I was going to avoid using a Preview Special cover so soon after last week’s Jaime Hernandez cover but I found this one and thought it was fitting with the news of the Batman/Grendel collection coming out late this year.
It must have been at the Chicago Comicon in 1989 or 1990 that Matt Wagner was there with the opening pages of the first Batman/Grendel crossover on display at the DC table. I remember looking through the pages and being awestruck by the minimalistic aaproach that he was taking. Don’t get me wrong; his pages were full of detail but he was using only the minimal number of lines to get that detail across.
While this cover as used on other promotional pieces when the book finally came out, this was its first appearance, with the two mythic characters squaring off. You can easily see Wagner’s minimalistic approach here, using the negative space to define more of the characters than any lines and any crosshatching. This is Wagner’s art boiled down to its essence.
It would actually be three more years before this series would be published. Shortly after this Preview issue was releases, Comico would fold and the story would spend a few years wrapped up in legal red tape. It finally saw the light of day in the summer of 1993. I clearly remember that because the first issue came out the week of my wedding and was one of the books that went on my honeymoon with us.
Technorati Tags: Matt Wagner, Grendel, Batman, Amazing Heroes
1 response so far ↓
1 del gorky // Jul 30, 2007 at 12:33 am
You must not have read Previews carefully. The limited edition hardcover will be solicited next month in an edition of 300 copies. I’m a really big fan of Grendel much like yourself and even have the old Comico hardcover collections (I fear to look at what those bindings must now look like). Don’t know if you’ve met Matt Wagner but he’s very nice. Got him to sign one of my first edition copies of Devil by the Deed.
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