Beowulf #2
Gareth Hinds
Reviewed by Darren Hicks

Now, how am I supposed to critique a pre-8th Century Old English epic poem? It's a fairly simple story: the hall of King Hrothgar (he's either Danish or Swedish, probably the former) is raided nightly by Grendel, a half-human monster (the forefather of Mr. Hyde, the Incredible Hulk, and a host of other allegorical monsters). Hrothgar calls in Beowulf, our hero, who mortally wounds the monster. The next night, Grendel's mom rises to avenge her son. Again, a battle ensues, and Beowulf pursues her to her underwater lair where he beheads her with a magic sword. Typical sword-and-sorcery stuff, but one read in Freshman English classes around the Western World as it's one of the oldest surviving pieces of English text.

This second issue of Beowulf comes in as the climax begins. And rather than taking the Classics Illustrated approach, creator Gareth Hinds decides to forego scripting the story, instead quoting text from the original (well, the Harvard Classics translation of the original -- Old English is harder to read than it sounds) and illustrating the story alongside. This may sound counter-productive (and I could go into discussing Scott McCloud's word/picture combinations here, but I won't), but Hinds, I suspect, understands something: that no matter how attractive the script (lettered masterfully by Leslie Siddeley), it's still a translation of an Old English narrative and is, thus, at least to some degree impenetrable. The text, in and of itself, is about as fun to read as it was when I started University. This isn't to say it isn't a good story -- in fact it's the archetype of the heroic epic -- it's just that the words tend to get in the way of the story (dissect that paradox as you will). Hinds manages to make up for this with his art.

His draftmanship, itself, is pretty good. Hinds is neither flashy nor overly simplistic, and he follows the various traditions set up in heroic comics storytelling. It's blocky and fat but not clumsy. There's a lot of Buscema (more John than Sal) influence, and an inkling of Vess. It's a mix that works for Hinds. I couldn't tell you if his costuming is authentic (and there really isn't any way to tell when the story was supposed to have taken place, so it's kind of moot), but it's servicable. And his panel composition is clean and attractive. What's impressive and original about this issue of Beowulf is that Hinds chose to ink and paint it on, variously, planks of birch plywood and maple. The paint itself is acrylic, which, in single layers, is anything but opaque. As a result, the grain of the wood shows through the paint. But not intrusively so. Rather, the waves of grain have two effects on the reading: the first is to, at times, give it a feel of parchment which, like the original Beowulf, has survived the millennia. Alternately, the grain tends to give a somnambulant feel to the story, of waves of light and darkness washing over the scenes (and across multiple panels), diminishing their immediate realism. This second effect is especially noteworthy in the underwater scenes, where the rippling of the grain fortifies the atmosphere, and adds to the fluidity of movement. Where the first effect accentuates the object, the second adds an element to the story. It's a powerful mix. And while I'm not altogether certain whether Hinds intended this effect, it's not something that should be overlooked.

Hinds' greatest problem, perhaps, is the very fact that he chose not to convert the original text into the sequential dialogue, instead, as I say, opting for direct quotation. One finds it difficult to concentrate on both elements sychronously. The story reads best when, for the central 15 pages, Hinds foregoes the inclusion of text, and simply pantomimes the climax. It reads fluidly (despite Hinds' somewhat hectic panel layouts), not relying on that delay as our minds translates text to story. Further, despite that half of these 15 pages compose a fight scene, Hinds' visual storytelling remains fluid, accentuating the fact that part of this episode does, indeed, take place underwater.

Hinds' vision is seriously noteworthy -- not only for artistic reasons (though certainly those, too), but for attempting to broaden the scope of self-publishing in particular and comics in general. Hinds' adaptation of a classic text is not dry -- it is, in fact, inspirational. I don't expect creators to now scramble to their local lumberyards, but a book like Hinds' wakes the eye -- and mind -- a little more to the potential of the medium.

Beowulf is available through Previews, but for back-issues you can contact Hinds at Gareth@thecomic.com, or visit his website, www.thecomic.com for a cornucopia of offerings. Issue #2 sells for $4.50, easily a worthwhile price.