Matt Wagner Profile

Pennsylvania-born artist Matt Wagner is a true maverick of the comic book world.

Early on in his career, while working on both Mage and Grendel for Comico, he chose to leave his art school studies to become a full time artist. I’ve always felt that it’s his self-assuredness that allowed him to make that leap and it’s this core of his persona that has continued to make him the ground-breaking creator that he is today.

The introduction of Grendel in Comico’s 1982 Primer series joined what was, at the time, a sea of black and white independent comics that were washing up in the shore of many a consumer.
The ‘origin story’ collected in ‘Devil by the Deed’ is a narrated tale accompanied y gorgeously painted panels leading up to the cataclysmic battle between the articulate and dashing Grendel (aka Hunter Rose in this first story) and the cursed beat Silverback, a kind of werewolf that works with the police.

I doubt many knew what to make of the story at the time as it followed the adventures of a self-made man who chose to be a socialite novelist by day and cruel mobster by night.

Grendel was such a unique creation that at first glance it appears to be a knock-off.

The reader quickly sees the comparisons to Batman’s origin and ignores the strokes of inspiration that would develop over time into a full blown miniature franchise that is still running to this day.

Mage: The Hero Discovered was Wagner’s auto-biographical masterpiece of sorts. A series lovingly produced with Rich Rankin on painted colors, Mage was a triumph. The storyline concerning a quartet of societal drop-outs dueling with the forces of darkness was so unusual that it made sense in the end when we found out that our hero, the slump-shouldered Kevin Matchstick, was the reincarnation of King Arthur.

I broke my teeth in reading independent comics on Mage as a teenager. Almost impossible to find in my town, I had to hunt issues down at conventions in the city and obscure comic shops in nearby towns. It wasn’t until later that I read Wagner was writing a comic book mirror to his real life. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw pictures from his wedding and there was Sean, the ghost, as Matt’s best man!

A terrific series, it was also a chance for Matt Wagner to grow as an artist. It begins awkwardly, but by the end of the 5th issue you can already see a gigantic improvement in page composition and line work. By issue 8, it’s a completely different comic as Wagner trues out tricks with perspective, visual effects and movement. By the time issue 15 is in your hands, you are looking at a matured artist eagerly awaiting his next project.

And what a doozy it was!

My buddy Sean and I used to joke about how difficult it was to explain what the Grendel series was about. It certainly wasn’t as easy as ‘there’s this dude who has a sword that kills people. It usually involved a long sit down.

A non-traditional comic book series, the author cruelly tricks us into thinking that it is a straight-forward sequel to Devil by the Deed reprinted shortly before this new series was released. But it’s something far more complex.

Wagner decided on a different attack this time around (compared to his one man show with Mage) and recruited artists that he was now meeting on the convention trail.

The Pander Brothers lend a hand for the thrilling and very underrated (mainly because I used to hate it) first 12 issues collectively known as ‘the Devil’s Legacy.’

The experiment that Wagner and the Pander Bros. try here is truly thrilling. The series opens with a nearly Jetsons-esque future of flying cars, pastels and best selling Novelist and survivor of the initial Grendel tale of Hunter Rose, Christine Spar’s dating troubles. Yet by the time it reaches issue 8 the art has transformed into a dark and disturbing metropolis of crooked cops with lie-detector eyes and a deranged Christine Spar dressed in a stolen Grendel mask on the hunt for her blood nemesis, Silverback.

The next four issues known as ‘the Devil Inside’ ( still a personal fave of mine) features Spar’s boyfriend Brian Li Sung going over the edge thinking that he has somehow inherited the mantle of Grendel from his deceased lover, Spar.

Li Sung is driven insane when Detective Inspector Wiggins investigates Spar’s death and connection to the recently resurfaced Grendel. Artist Bernie Mireault’s arts is absolutely stunning, disjointed and disturbing throughout, creating an unforgettable chapter in the Grendel mythos that on first glance is just a stop-over but is in actuality a lesson in the cycle of violence.

The series then jumped forward several years, following the aging Detective Wiggins as he watches the world around him turn more and more into a reflection of the insanity and violence that he used to see inhabited in the Grendel persona. It is this key set of issues (loving illustrated by Hannibal King) that set the groundwork for the rest of the series.

The ‘incubation years’ go one to jump even further in time, showing a world on the verge of extinction, struggling to survive in a futuristic wasteland.

Artist team JK Snyder III and Jay Geldof joined Wagner in presenting the finished product of the years of social decay with a Eppy Thatcher’s tale of mayhem and anarchy called ‘God and the Devil.’ The series had further developed both stylistically and thematically to include a runner strip at the bottom of the page featuring darkly comedic exploits of a duo of plumbers while Eppy Thatcher gummed up the plans of the evil Pope Innocent XLII.

One of the most inspired and imaginative eras of the Grendel mythos, God and the Devil also confused me into wondering why I had never heard of John K. Snyder III or Jay Geldoff before. This was part of Wagner’s plan. By working with relatively unknown artists, his collaborators would gain street cred and a kind of professional rep that would allow them to further their career.

This ’street cred’ plan certainly paid off for the next collaborator of ‘Devil’s Reign,’ Tim Sale. The final Grendel storyline for Comico before it disappeared into bankruptcy, Devil’s Reign follows the rise of Orion Assante into a kind of Caesar of Grendels. After the destruction and confusion of the previous chapter’s duel between the Pope and Eppy Thatcher, Assante introduces order and turns a force for destruction and chaos into the base of an empire.

Orion Assante uses the Grendel symbol as the basis of a new government that rises from the ashes of the past into the birth of a new tomorrow. An ambitious and unusual tale, the Devil’s Reign chapter also introduced readers to Tim Sale, who they would be seeing more from in later years (Superman for All Seasons, Batman: The Long Halloween, Hulk: Grey, Daredevil: Yellow).
It would be 14 years before Matt Wagner revisited Grendel with the new series from Dark Horse Comics called ‘War Child’ with Pat McEown.

A veritable action epic that races across a new futuristic world that has come after the death of Orion Assante, War Child is the blockbuster movie of the Grendel franchise.

Full of explosions, laser swords, political coups, a super robot version of Grendel and monstrous vampires, War Child is a thrilling tale that is a little out of place when looked at in the context of Eppy Thatcher and Brian Li Sung. This was a Grendel story for the 90’s that presented a kick ass action hero as the lead and even featured covers by Simon Bisley.

It also spawned the new series Devil Tales.

Devil Tales once again brought forward Wagner’s plan to work with up and coming talent to present the best stories while at the same time giving the creators a chance to earn their street cred.

It’s interesting to note here that not a single artist missed an issue while working with Wagner. When you look at modern comics by DC and Marvel you will not see this as the case. I’m not sure what kind of power Wagner had over his collaborators, but it certainly worked!

From Terry Le Ban to Edwin Biukovic to Steve Lieber to Teddy Kristiansen, Grendel Tales was the first chance for many readers to witness the artistic stylings of these amazing artists. The stories themselves are strange in some cases (Rob Walton’s God’s Hammer) and touching in others (such as Homecoming).

One story in particular that I enjoyed was the six part story Devils and Deaths by Darko Macan and Edwin Biukovic (also artist of Peter Milligan’s Human Target). The almost global war zone created in the Grendel series was horrific enough, but to have it drawn by a native Serbian a few city blocks away from real warfare added a level of importance to the work.

For 5 years and 60 issues, Matt Wagner chronicled the adventures of Wesley Dodds, at DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint with the original Sandman in Sandman Mystery Theatre. Artist Guy Davis carefully sculpted a vision of urban sprawl that is so stunning and visceral that it clings to the reader. The series developed not just the career of the Sandman but also functioned as a sophisticated period piece of Americana.
Quiet and meek Wesley Dodds has nightmares that will not let him free. He sees people in pain, murder, and torture. Only by entering the night as the Sandman, concealed under the very gas mask he wore as a soldier can he confront the monsters that stalk the city and end their reign of terror. Tell tale poems litter the bodies of his victims like flags of victory and warning signs to those who would dare to harm another under the Sandman’s watch.

Featuring hate crimes, crimes of passion and even crimes on a grand scale a la super criminals of the later super hero age, the series was a triumph of storytelling that single-handedly re-established the early age of the mystery man in DC Comics Universe.

In 1995, Wagner collaborated with Neil Gaiman, author of his own revision of the Jack Kirby super hero Sandman in Sandman Midnite Theatre, featuring a unique meeting of the two characters.

In 1996, Matt Wagner contributed a short story for the Batman: Black & White series called ‘Heist.’ It was here that he caught the DC Comics ‘bug’ that lead to the 2003 series ‘Trinity.’

Trinity followed the initial meeting of the trio of DC Comics’ strongest iconic characters Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman. Set roughly 1 and a half years into the careers of both Superman and Batman, it was a chance for Wagner to work with the big three of DC Comics in large scale. All of the pages are large scale and as iconic as the characters themselves.

In 2006, Wagner continued his DC Year 1.5 concept with Batman ‘Dark Moon Rising’ in the mini series ‘The Monster Men’ and ‘The Mad Monk.’ Set in the early years of Batman’s career, Dark Moon Rising sees a very different version of the Dark Knight Detective (he even has a steady girlfriend!).

Set against a corrupt Gotham police force, the blood-hungry mob and the creations of mad scientists, this is a fun and inventive series that has not been done since the 40’s Batman comics that the series emulates.
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Wagner’s first comic creation, Grendel. To celebrate, Dark Horse Comics is finally releasing the earliest (and long out of print) black and white Grendel stories from Comico Primer and Grendel 1-3 (1983).

It’s clear that Wagner is still busy exploring new opportunities, but he is not afraid to revisit old ideas.Despite the length of this post (possibly my longest) I’ve only touched upon Wagner’s professional work.

With his Batman series still coming out , and another chapter in the life of Kevin Matchstick (rumored to be called ‘the Hero Denied’) in the works, one can never be too sure what he will do next.

As a reader of his work, he makes my life easy. I just open up his books and smile.

Thanks, Matt.

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