GRENDEL Comic Origins: Who wore the mask of the fiend in “Devil’s Legacy”? …SHE did!

03/20/24 • 126 min

Steven and Chris obsess over issues one through seven of Comico’s ongoing GRENDEL series (1986), the “Devil’s Legacy” story arc, pondering the lasting resonance of Matt Wagner’s extraordinary exploration of evil.
SHOW NOTES:
00:32 - Intro to GRENDEL. Move over, Batman! The Dark Knight isn’t the only violent vigilante in town! Cue a valiant attempt to summarize the fascinatingly unique, complex concept of GRENDEL
03:12 - “DEVIL’S LEGACY” ...Christine Spar dons the mask of the fiend. SHE is GRENDEL!
20:39 - The amazing Pander Brothers! ...and the inking of their highly stylized work — touching on ‘80s fashion art, Aeon Flux, and Patrick Nagel. The Pander Bros = style AND substance, plus “They draw some of the best hands in comics!”
29:10 - The eye-popping sales of the first issue of GRENDEL — 68,000 copies!
30:54 - How to pronounce “Comico”
37:22 - DC Comics’ amazing BLUE DEVIL by Paris Cullins, Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn
38:42 - The cleverly titled TEMPUS FUGITIVE by Ken Steacy; NOW Comics, ASTRO BOY, SPEED RACER
40:17 - THE SACRED & THE PROFANE by Dean Motter & Ken Steacy
41:14 - The bizarre & mostly unnoticed WAR BEARS from Dark Horse Comics by Margaret Atwood (!) & Ken Steacy
42:38 - Our conjecture re: why Matt Wagner brought in other artists on GRENDEL and why modern comics artists are no longer able to do long-ass runs on a series
48:15 - The looser, more gestural art of Hayden Sherman and Ashley Wood — drawing awesome comics with styles built for speed
50:57 - The super dense verbiage of Matt Wagner’s writing in this run of GRENDEL
55:06 - “THE DEVIL’S LAIR,” the GRENDEL letter column — Diana Schutz responds to a critical letter about Matt’s “wordy” approach, defending his “intentionally complex” writing choices
1:01:15 - GRENDEL: WARCHILD, Grendel Prime, the exquisite art of Simon Bisley
1:04:33 - Great unfinished stories in comic books — THE AERIALIST, TYRANT, BIG NUMBERS
1:08:51 - Edvin Biukovic & Darko Macan, the brilliant Croatian artist/writer team that created GRENDEL TALES: DEVILS AND DEATHS
1:12:33 - The progressive, multicultural, racial dynamics in this run of GRENDEL
1:13:33 - “...There’s so much greatness in the idea of GRENDEL...”
1:37:57 - The similarities between the mask designs for GRENDEL and SPAWN

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03/20/24 • 126 min

Comics Rot Your Brain! - GRENDEL Comic Origins: Who wore the mask of the fiend in “Devil’s Legacy”? …SHE did!

Transcript

[Intro Music]
STEVEN: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! — the show where professional screenwriters talk about comic books that we love ...mostly from the 1980s. I'm one of your hosts; I'm Steven Bagatourian—
CHRIS: And I'm your other host, Christopher Derrick.
STEVEN: —And, Chris, we talked about a book in this episode that is arguably the single greatest indie comic book series of all time: Matt Wagner's GRENDEL. And if you love BATMAN,

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