storytelling.I do love how most issues of Grendal from Comico have wraparound covers.

By this time,summer of 87,Grendal was being written by it's creator Matt Wagner.With the Pander Brothers handling the pencils and inks. The art is great which is a good thing.

Except for sound effects and one thought box on the last page,the entire issue is silent. Not sure if this came out before the infamous silent issue of GI Joe. But I am sure it came out before the silent issue of Batman,which was the first part of the Many Deaths of Batman story.

With a silent comic the artist have to have a great sense of storytelling. A way to convey the story through the pictures.The Pander Bros do a damn good job.The artwork has this energy and sense of movement that is missing from lots of the popular artists now,Cough Jim Lee Cough.

The story is of the guy on the cover with the yellow puppet strings attached to him. He seems to be hallucinating while running through what appears to be a slightly in the future major city.

One small drawback to this comic is it reads extremely fast.Took me maybe 6 minutes to read it. Which for an issue of Grendal is extremely fast. But even then I had me wanting to see if I have the next issue in one of my boxes.

Grendal #09 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 183 Mage The Hero Discovered #11

TITLE:Mage the Hero Discovered #11
PUBLISHER-Comico

Somehow this damn good series passed me by in the 80s. It wasn't until the early 2000s when I found a bunch of issues cheap that I read what is the first volume of a supposed 3 volume series.

Matt Wagner handles most of the creative end of this series. Sure the art in the early issues of this title is a bit meh. By issue 11 it is pretty decent.

What really sucks is this series ended not long after issue 11. With volume 2 planned to come out in about a year. Then Comico went under. It took years for Wagner to fully get back his rights to the series. When he did Image published volume 2,and reprinted the first volume. IIRC this was the late 90s. And so far as of early summer 2016 volume 3 hasn't come out. Hell I haven't heard any news on it in 10 years or so.

Since I read volume 1 all in one sitting it is kind of hard for me to rate each issue.But this time all I read was this single issue. That I got in a 3 pack of comics from Dollar Tree.

Knowing what happened before and after this issue,reading just one issue in the story worked for me. But I would not recommend someone reading this issue without at least reading the previous 10.

Mage The Hero Discovered #11 gets a Buy.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 030 Dark Horse Presents volume 3

TITLE-The Best of Dark Horse Presents Volume 3
AUTHOR-Various
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-99 cents

I loved reading the black and white anthology comic Dark Horse Presents. It is a title that I always look for in cheap bins. Once again I was using an Amazon giftcard I received for X-mas.This is a 132 page collection of 20 one page and short stories.
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What appealed to me with Dark Horse Presents was the collection of talent. You never knew who all would show up in each issue.Some of the better known talents in this collection are,Paul "Concrete" Chadwick,Matt "Grendal" Wagner,Timothy"Scout"Truman,Ed "Lowlife" Brubaker,Everett"Duckman" Peck,Eddie"Deadface"Campbell and Adam Hughes.

The stand out stories of the 20 in this trade are.

The Aerialist,written and drawn by Matt Wagner. This appears to be the first part of a multiple part story. Set in the future.Where relationships between men and women is outlawed. Just when the story is starting to get interesting it ends. Going in I knew that some of the stuff in this trade would be R-rated. But I wasn't expecting full frontal male nudity. I am tempted to track down the rest of this story.

Jungle of the giants by Tim and Ben Truman. This short science fiction tale has a father fighting off giant insects. And contains a nice O'henry twist at the end.

From Dark Horse Presents issue 36 we get a well drawn Aliens vs Predator story. Before we got two horrible AVP films,Dark Horse published plenty of really well done stories. This one while short is a good read.

Burning Man written by Ed Brubaker. Before Brubaker was at Marvel,he was getting lots of attention for his autobiographical comics. This tale is about a pre-teen Ed. Who with his friends sees a man get set on fire. And Brubaker goes into detail about how seeing this affected him through out his life.

Everett Peck does a very short Duckman piece. I wish there was a trade reprinting all the Duckman stuff.

Bacchus:a God and his Dog by Eddie Campbell. The Greek good of wine and revelry tells a tale of making wine and his loyal dog. I love Eddie Campbell's Deadface/Bacchus stuff.

And finally ,and also the last story in the colleciton.Hip-deep in the consciousness stream,Adam Hughes does the art. In this tale of the editor of Dark Horse Presents needs 8 pages to fill out an issue. They get Hughes to draw his normal gorgeous women.And play around with the conventions of cheesecake artwork.

The stories I didn't talk about range from great art but boring story to meh art but entertaining story.Just like how an anthology ,be it film,book or comic,you get stuff that you enjoy and stuff that you will never read again. The hit or miss ratio of this trade is pretty good. If it was a baseball player it would be batting 300 with a decent amount of RBIs. Hell this trade is the 1994 Frank Thomas of comic anthology collections.

The Best of Dark Horse Presents volume 3 gets a 3.85 outta 5.