If you missed the last one…
Beowulf Dragonslayer #2 (June-July 1975) offered us a glimpse into the creation of the comic with “The Source of the Saga” by Michael Uslan. In this one page text piece, the writer outlines some of the creative decisions as well as elements that influenced those decisions. He credits John Onoda with the initial designs before Ricardo Villamonte takes over. (The editor apologizes for saying last issue that Villamonte was from Bolivia when he was from Peru.) Uslan talks color choices, making sure Grendel didn’t look like Swamp Thing rising from the ooze. The writer also points to John Gardner’s Grendel as a source for his relationship with Satan. William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies supplies us with Grendel’s manner of speaking.
Of Beowulf himself, the team worked hard to make him savage but relatable, mixing brute barbarism with some Errol Flynn style banter. He was originally going to be blond but Liz Safian, the colorist, arrived at the red hair. Uslan points out that 1975 required that there be positive and important females in the comic, and thus Nan-Zee (named after Uslan’s wife, Nancy.) He wanted her to be a counterpoint to Beowulf, able with a sword or dealing with magic.
The last character he talks about is “The Shaper”, that troublesome wizard who shows up and talks in riddles. This character was inspired by DC’s famous Batman villain, The Joker, the Emcee from Cabaret and Puck from Shakespeare. His enigmatic alliances are left open. Is he good or bad or neither?
Let’s get back to Beowulf and his companions. Last time, they had been sent into an illusion by Unferth, the jealous warrior…
Beowulf and his three brave companions battle the lizard monsters. Nan-zee suddenly tells them to stop fighting. The men think her crazy. But Beowulf trusts her…
While our heroes are sinking in the mud, Grendel argues with his mother. (Unlike the poem, she is not more fierce than him, but a werewolf-looking thing that cowers.) Grendel wants to know why he was born. She explains the source of all monsters. Satan sends Grendel back to Hrothgar’s hall.
Beowulf and friends swim in the mire then find themselves in….Hell!
To enter the fiery realm they must pass Satan’s watchdog (Not Cerberus but Medulus). Beowulf doesn’t use a sword on the beast but his helmet. (You know you wanted to see that!)
Nan-Zee finds Beowulf’s prowess little more than savagery. Beowulf explains his behavior as necessary in a world filled with evil and enemies. Nan-Zee promises to show him strength without barbarity. (They sneak off behind the bushes while Hondscio and Wiglaf go to sleep on the hard ground.)
We cut to Hrothgar and his queen waiting for Beowulf to show up. The king turns to the wizard, Shaper, for information. He gets a riddle, of course. Unferth is ready to kill him if necessary.
Satan sends one of his maidens against the crew. Nan-Zee proves her mettle again, knowing the secret to being a hell maiden since she had been one only last issue. (Uslan has fun with his sorcerous language, which is ordinary phrases written in reverse. As the hell maid dies she says “Tennis Anyone?” Backwards, of course.)
Having defeated the fiery woman, a horde of troll-demons comes. The warriors bravely fight but they have bigger worries… a dragon. This is the scene from the comic’s cover but it only last for two frames. Beowulf cuts off its head, then–
— They find themselves before Stan himself.
Beowulf demands Satan explain himself. The lord of the underworld admits he is bored. He set Grendel (who is probably his son, since he “knew” his mother) to destroy Hrothgar’s castle and people. Beowulf is one of his toys. Beowulf has his own thoughts on that! Satan sends Beowulf on a quest: to drink the venom of the Black Viper in the Darklands, to drink the Ambrosia of the East, and eat the Zumak fruit. If he does these things, he can defeat Grendel. (Maybe we will get some arm-pulling yet?)
While Beowulf is getting his mission, Grendel sneaks back into Hrothgar’s castle and kills a guard.
Satan sends Beowulf and friends back to the real world, to Hrothgar’s castle. They find the guard Grendel killed but not the monster.
Grendel chooses “the better part of valor”…
Bewoulf and friends meet the rulers of Heorot, King Hrothgar and his queen, Wealtheow. At dinner, Unferth taunts Beowulf about an old contest where he and Breca raced across a river. Beowulf lets his feelings be known to his accuser. (This scene is actually in the old poem. It is were we originally met Unferth, who has a very small role. Uslan has expanded him into a full-blown villain in the comic.)
Unferth is angry that Satan allowed Beowulf to leave Hell. He plans further traps and deceit. Beowulf gains another companion in the Shaper. The wizard is to lead them to the Darklands. The crazy wizard agrees with a laugh. Beowulf Dragonslayer #2 leaves us at the beginning of a dark quest.
The journey to the underworld is a typical Sword & Sorcery trope, going back to the myths of the Greeks. This time it is the Hell of Christianity though. I found it very interesting to compare this episode with some other Sword & Sorcery comics, in particular, the other DC series, Paul Levitz’s Stalker. That four issue series had Stalker sell his soul to another version of Satan and spent an issue running around Hell as well. A much earlier comics, “Journey to Chaos” also has swordsmen taking on the forces of the underworld. This imagery is part-and-parcel of heroic fantasy settings. (That’s why the game is called “Dungeons & Dragons, after all.)
This iconic image of the swordsman battling in an underground arena against fiery foes can be seen in fiction as well. J. R. R. Tolkien uses it in The Hobbit with the Dwarves being chased by goblins and again more powerfully in The Lord of the Rings. Who can forget Gandalf’s battle with the Balrog? (I chose the Brothers Hildebrandt version of this scene because it was done around the same time as the Beowulf comics. The scene from the film is much more flamboyant.)
Next time… “Man-Apes and Magic!”
