Markley’s Fevered Brain: Epic!

Wayne Markley

Wayne Markley


by Wayne Markley

It is no secret that I am a big fan of Marvel’s Epic collections, and I truly hope they stick with them and reprint their entire (well, most of) library over time. My only real complaint is the volumes are not printed in order so you get stories from the 1960s one volume and the 1990s in the next volume. But alas, Marvel Epic collections are not what I am going to write about today. Surprise! I am going to write about three epic story lines that are not a single issue or even an event such as Marvel’s Secret Wars or DC’s Doomsday Clock. These are stories that, over time, tell a larger story. Any single issue may not have any importance to the big picture, but all of the stories together tell an amazing tale. Sort of a like literary jigsaws puzzle. All three of these stories take place over a period of time of at least 20 years of publication and all of these stories are available in reasonably priced collections. Strangely, two of these epics are from Dark Horse Comics and the third is from Fantagraphics. What are these three stories? Well they are Matt Wagner’s Grendel, Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus and Don Rosa’s Uncle Scrooge.

Grendel Omnibus Vol. 1

Grendel Omnibus Vol. 1


Grendel was first published by Comico back in 1982 in Comico Primer #2 and it was followed by a three issues miniseries. The story of Hunter Rose (the first Grendel) also ran as a back up in the pages of Mage. Then there was a second Grendel series that ran 40 issues all written by Wagner and drawn by a variety of artists, including the Pander Brothers, Jay Geldhof, Bernie Mireault, Tim Sale, John K Snyder III, Patrick McEown, and others. What I find so interesting about this series is it started out about a young punk who wanted to be a crime boss and how he adopted the identity of Grendel. The name and costume would develop over time the Grendel becoming different people, and eventually becoming a political movement and even a religion. When I went back and re-read all of the Grendel stories in the easy to read Grendel Omnibuses from Dark Horse Comics, it is amazing how Wagner’s vision of the concept of Grendel grew and evolved. This rivals the greatest science fiction or fantasy words you may have read in your favorite novels. It reminds me of Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil, with all of the different layers and hidden gems throughout the story. There are four omnibuses collecting all of the Grendel comics, and each omnibus is full color (when it was appropriate, some of the stories were originally black and white) and each is over 500 pages. There are also two omnibus collections of Grendel Tales, which was a series telling tales of Grendel not written by Matt Wagner, but are still part of the Grendel cannon. These stories are not “necessary” to get the whole Grendel story, but they do add a lot to the big picture and show off how broad and well thought out Wagner’s vision is. Again these books are over 500 pages and are in full color. Finally, the most recent Grendel tale Matt Wagner wrote and drew was a Grendel/Shadow crossover set in the 1930s and it was brilliant. I also should mention there is also a collection of the Batman/Grendel miniseries that was done many years ago, also by Matt Wagner. I cannot recommend this saga highly enough if you are looking for a truly epic story.

Nexus Omnibus Vol. 1

Nexus Omnibus Vol. 1


Nexus is a long running science fiction comic created by the duo or Mike Baron and Steve Rude. It was originally done as a black and white magazine and then a color comic by Capital Comics, a subsidiary of my old employers, Capital City Distribution. From CD they moved Nexus to First Comics where it flourished for many years before ending up at Dark Horse. Nexus has gone through a number of formats and incarnations over the years, with the most current being a mail order tabloid (similar to the classic Sundays pages from the ‘30s and ‘40s) but the two constants have always been Mike Baron’s writing and it being a great science fiction story with complex characters and well draw out worlds. Steve Rude has drawn most of the stories but there are arcs were other artists took over for periods of time, including Mark Heike, Adam Hughes, John K Syder III, Paul Smith, and others. The basic story revolves around Horatio Hellpop who, as Nexus, is tasked with the job of executing the galaxy’s worst mass murderers by an alien known as the Merk. Nexus lives on a planet called Ylum, where a lot of the stories take place, and is surrounded by a bizarre and entertaining circle of family and friends and, of course, enemies. The stories consist of traditional science fiction elements mixed with humor, politics, ethical dilemmas, and romance. It easy to get lost in the beautiful art in Nexus but the stories are as much, if not more, of the driving force behind the charm of this series. As with all of these series here, this is a vast and sprawling tale that covers the entire universe, including Earth and so much more. Part of the reason I enjoy this series so much is it is as much soap opera as it is science fiction and the stories just suck you in. Dark Horse has released eight omnibuses reprinting all of the Nexus material out so far (except for the tabloid editions which have not been collected yet) including all of the various crossovers Nexus has had over the years, as well as all of the miniseries and short stories. Each omnibus is full color and runs almost 500 pages each so you are looking at close to 4000 pages of adventure if you are willing to give this series a try. I would highly recommend that you do as I would argue it is the best science fiction ever done in comics, and as I mentioned, the art is mesmerizing.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library Vol. 8

Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library Vol. 8


Uncle Scrooge is known worldwide for his appearances in comic books, books, and cartoons, and to this day he has one of the best selling comics in the world (outside of America where he cannot seem to find an audience). He was created by the legendary Carl Barks, but I often argue that Bark’s successor, Don Rosa, is as good as Barks was. While Barks told amazing stories, they were just stories done each month to fill a commitment. Rosa went back and took all of Barks’ stories and treats them like gospel, and then creates new stories that pay homage to Barks’ while at the same time creating a world and timeline of Uncle Scrooge that I doubt Barks’ ever imagined. Rosa has gone and pieced together Barks’ stories as the blueprint for the complete life and times of Scrooge McDuck, from his earliest days in Scotland to being the richest duck in the world. So far Fantagraphics has released eight full color hardcover collections of all of Don Rosa’s Scrooge (and other ducks) material in the sequence they were fist published. These are called the Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library. There are two more volumes of these series to get into print all of Rosa’s work, a fair amount which has never been released in America, particularly in the later volumes. I love these books because of all of the reasons you would like Uncle Scrooge; the humor, historical accuracy, the character interactions, great storytelling for all ages, and so much more. But Rosa’a stories are packed with little gems that are both entertaining and are paying homage to Barks. Thankfully each volume has pages of notes from Rosa explaining where each of this little Easter Eggs are. Even the hardest core Duck fans such as myself miss little things he throws in, such as a series of coins that have Scrooge on them from a different time period of his life with the date of the picture on the coin. Or there is a whole sequence of a cat chasing a mouse in the background of a story filled with mayhem and destruction. Rosa also tells the full biography of Scrooge over these volumes using the Barks’ stories as framework while fleshing out the details in his own stories. A couple of examples of this are in the newest volume (#8) where two of the stories are how Huey, Dewey, and Lewie became Junior Woodchucks (the story draws from a number of Barks’ tales), or another story explains how Gladstone Gandor got so darn lucky (and why Donald hates him so.) Once again, Rosa has taken the world of Scrooge and family and made an epic tale of it as Scrooge starts as a child in Scotland and travels the world, high and low, having some of the greatest adventures in comics (as told by Barks or in sequels by Rosa) with occasional short humor stories thrown in to give the reader a biography and adventure unrivaled in modern fiction, on par with Homer’s Odyssey or the epic Finnish poem Kalevala.

This wraps it up for this time. What I enjoyed and find so fascinating is how a single creator’s vision of a character can (with contributions from others in the case of Grendel) be so well thought out that they are able to create a world for their characters that are so fully fleshed out over time tha,t as you read their work,you feel it is real as there is a logic and law of reality to their worlds that you forget that you are reading a comic and feel as if you are in their world. In the case of Grendel, this covers 4000 years, and in Scrooge it covers just Scrooge’s life time, yet every detail in all three of these epics are perfect and you will notice something from the first issue having relevance in a story 20 plus years later. These stories are not something you sit down on a wintery afternoon for a read, these books are a major investment of your time, but I think it is well worth it as you will find yourself transported to three very different worlds, filled with action, adventure, and humor.

Have you read any of these books? If so, what do you think? Are they as epic as I think? I recently was part of a long Facebook discussion about the virtues of Nexus, and it was a lively discussion and despite all the different opinions there were, everybody agreed the big picture it told was amazing. Speaking of Facebook, I can be found there at Wayne Markley or I can be contacted directly at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. Not everyone agrees with me, and that may include the employees of Westfield Comics, and everything I have written here is my opinion and does not reflect what they may think of these books. I hope you have enjoyed and as always…

Thank you.

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