This is my
translation of the original text written in Spanish by Norman Fernández for a catalog published in 2001. I was asked by Matt Wagner to translate that essay to
English. 25 years have passed by since I wrote this version. As far as I know,
my text hasn’t been published so I have decided to blog it.
Thank you for your
attention, kind reader!
First Chapter
The Gospel According to Grendel (I)
Trying to find out how did Grendel’s concept
break out isn’t an easy task.
The character’s
first story was written and drawn by Matt Wagner in 1982, and it was
published on a magazine called Comico
Primer, which was printed by Comico Comics.
The story showed the adventures
of a man dressed in black who was trying to murder –without any special reason–
the Chairman of the Local Council, Everett Christie, and who even dared to call
the police before committing his crime, in order to boast about the murder he
was about to make.
Hunter Rose,
apparently a millionaire and capricious writer, was the man behind the mask and
that murder. His crime would propitiate his fighting against his nemesis,
Argent, The Wolf.
This ten-page narration, which appeared
on Comico Primer # 2, is not only the introduction of the character, but also Matt’s first comic work ever published.
Nowadays it is a collector’s item, being its price fifty times the one that appeared
originally on its cover.
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