Grendel: Devil Child

I just finished reading Grendel: Devil Child last night.

In a word: CREEPY... but in a good way.

This isn't your typical Grendel comic where the character is going around killing his adversaries and raising all kinds of Hell.

This is the story about his adopted daughter and how she's coping (not very well, as evidenced in this story) with being the "daughter of the Grendel".

The Tim Sale art is very appropriate to the story and Diana Schutz's writing moves along quite smoothly. Not too slowly, that you'll be wanting to skip ahead. And not too quickly, that you'll be thinking you missed anything.

A word of warning, though. This is NOT a book for children.

The main character, Stacy Palumbo, recounts her life as Hunter Rose's adopted daughter and her relationship with men in general. Up to (and including) sessions with bondage and dominate male fantasies, which all relates to how she became so unstable as she grew older and why she was never really connected to her own Daughter, Christine Spar (who also becomes an incarnation of Grendel).

It's good reading if you like Matt Wagner's Grendel character, but it's definitely a different take on one of the supporting cast of that series.

The Comic Stop just got a few copies in this week.

If you want to pick it up, now's a good time. (But I'm sure the guys... and gal... would be happy to order one for you if they are out.)

Grendel / Batman

After being out of print for more than 10 years, Dark Horse Comics will be re-releasing the Grendel / Batman TPB in April.

There were two different times when Grendel met up with Batman.
The first was a two-issue series featuring Hunter Rose (the original Grendel) as he finds himself in Gotham City on business and decides to "play" with the Dark Knight a little.
The second time was when Grendel Prime (a cyborg) came to Gotham to retrieve a mysterious artifact and will stop at nothing to get it.

I never actually finished reading the second story, but the first one (with Hunter Rose) was a superb blend of the World's Greatest Detective trying to follow the trail of a criminal mastermind who leaves no clues.
Unlike Batman's regular rogues gallery, this new threat that has come to Gotham does not follow any pattern or reason to his crime spree and leaves the Dark Knight always one step behind.

I remember reading this a year or two after it came out and just being blown away by the story of these two characters interacting with and against each other.
Hunter Rose and Bruce Wayne meet and share company without either of them having the slightest clue about the other's secret identity.

Dark Horse will be including both stories in one spiffy new trade, so you won't have to search them out individually. (Which is nice, since I've never been able to come across the second issue of the story involving Grendel Prime)

Plus, as an added bonus.... author / artist Matt Wagner will be at Emerald City Comic Con this year, so if you get this be sure to bring it and have it signed!

You don't need to be a fan of Batman or Grendel to like this book, but if you already are and you've never read this story you'll really want to pick this one up when it comes out.