Grendel Tales: Devil’s Hammer

    (Dark Horse, 1994)
™ and ©1994 Matt Wagner

The Grendel Tales titles offered writers other than Grendel creator Matt Wagner a chance to work with the Grendel characters and mythology.

Devil’s Hammer finds the Grendel mythos in the hands of writer Rob Walton. In the course of its three issues, Walton spins a bleak morality play wherein a young acolyte named Petrus is physically possessed by the spirit of Grendel. In performing the exorcism, the abbot himself must come to admit the crimes he has committed in the name of preserving the church.

Reading between the lines of this allegory, Devil’s Hammer is a surprisingly sharp attack on the Catholic Church which was accused of shepherding Nazi killers to safety in the name of combating “the godless Communists” during and after World War II.
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Grendel Tales: Devil’s Hammer #1

February, 1994
Cover Price: $2.95
16 copies available from $1.75
Matt Wagner and Rob Walton painted cover by Matt Wagner and Rob Walton; Batman/Grendel (2nd Series) prequel Matt Wagner, Rob WaltonRob Walton
Grendel Tales: Devil’s Hammer #2

March, 1994
Cover Price: $2.95
14 copies available from $1.40
Matt Wanger and Rob Walton painted cover by Matt Wagner; Batman/Grendel (2nd Series) prequel Rob Walton, Matt WagnerRob Walton, Matt Wagner
Grendel Tales: Devil’s Hammer #3

April, 1994
Cover Price: $2.95
12 copies available from $1.75
Matt Wagner painted cover by Matt Wagner; Batman/Grendel (2nd Series) prequel Rob Walton, Matt WagnerRob Walton, Matt Wagner