Grendel, Kentucky - an Upshot Comics mini-series

Having been born and raised in Kentucky (Louisville, to be exact), I have a soft-spot when it comes to stories set in my home state.Whether it be Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers or Jane Pellew in Kentucky or Unsettled Things, or any number of other books, I can't help but pick them up.  So when I saw this new comic book series from the indy publisher AWA Studios (Upshot), Grendel, Kentucky, I knew right away that I had to have it.  As usual with mini-series, I wait until all of the issues have been published and are in my hands before I read it so that I don't have to wait month-to-month to see what happens - I can read the entire story in one sitting.  I'm honestly not sure what I expected, because quite frankly, I didn't read too much into the premise of the comic when I picked it up - the title enough was what sold it for me.  But after reading the 4-issue mini-series, all I can say is - WOW!

 

Grendel, Kentucky is touted as being a modern-day retelling of the 'Beowulf" tale, but that means little to me - I've never read 'Beowulf.' So, from page 1 of this story, everything in it was totally new to me.  Written by Jeff McComsey and illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards tell the Southern Gothic / horror tale of a small town in Kentucky that has made a deal with a devil - quite literally.  Only, Clyde Wallace tries to break that deal, and it costs him his life.  That one death sets off a chain of events that brings his prodigal daughter, Marnie, back to Grendel, Kentucky (along with her gang of biker women) and reunites her with her brother Denny and her cantankerous grandfather Randall "Pap" Wallace.  By the end of the first issue, readers learn that Clyde Wallace was not killed by a bear - and each member of the Wallace family knows it.  But what they plan to do about it is what this story is really about.

 

McComsey and Edwards build the story in a very thematic manner, with the backstory being told little by little, and the secret that Marnie has been keeping nearly all her life finally coming out just before the grand finale.  There are plenty of gruesome fight scenes, some horrific deaths, some touching scenes, and some hard-hitting, violent scenes of vengeance.  I absolutely love the relationship between Marnie and her brother, Denny, as well as her entire girl-gang biker group.  And while the setting is the backwoods of Kentucky, McComsey does not give us the standard stereotypes.  Marnie is the strong, Sigourney Weaver-type who is not afraid to face down the monster that scared her as a child - both in order to protect her home and to seek vengeance for everything the demon has taken from her.  I honestly wouldn't mind seeing more stories with her, although these four issues tell a complete story and I would not want anything to lessen the impact of this tale.

The art is dark and gritty, but so is the tale, so it works well.  Love the covers that pay homage to the old '70s movie posters!  And speaking of which, at the end of the first issue is a special treat for those who lived in Kentucky, particularly in Louisville.  McComsey and Edwards provide a one-page faux newspaper that gives an article about Clyde Wallace's death.  But that is not what I loved about it.  No, what I thoroughly enjoyed about that newspaper page were all of the movie theater ads.  It appears McComsey and/or Edwards did their research, because they included ads for ACTUAL movie theaters from back in the day - - from the Kenwood Drive-In (which was just down from where I lived!) to the New Albany Drive-In across the river, to the Preston Drive-In - plus, the South Park, Lakewood, and Parkway theaters as well! Yeah, it may be a small thing that means nothing to most people, but for this Kentucky native, that kind of attention to detail just made the entire mini-series that much more enjoyable.

This series is definitely one I would recommend for comic fans, horror fans, and Kentucky fans - a true gem!

RATING:  10 monsters up in a tree out of 10 for a horrifying tale filled with good ol' boys, tough-as-nails women, and an interesting little twist in the final two panels...