A MIXED RECEPTION

DC Comics’ Beowulf Dragon Slayer

Beowulf Dragon Slayer May 1975 – March 1976

(6 issues only)

Michael Uslan (writer)

Ricardo Villamonte (artist)

The story begins with the Geat champion making his way to Castle Hrothgar in ‘Daneland’ to fight the monster Grendel…

…meets the ‘Lost Tribe of Israel’….

…human-hunting aliens and…

…the lost city of Atlantis.

…Ulysses and his Achaean warriors…

He is sucked through a dimensional gateway…

But a detour to the Underworld sees Beowulf rescue a Scylfing Amazon (Nan-Zee).

…and then Satan, for control of the fiery realm.

…Grendel is forced to battle Dracula…

 

Originally enthroned as Satan’s heir…

 

A secondary plot has Grendel vying for sovereignty over Hell…  

So…

Dreadful! Simply dreadful! I have to

unfriend him…

Tolkien contemplates flaming Michael Uslan on Facebook…

But… there are some surprising resonances between the two texts…

NOWELL CODEX (C. 1000 CE) ‘Life of Saint Christopher’ ‘Wonders of the East’ ‘Epist. Alexander to Aristotle’ ‘Judith’ ‘Beowulf’ Common Theme: Monsters Orchard (2003) Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript (Toronto: UTP)

Wyrd

Bishop (2008) ‘Fate, virtue and the metaphysical winter in the poetry of Wessex’ in The Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Vol. 4. Bishop (2004) ‘Wésten: the birth of The Waste Land’ in Between Intrusions: Britain and Ireland Between the Romans and the Normans, Sydney Series in Celtic Studies 7.

Cotton Gnomics, ll. 4–5 þrymmas syndan Cristes myccle wyrd byð swiðost

The powers of Christ are great — [but] wyrd is strongest

Malcolm Godden: byð implies future tense, thus ‘fate will be strongest’

Godden (2003) ‘The Millennium, Time, and History for the Anglo-Saxons’ in Landes, Gow and van Meter (Eds) The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change (Oxford: OUP)

Ælfric (c.955 – c.1010)

forðan ðe gewyrd nis nan ðing buton leas wena ne nan ðing soðlice be gewyrde ne gewyrð ac ealle ðing þurh Godes dom beoð geendebyrde

For wyrd is nothing but lying fancy! Nothing truly happens through wyrd, but all things are ordered according to the will of God

‘Epiphania Domini’ in Sermones Catholici

 

Nan-Zee

Nancy Uslan

Female Audience

Competition with Marvel’s ‘Red Sonja’

Red Sonja takes a barista to task for a poorly pulled ristretto…

Nan-Zee… More than a love interest, a cipher for heteronormative behaviour.

Bishop (2006) ‘Ambiguous eroticism in The Exeter Book’ in JAEMA, Vol. 2. Bishop (2005) ‘The erotic poetry of The Exeter Book’ in JAEMA, Vol. 1.

The Comics Code Authority  

Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent (1954)

The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency

‘No sex perversion or portrayal of sexual abnormalities’

Popularity of ‘Beowulf Dragon Slayer’

Post-war comics as platforms for advertising

Silver Age format—36 pages (18 story, 16 advertising)

3 types of advertising (In-House, Adult, Child)

Beowulf Issue #1—5 pages in-house, 5 ½ adult, 5 ½ child Issue #5—7 ½ pages in-house, ½ adult, 8 child  

Popularity of ‘Beowulf’ v  Survives in a single non-descript edition v  Placed at the end of the Nowell Codex v  No later recensions survive or are attested to v  No extant continental source known or attested to v  No Norse corollary v  No historical representation of any part of the story v  No representation in art of any aspect of the legend v  Single place-name attested  

Bishop (2007) ‘The lost literature of England: Text and Transmission in Tenth-Century Wessex’ in Bishop (Ed.) Text and Transmission in Medieval Europe (Newcastle: CSP)

A MIXED RECEPTION

DC Comics’ Beowulf Dragon Slayer