Sunday 28 February 2021

Beowulf #3, Man-Apes and Magic.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon
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Beowulf #3, DC Comics
No one likes Sword and Sorcery more than I do.

Well, all right, probably Robert E Howard, JRR Tolkien and a zillion-and-one other people like Sword and Sorcery more than I do.

I did, however, as a youth, have enough fondness for the field to buy the occasional comic, of that genre, that didn't have the word "Conan" in the title.

Beowulf #3 was one of those.

I must confess that, at the time, I was a little bewildered by it, as it didn't feel anything like I'd expect a comic about that hero to be. Nor did his attire look how I'd always assumed it would.

But, now, all these years later, will I dig it, by Crom?

We kick off with the hero and his gang on a ship being attacked by a big octopus thingie. Happily, that octopus thingie promptly explodes like a balloon when Beowulf hits it with his big, spikey mace.

If only all octopus thingies were so easily thwarted.

In the aftermath of this, we discover that, as well as Beowulf's gang being on board, he also has an untrustworthy companion called Unferth who's clearly to Beowulf's mission what Doctor Zachary Smith was to the Robinson family's.

Beowulf, you see, is on a quest to drink the venom of the Black Viper which, in combination with the Ambrosia of the Zumak, will give him the strength he needs to defeat the dastardly Grendel.

Beowulf #3, Nan-Zee vs pygmies
This quest now brings our hero to an island, with a skull-shaped mountain, populated by potentially hostile pygmies.

Showing no inclination to act like a traditional barbarian hero, Beowulf tries to befriend them but they're having none of it, as they worship the Black Viper, and their king thinks its powers are what's keeping him alive and healthy. They are, therefore, reluctant to let him kill it.

The misunderstanding amicably sorted out by a quick fight with a giant pygmy and a hefty dose of cheating, Beowulf goes to the cave where the Black Viper lives and, with his bare hands, murders it before drinking its venom.

That's that job sorted. Now to try and find some Ambrosia.

Beowulf #3, The Black Viper
Plotwise, it's very basic, Beowulf and his gang simply go from place to place and fight whatever menace meets them there, usually defeating it with no huge effort on the hero's part. Even the Black Viper which is meant to be the tale's main menace is slaughtered within a few panels, with seemingly little peril to the protagonist.

The story's real strength is its art by Ricardo Villamonte, which is refreshingly uncluttered, using no elements that aren't necessary, but is filled with elegance and style, throughout.

Writer Michael Uslan, meanwhile, may have produced an unimaginative and linear plot but at least he does inject proceedings with a humour that's often lacking in such tales. Although, having Beowulf's resident sorcerer The Shaper invoke the name of Harry Houdini, at one point, does seem a little strange.

Beowulf #3, The Shaper calls on Harry Houdini
In fact, this is possibly the strip's real flaw, in that Uslan seems to be finding it seriously hard to be serious, to a degree that it could be argued fatally robs all proceedings of tension.

There's also the question of Uslan's method for naming characters. Clearly, he's a lover of simply getting modern names and making them sound, "exotic."

So it is that we get the likes of Nan-Zee and Will-Zon. I'm willing to put my neck on the line, right now, and say that Nancy and Wilson are not good names for characters in a Scandinavian epic.

In terms of feel, before one opens the book, one might expect a hefty dose of Conanocity but, in fact, it feels more like a mash-up of Killraven and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Indeed, the giant octopus fight at the start does bring to mind a similar battle at sea that Don McGregor and Craig Russell once gave us in that Martian-happy strip.

But there is one mystery.

Why's the story called Man-Apes and Magic when there are barely any signs of man-apes in it? Clearly, someone in the story-titling department was far too keen on simians, for his own good.

Beowulf #3, Skull Mountain

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

"If a story isn't complicated enough, throw in a gorilla" - or man-ape!

Steve - In those days, giant octopuses (octopi?) were a staple - 'Warlords of Atlantis' had one (1978), & (in 1977), so did the original Captain Britain, before his showdown with Slaymaster (SSM & CB # 247).

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Skull island - reminiscent of Kong? Free associating...

Phillip

Steve W. said...

Phillip, it's very disappointing that the titular man-apes only get about two panels, both in a one-page sub-plot, and have no relevance to anything that happens. If I'd bought the comic expecting man-ape action, I'd have been feeling very cheated.

Anonymous said...

Steve - The fact that Skull Island is referenced makes it even worse. You were expecting one hell of a man-ape!

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Beowulf was from Daneland, Steve, which I guess most readers would think of as Denmark but of course the Danes were spread further afield in the (so-called) dark ages - perhaps our hero was a Yorkshireman!

Not that it would have made much difference to the comic, which had such a disregard for even rudimentary history and geography (and for that matter logic) that the issue I tried back in the day - #4 - was set in a desert, with Beowulf caught up in a battle between one of the lost tribes of Israel and the Wallachian army of Vlad the Impaler. Which ends -
SPOILER ALERT
- with Vlad's death, only for Satan to bring him back to life. Yep, it was the origin of Dracula.

Add a bit of cannibalism, and basically you'd have an Atlas comic.
One of the better ones to be fair. More Wulf than Iron-Jaw.

-sean



Killdumpster said...

Though I have a large fantasy-adventure section in my movie, and read most of Robert E. Howard's books, I'd only pickup sword-and-sorcery comics if there were no "capes" on the magazine racks. Always Conan, Kull, and especially Red Sonja, but never any DC titles. I seemed to enjoy the Atlas/Seaboard books more than their titles.

Anonymous said...

Steve, I enjoy these deep dives you do into obscure D.C. comics. It keeps us, the readers, off-balance a little bit. Particularly those of us who's grip on reality is tenuous at best.
Who knows what might be comin' down the pike at SDC!
You mentioned octopuses (yeah, I also always thought the correct term for the plural was octopi, but apparently it ain't) and they do show up a lot in sword-and sorcery and horror stories.
But has one ever actually eaten somebody? My exhaustive research on this very subject hasn't come up with jack s#!t.
The largest species, the Giant Pacific Octopus, weighs around 30 pounds and has an arm span of 14 feet at the most.
It ain't gonna eat you, but I don't recommend pissing it off.
On the other hand, somebody once reported seeing or catching one that weighed 300 pounds and had an arm span of over 30 feet.
If that's true, I assume that person has gone completely insane, and is now in the care of mental health professionals.
They're giving him the help he needs.
I'm not even gonna talk about giant squids. That's a whole different ball game right there.

I agree with Sean (although not very enthusiastically) that this comic seems more like one of those aberrations Atlas Seaboard used to put out. Weird and sloppy, but no cannibalism, however.
Was Chip Goodman a secret cannibal lurking in our midst, like Hannibal Lector?

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Claw had something of an Atlas quality too M.P. Did you ever read that?
Most of those fantasy titles DC launched within the space of a few months in the mid 70s - marketed like a little line in their house ads - seemed poorly thought out: Beowulf, Claw the Unconquered, Stalker, Warlord, Kong the Untamed, Tor, and er... Justice Inc.

I guess the idea was to throw a load of sh*t and see what stuck.
Which turned out to be Warlord.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Octopuses probably turn up in fantasy and horror because as life on this planet goes they seem very alien to us. Not to freak anyone out, but apparently current scientific thinking is that they're quite intelligent...

-sean

Anonymous said...

So I've read. An intelligent species completely alien from us, right here on our planet.
And if THEY'RE weird, imagine what might be swimming around in the subterranean oceans of Europa.
Sean, I was also reminded of those off-beat titles that D.C. was flooding the market with back in the '70's. I've got an issue of Korak Son of Tarzan in my collection. In this one, he's fighting giant ants on an island somewhere.
I got a couple issues of Stalker, Justice Inc...
They have a goofy charm. Perfect reading while in a lawn chair on a summer afternoon.
Sometimes it's nice to read something where you don't gotta think very hard. I'm taxing my brain right now, with all this typing.

M.P.

Steve W. said...

Sean, I believe Beowulf is generally thought to have been from Sweden and merely travelled to Denmark for his adventures. However, my favourite theory about Beowulf is that his adventures happened on the Isle of Dogs in London.

MP, I had one issue of Korak but I can't remember anything that happened in it.

KD, DC barbarian comics were only very rarely sighted where I was, although Marvel and Atlas ones were very easy to find.

Anonymous said...

The Isle of Dogs, Steve? I suppose it was a different place before gentrification.

Beowulf was one of the Geats, who are indeed generally identified with Sweden. As to whether he could have been a Yorkie, maybe that depends on the side we take in the debate on the Geats being Goths or not.
There certainly used to be a lot of Goths in Leeds...

-sean

Colin Jones said...

The first time I ever heard of Beowulf was in a book called "Mysteries Of The Unknown" which I got for Christmas 1978. The book was divided into three sections - monsters, ghosts and UFOs. Beowulf was in the monsters section you won't be surprised to hear. The book's three sections were also available separately in softcover editions and I'd already bought the UFOs one before I got the collected edition for Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Sean - Yorkshire Goth central is Whitby!

Colin - Indeed! Mysteries of the Unknown is an absolute classic!

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Whitby? Bram Stoker picked the right place for Dracula then, Phillip

-sean

Anonymous said...

Sean - Yes, the goths gravitate to Whitby because of Dracula/Bram! Just shows how Bram taking a holiday in Whitby, Yorkshire, inspired Dracula, making him world famous. Irish literary talent, inspired by Yorkshire's sense of place/local colour - the perfect combination!

Phillip

Steve W. said...

Colin, we were taught about Beowulf in primary school. I'm not totally sure why.

Colin Jones said...

Has anybody actually read Bram Stoker's Dracula? I have and I'd say it's like the curate's egg - good in parts (and it's also way, way too long).

Best bit: the Demeter's voyage from the Black Sea to Whitby. Genuinely creepy as the crew disappears one by one.

Worst bit: the long drawn-out death of Lucy Westenra which is just interminable. In despair I wanted to scream FFS just die, woman!!

Most frustrating bit: how exactly does Jonathan Harker escape from Dracula's castle? Dracula departs for Whitby leaving Harker trapped in his castle with wolves guarding the only exit and three female vampires waiting for sundown so they can have Harker for supper - so Harker is doomed, right? Wrong! Later in the novel Harker turns up in hospital having somehow escaped without any explanation whatsoever of how he managed this seemingly impossible feat. In last year's BBC adaptation it is explained that Harker was turned into a vampire but that's not in the original novel.

But the biggest mystery of all is: why does Dracula want to come to London anyway (via the curious route of landing in Yorkshire first!)? I think he wants to relocate to a city so he can gain access to much bigger feeding grounds but surely it would be easier just to move to somewhere nearer like Prague, Vienna or Berlin.

Colin Jones said...

By the way, Sean - a few years ago Radio 4 made a documentary called "Was Dracula Irish?" which claimed that Bram Stoker took some ideas for Dracula from Irish folklore.

Anonymous said...

Any of you guys ever see The Thirteenth Warrior? European flick, a drastically altered take on the Beowulf legend, starring Antonio Bendaras, whom I've always liked. (one of my sisters likes him too, apparently, but in a different way. She once referred to him as Antonio Bare-ass. I avoid her as a general rule).
It got hysterically bad reviews, and is considered a disaster.
I love that stupid movie, and I even bought the DVD, which I almost never do.
One Arab and a Viking death squad against an army of cannibalistic Neandertals on horseback.
"Lo, I see the line of my people..."
Gosh darn it, what's not to like?!
Anybody who doesn't like that movie, there's just...I dunno, there's just something wrong with them.

M.P.

Colin Jones said...

But I also know that Bram Stoker got some of his ideas from a book called "The Land Beyond The Forest" by Emily Gerard who was Scottish but lived in Transylvania. I recall reading that the word "Nosferatu" first appears in her book but the word was apparently unknown in any of the local languages so it seems that Emily Gerard invented the word Nosferatu!

Colin Jones said...

Just to be clear, "The Land Beyond The Forest" wasn't a novel - it was a book about the customs and folklore of Transylvania (which included vampires).

I've just been watching "Blackadder Back And Forth" (on iPlayer) which I'd never seen before. Apparently it was made in 1999 to be shown in the Millennium Dome when it first opened.

Anonymous said...

Now that is interesting. I just looked that up on Wikipedia and they claim some kraut used the term in an article in an Austrian magazine in 1865. It's suggested that it may be an old Romanian term or could even have come from the ancient Greek.
Now I'm not suggesting Wikipedia is the final word on anything, the be-all end-all of knowledge. I view it with a jaundiced eye, myself.
But the word itself is so strange, by itself, I have a hard time picturing "nosferatu" springing up sui generis outta somebody's head.
It's gotta be something old and weird from Eastern Europe.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

The Thirteenth Warrior was an expensive flop at the box office M.P. - theres no accounting for the taste of the general public, is there?
Its loosely (!) based on the Volga Vikings, who did actually have a lot of contact with the east. They fought against Byzantium, but ended up as the emperor's bodyguards. Barbarians eh? If you can't beat 'em, give 'em a job instead.

Colin, why wouldn't Dracula want to go to London? Back then if was a lot bigger than any other European cities.
I think the book seems fairly boring to us because of the literary conventions of the time. Frankenstein is a similarly meandering read by modern standards too.

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Good evening Gents!

Great job as usual Steve! Nice of you to mix it up again with the non-Marvel, non-Dredd review!

Charlie has been a fan of Beowulf since his high school World Literature class.

His general recall is that Beowulf is a king/price from Sweden whose ship is hammered at sea from a storm, and he and his crew are blown into Denmark? Once there he / they helps the locals fight the dragon and the dragon's mom Grendel?

Charlie has often wondered if the poem is a metaphor for some event long lost to posterity? The dragon being Norse raiders, perhaps Grendel being the city of their origin in Sweden /Denmark and Beowulf being a courageous prince from the UK who extracts revenge on the raiders?

This is really just pure speculation on a very-tired Charlie's part after returning from a land far, far away from Chicago.

Buenas Noches Amigos!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Steve - keep these reviews coming! Like Sean, Charlie did buy a bunch of DC one-offs from the time period as well.

Charlie still has his "Justice Inc." off the spinner as Sean does!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

MP - you are most welcome Amigo!

Anonymous said...

There he is!
I take it you read my thank-you here at SDC.
Thanks again, pal.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Sean, those Gothic novels require a lotta patience from the modern reader.
Personally I prefer Frankenstein to Dracula, mostly because the latter seams to have reams of endless exposition, characters talking about this or that but only a couple times does the Count himself make an appearance.
I'm trying to get through a Gothic novel right now. Matthew Lewis' The Monk, which was deemed scandalous in it's time.
I dunno if I'm gonna get through it or not. I may have to skip to the end where the protagonist get's carried off to his doom by winged Lucifer.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I meant Colin, not Sean.
My apologies to both!
Curse my feeble, aging brain...

M.P.

Steve W. said...

Colin, I've never read Dracula but have read Frankenstein which I like.

Charlie. I've read a couple of issues of Justice Inc. I approve of it. The era and the style suit Kirby.

Sean, I agree. As far as I know, back then, London was the world's biggest city, which would make it a happy place for Drac to work in.

MP, I've not seen The Thirteenth Warrior. It certainly sounds like an experience.

Anonymous said...

Charlie - it seems like you've been absent for about a month!

Colin - I've read Dracula too. To me, it seemed quite involving, and an easy read. By modern standards it seems dated, as regards blood transfusions. The idea that any old Tom, Dick or Harry can funnel their blood into Lucy Westerna, whether they are the right blood type or not!

M.P. - I read Frankenstein a long time ago, but I seem to remember it was fairly short, and the writing had a simplistic quality - almost as if a kid had written it - and Mary Shelley was very young when she wrote it! I think the scandal surrounding 'Monk' Lewis may have been more about his personal proclivities than his writing (which is poor, in my opinion!)

As regards the Viking bodyguards in Russia - there seemed to be a thing for having foreign bodyguards. Hamlet is famous for it, with the "Switzers". In fact, the Swiss would be bodyguards for anybody. Likewise, in 'Quentin Durward', by Sir Walter Scott, the Scots acted as a bodyguard, in France, for Louis XI, the 'Spider King'. Of course, there were also the famous Gallowglasses! I think the idea was that foreign bodyguards were less likely to be corrupted/persuaded to assassinate a king, as they didn't have a stake in another country's internal politics (a dog in the fight, so to speak).

Anyway, M.P.'s the history specialist, so he'll know more than me! I'm more of a generalist, knowing a bit about everything, and a lot about nothing!

The 13th W is a movie I've intended to watch for about 20 years, but it's always either on too late, when I'm tired, or overlaps with another show, which is a sure thing.

Steve - Your learning Beowulf at primary school may have set the foundations for your being a writer today! At my primary school the smell of Berol (?)jumbo marker pens is my abiding memory - and being hit for stuff I didn't do! But, then again, that was the 70s!

Phillip



Colin Jones said...

I still think Dracula would be more likely to relocate to a city in the Austro-Hungarian empire in which he already lived (the novel is set in the 1890s).

Phil, the palaver with the blood transfusions is what I meant about Lucy Westenra's death being interminable. She gets about four different blood transfusions as I recall and it seemed never-ending! And of course, you're right about the complete lack of understanding about blood groups but Bram Stoker didn't know that at the time. But I must disagree with you about Frankenstein having a simplistic quality, "as if a kid had written it" - when I read the novel I was very impressed by it especially as Mary Shelley was only 18.

Anonymous said...

Colin - As regards Frankenstein, I think the bit at the end, describing Dr.Frankenstein's ruined grandeur - I forget the exact phrase - is very good; it also encapsulates the romantic attitude symbolized by ruined buildings, etc - various examples ( despite bring about Frankenstein, not a building!) It's not that the entire book/story itself is childish/simplistic, but I found the style of writing to be that way. I seem to remember its sentences weren't complex (not one subordinate clause inside another, inside another, as is sometimes the case, with nineteenth century novels!) Then again, Moorcock's early Elric stuff, written when he was around 21, was his best, it being written in a very simple style (although it had lots of complex symbolism, etc), being lean, getting straight to the point, and with no padding. In contrast, Moorcock's later more 'literary' stuff, written when he was older, doesn't get straight to the point; plus, it has lots of self-indulgent stuff, which could be excised from the novels. So, the simplicity of some writing can be advantageous, in some cases - 'The Catcher in the Rye' would be another example.

Oh - on the subject of foreign mercenaries, etc - there's also the Brabazons (?) from Flanders (?) in Robin of Sherwood!

Phillip

Colin Jones said...

I've just been looking at today's schedule on BBC Four and, by a bizarre coincidence, there's a programme called "The Secret Life Of Books" about Frankenstein!

Anonymous said...

Colin - At this present moment, Sean will be looking at the google books' edition of Frankenstein, looking for a complex sentence, with multiple subordinate clauses, just to prove me wrong! As regards BBC4, unfortunately my tv's malfunctioning at the moment, so it's only Blaze tv on the internet for me, tonight - whether it's garbage, or not! ;)

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Colin, London was full of central and east Europeans in the 19th century - the right-wing nutters moaned about them all the time back then too (when they weren't complaining about the Irish) - so it would be quite natural for Dracula to come here.

Besides size, the other advantage over Austro-Hungarian cities is that it was relatively peaceful - if you're stealing a British vampire's job you don't have to worry about your coffin being somewhere that could be overrun by crazy Hungarian nationalists or the Prussian army.

-sean

Anonymous said...

I did reach for my copy of Frankenstein Phillip, but - as ever - just ended up looking at the brilliant pics by the late Berni Wrightson.
Sorry to disappoint.

-sean

Anonymous said...


It’s been ages since I’ve read the two classic horror novels but I think I prefer ‘Dracula’ over ‘Frankenstein’. The latter is just a little too flowery and languidly paced for me. ‘Dracula’ is definitely flawed but overall it’s much more of a page-turning thriller. Yes, poor Lucy’s death is really drawn out, but I actually like the symbolism of all those transfusions — she practically drains all of her suitors dry (and the weird old Dutch guy too) as a preview of what she does later as the ‘Bloofer Lady’. Well, I the IDEA of it, anyway — the execution is admittedly repetitive and tedious.

As for why Dracula goes to London: I seem to recall him telling Harker something to the effect that he feels he’s stagnating in the Old World, that he needs to broaden his horizons — by implication, he’s looking for ‘New Blood’.

I gave up on ‘The Monk’ after just a few chapters. And bounced off ‘Melmoth the Wanderer’ pretty early on too.

This is how terrible the US Public School system is : I’d never even heard of Beowulf before the DC Comic came out. To this day, whenever I hear the name, Villamonte’s redheaded barbarian with the steel corset and horned-skull helmet is the image that pops into my head.

b.t.

Anonymous said...

In retrospect, DC’s short-lived ‘Adventure Line’ is something is something of a head-scratcher. Six, count ‘em, SIX Barbarian/Sword and Sorcery comics and one 1930s Pulp Hero. Marvel themselves couldn’t ever duplicate the mega-success of Conan, not even close. Kull, Thongor, Solomon Kane, Red Sonja, none of them ever lasted for more than a few issues. So why DC even bothered to try to chase those Barbarian bucks is kind of a mystery. And if we look at them one-by-one:

Claw is obviously trying to be a straight-up Conan clone. But it’s a pretty pale imitation. My favorite thing about them are the two or three Kubert covers at the tail end of the run.

Speaking of Kubert, Tor is decent. But he seemed to be reluctant to devote his full energy to producing new material at the time, and they were gonna run out of reprints pretty quick, so this one was never gonna last.

Kong The Untamed — neat Wrightson covers and nice Alcala interior art on the first few issues, but the character and the stories didn’t grab me.

Stalker — this one had potential. Instead of sticking to the usual Robert E. Howard template, it had a sort of Jack Vance vibe. Some of that comes from the quirky Ditko / Wood graphics. But the lead character is fairly unlikeable and not terribly charismatic.

I like Villamonte’s unique art style on Beowulf a lot. But yeah, the characters and stories were just a little too generic.

I think Kirby’s Justice Inc. comics are just okay. He’s clearly not trying very hard, basically running out the clock on his DC contract. I was really into the original pulp novels being reprinted at the time, and felt the comics didn’t quite capture the flavor. Plus, the 30s Pulp heroes just never really took off in the comics — Marvel’s Doc Savage comic had already bit the dust and DC’s Shadow was on its last legs at this point, so it seemed like an odd time to give the genre one more try.

The one genuine success of the Adventure Line was Mike Grell’s Warlord. But WHY that was so, I couldn’t really tell you. It’s basically ERB’s Pellucidar with lots of other boilerplate Heroic Fantasy stuff tossed in — evil wizards, a shape-shifting cat Iady, dragons, unicorns, monsters, etc etc etc. I enjoyed it, and bought it regularly for the first year or so, but was it markedly superior to Stalker, Claw, Beowulf and Co.? I guess you just never know what’s going to be a hit and what’s not.

b.t.