Michael J. Weller’s Beowulf Cartoon, published by Writers Forum and Visual Associations in London in 2004, is one of the few adaptations from outside of the United States, but that is not what makes it unique. First, it starts with an introduction by poet Bill Griffiths, an expert in dialects whose A Dictionary of North East Dialect was published by Northumbria University Press in 2004, just a few years before his death. Weller himself has been involved in a number of artistic enterprises, notably doing design work for David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World in 1970, producing a number of underground comics and comic strips, and working as a political activist and poet. One can see some of these influences, especially his underground comic style and sense of poetics in this adaptation.
At first look, one might have a hard time actually considering this a graphic novel, as it includes few of what most would consider traditional graphic images in comparison with the amount of text. However, Weller creates a work where the text itself is part of the graphics, using comic conventions such as bubble letters and incorporating flourishes such as images of small suns that dot lower-case is and distorting letter size to create emphasis. One might also find this the most confusing of all of the adaptations, largely because of the way the contents are arranged. A little more than half focuses on the traditional first part of the poem, the foundation of Hrothgar’s kingdom and the battle between Beowulf and Grendel. This is followed by an extensive interpretation of the fight with Grendel’s mother and Beowulf’s return home. Following this, the author digresses and provides several pages of text that features his original draft and artwork from comic strips, pamphlets, and a still from a BBC production featuring Elizabeth Hurley as Queen Modthryth. This section is followed by one titled “The Passing of Beowulf” which the author notes is “written in the avant-bardist style of contemporary Scottish fiction.” Unlike the first two sections, the only non-text graphic here is of a bizarre flying creature meant to represent the dragon which takes up most of the first page, and the rest is in straight text (no bubble letters, etc.).
Other than the art and the arrangement of the contents, this adaptation is unique in that it directly connects the characters and their cultures with Norse mythology, directly referring to Asgard and both Odin and Frigor in the first few pages. Weller uses Grendel as a stand-in for Loki, and creates a background wherein he is banished to Neflheim after tricking Hod into killing Baldor. By doing this, Weller seems to be reasserting a sense of what the original oral story might have included, details that seem likely to have been modified as the story passed on to a more Judeo-Christian culture.
At first look, one might have a hard time actually considering this a graphic novel, as it includes few of what most would consider traditional graphic images in comparison with the amount of text. However, Weller creates a work where the text itself is part of the graphics, using comic conventions such as bubble letters and incorporating flourishes such as images of small suns that dot lower-case is and distorting letter size to create emphasis. One might also find this the most confusing of all of the adaptations, largely because of the way the contents are arranged. A little more than half focuses on the traditional first part of the poem, the foundation of Hrothgar’s kingdom and the battle between Beowulf and Grendel. This is followed by an extensive interpretation of the fight with Grendel’s mother and Beowulf’s return home. Following this, the author digresses and provides several pages of text that features his original draft and artwork from comic strips, pamphlets, and a still from a BBC production featuring Elizabeth Hurley as Queen Modthryth. This section is followed by one titled “The Passing of Beowulf” which the author notes is “written in the avant-bardist style of contemporary Scottish fiction.” Unlike the first two sections, the only non-text graphic here is of a bizarre flying creature meant to represent the dragon which takes up most of the first page, and the rest is in straight text (no bubble letters, etc.).
Other than the art and the arrangement of the contents, this adaptation is unique in that it directly connects the characters and their cultures with Norse mythology, directly referring to Asgard and both Odin and Frigor in the first few pages. Weller uses Grendel as a stand-in for Loki, and creates a background wherein he is banished to Neflheim after tricking Hod into killing Baldor. By doing this, Weller seems to be reasserting a sense of what the original oral story might have included, details that seem likely to have been modified as the story passed on to a more Judeo-Christian culture.