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Hunter Rose Grendel and Batman. Th e sole reason Rose undertakes his crime wave in
Gotham is simply to see if he succeeds. Th e story has an intriguing subplot concerning
two young women whose lives are swept up in events, with catastrophic results. Th e
second story, Devil’s Bones/Devil’s Dance , has Batman confronted by the Grendel Prime
cyborg. Th is story revolves around a search through time for Hunter Rose’s skull and is
more action driven than its predecessor. Th ese two stories are particularly noteworthy
in another way. One of Wagner’s stated goals in Grendel was to create a dark character,
an extension of Batman. Mage, Wagner’s character of light (modeled in part on Super-
man ), balances this dark character.
Other writers have had their turn with the character, including Greg Rucka ,
co-author (with Wagner) of the novel Grendel: Past Prime. Wagner has allowed
other creators to adapt Grendel in short story anthologies. Th e fi rst, Grendel: Black,
White and Red appeared in 1998; its successor, Grendel: Red, White and Black in
- Mike Allred , Jill Th ompson, d’Isreali, and Chris Sprouse made notable
contributions.
Wagner has won two Eisner Awards for the series, for Best Limited Series for
Grendel: War Child in 1993, and for Best Short Story in 1999 for Grendel: Black,
White and Red.
Diana Green
GROO THE WANDERER. Th e story of a stupid but deadly barbarian who wanders
around a fantasy world causing hilarious disasters, Sergio Aragonés’s Groo the Wanderer
is a perennial fan favorite. It was also a pioneering work in the evolution of creator-
owned comics.
Aragonés, a native of Spain who spent his early life in Mexico, emigrated to the
United States in 1962 and started working at Mad Magazine in 1963. Besides Groo
he is most famous for his marginal illustrations and wordless strips in Mad. In 1970,
he befriended Mark Evanier, then an assistant to Jack Kirby and now a successful
TV and comic book writer. Aragonés’s initial sketches for Groo date back to the
mid-1970s, but at that time no company was willing to publish the character unless
Aragonés agreed to give them ownership of it. Aragonés thus left Groo in the drawer
until 1981, when Evanier asked Aragonés to contribute to Destroyer Duck #1, a comic
book published by the independent company Eclipse Comics as a benefi t for Steve
Gerber’s lawsuit over Howard the Duck. Aragonés off ered Evanier any of his unpub-
lished material, and Evanier chose to publish the fi rst Groo story. Destroyer Duck ’s
success helped show that independent creator-owned comic books were commer-
cially viable, and fan reaction to the Groo story was positive enough that Aragonés
felt there was a market for the character. Lacking confi dence in his English, Aragonés
hired Evanier to write dialogue for future Groo stories, an arrangement that contin-
ues today. Th e fi rst full-length Groo comics were published by another independent
company, Pacifi c Comics. Pacifi c soon went bankrupt, but the creator-owned concept
was now popular enough that Marvel Comics established a creator-owned imprint,
