In 1970, the sword and sorcery genre, which had a presence in comics since the earliest days of the industry with characters such as the Shining Knight, was increasing in popularity in mainstream comics. The genre would become more popular in October, thanks largely to Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, but much of the sword and sorcery in mainstream comics was influenced by underground comics and black and white magazines such as Warren publications’ Creepy and Eerie. These publications tended to be influenced by E.C. horror and science fiction stories and by J.R.R. Tolkein’s Hobbit and Rings trilogy, and often featured some type of humorous twist. This is the case with the story “A Journey into Wonder,” featured in Eerie # 27, published in May – five months before Conan’s premiere issue.
Written by Bill Parente and with art by Ken Barr (the cover art is by Vaughn Bode' and Jeff Jones), the story features a misshapen dwarf named Grendel who has come to King Xenia’s palace to petition the king for the honor of becoming a knight. He is tasked with capturing a sorceress and must fight a two-headed dragon and survive a duel, rescuing a princess along the way, before having his petition granted and his reward. While there are a number of similarities between the story and the plot to Beowulf, such as the idea of the quest itself (although quest stories are much older than Beowulf, obviously), the creatures he must conquer, and the lack of faith of the king’s knights, the main usage of the character’s name is for the sake of irony. The character could have been given any name, but the likeliest reason for naming him Grendel is to connect it to the poem, and any reader familiar with the poem’s Grendel would hardly expect to see a Hobbit-esque version of the creature, let alone one that would be sympathetic or heroic.
This story was reprinted by Dark Horse in the comic-sized Eerie #5 in July, 2014.
Written by Bill Parente and with art by Ken Barr (the cover art is by Vaughn Bode' and Jeff Jones), the story features a misshapen dwarf named Grendel who has come to King Xenia’s palace to petition the king for the honor of becoming a knight. He is tasked with capturing a sorceress and must fight a two-headed dragon and survive a duel, rescuing a princess along the way, before having his petition granted and his reward. While there are a number of similarities between the story and the plot to Beowulf, such as the idea of the quest itself (although quest stories are much older than Beowulf, obviously), the creatures he must conquer, and the lack of faith of the king’s knights, the main usage of the character’s name is for the sake of irony. The character could have been given any name, but the likeliest reason for naming him Grendel is to connect it to the poem, and any reader familiar with the poem’s Grendel would hardly expect to see a Hobbit-esque version of the creature, let alone one that would be sympathetic or heroic.
This story was reprinted by Dark Horse in the comic-sized Eerie #5 in July, 2014.