Grimjack remains one of my favorite characters/series despite the fact he hasn't had a regular series since 1991 or a new adventure since 2010. I think more about his entire life has been revealed than has about most other comic book characters who have been around for 50, 60, 70 years. Milestones in his life include...
- The Pit - He was born there and spent the first eight years of his life there.
- The Arena - He fought in the Arena from ages 8-22.
- Pdwyr - The happiest time of his life was spent in Pdwyr where he met the love of his life, Rhian.
- The Demon Wars - He fought in the Demon Wars to expel demons from the trans-dimensional city of Cynosure.
- The Law Killers - He rode with Major Lash and his band of mercenaries immediately after the Demon Wars.
- Revenge - When hew was 30 years old, he took revenge on his brothers Nick and Jake. (Joe also died.)
- TDP - After that he joined the Trans-Dimensional Police.
- Dancer's Rebellion - After he helped put down the revolt, he quit the TDP and joined Cadre.
- Cadre - Was a member of the covert team "The Gray Wolves."
- Munden's Bar - after he left Cadre, he acquired Munden's Bar and became a mercenary for hire.
All of this information was revealed in dribs and drabs over the course of 81 issues, a graphic novel, two limited series and elsewhere. Grimjack started as a back-up feature by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman in Starslayer, quickly became more popular than the lead feature and was soon granted his own series. There are many good "jumping on points" at which to begin (all of which I intend to get to presently), but I have chosen to start with The Legend of Grimjack Volume One, the collection of the early back-up features. These stories include the serialized "Mortal Gods" and "Buried Past," "Night of the Killer Bunnies" and the "crossover" with the lead feature. The conceit of these early serials is that they are stories being told by Grimjack in Munden's Bar to the reader. This motif is continued in the framing sequence of the collection, "Old Friends," which is told from the reader's point of view.
Grimjack is John Gaunt, known as "Grinner" when he fought in the arena, street name "Grimjack." He owns Munden's Bar, which is where he can usually be found. Munden's is in The Pit, the worst section of the transdimensional city of Cynosure. He was the second best fighter The Arena ever had. The best fighter, The Dancer, tried to take over the city some time ago. Grimjack fought in the Demons Wars 20 years ago. He also was a cop on the Trans-Dimensional Police force and worked for the covert action agency Cadre. He studied magic in the dimension of Pdwyr under the wizard Maethe Mathonwy, where he met Rhian, the love of his life, Maethe's daughter. Pdwyr was overrun and Rhian and her entire family were killed (for which he has never forgiven himself) when Gaunt went off to fight in the Demon Wars.
Grimjack is known for its supporting characters, and many of the most important ones are introduced in these earlier stories. Besides the ones I have already mentioned, there is Roscoe Schumacher (his former partner in the TDP), Mayfair (his boss when he was in Cadre), Blacjacmac (his friend he met in The Arena), Gordon (Munden's bartender), and Bob the Watchlizard. Also, we are introduced to many of the accoutrements we'll see throughout the seires: tourbots, the Manx Cat statuette, the Miller medallion, St. John's Knives, and so on.
Not sure where we left it," says Grimjack in the collection's framing sequence, "so we'll go back to the old stuff. the ones I told you when we first met up. Catch us up. As I recall, the first one was about the mortal gods... the damned and doomed Mortal Gods..." And we're off. "The city's real name is Cynosure. Sweet cynical Cynosure, where the multi-verse meets. Cross the street, and sometimes you've crossed a dimension! The laws of physics change from block to block. Magic works here, science over there. And then there's the Pit. that's where the dregs of cynosure congeal. I should know. I was born there." The thing I like about Grimjack is the diversity of genres; as a reader, one never knows what to expect. One story could be set in the old west...
...the next in outer space...
It's been too long since Earth-J was in phase with Cynosure. Join me, won't you?
See you in Mundens!
Replies
KILLER INSTINCT:
Killer Instinct is one of the last Grimjack stories published, yet among the earliest in the character's chonology. It covers his time working as an agent of Cadre, concentrating on one specific adventure toward the end of his tenure. the story begins at the end of the Dancer's rebellion when John Gaunt was still a member of the Trans-Dimensional Police. It is revealed that this is when his partner, Roscoe Schumacher (whom Gaunt has known since the Demon Wars), lost his eye. Gaunt resigns from the TDP at this point and is recruited into Cadre by Mayfair, when he joins a squad known as the "Gray Wolves." There is also a gator-lizard who may or may not become "Bob the watch lizard" in future stories. This story's femme fatale is Jo Chaney, a new character (although Grimjack often used the alies "Joe Chaney). Jo actually owns Munden's bar, and is Gordon's ex-wife. (All this is new information.) Grimjack acquires the bar in a scene which foreshadows (and is a call-back to) how he divested himself of Torin MacQuillon's ship, the Jolly Roger, in Starslayer #18.
Ostrander and Truman hit the ground running when they introduced Grimjack in Starslayer #10, but when you look at the original material from 1983/84 side-by-side with the new material from 2005, there really is no comparison. As editor Mike Gold put it: "A lot has changed in these past many years. Everybody involved has gotten better: John, Timothy, and I were virtual newcomers in the comics business when Grimjack was breach-born in the back pages of Starslyer. There's a real magic to that: if you're an old-time fan, look at the new pages and compare them to the original stuff. You can tell these guys have aged like fine wine. Well, maybe more like battery acid, but I don't think that stuff gets better with age."
For new readers, Killer Instinct would make an excellent "jumping on point."
THE MANX CAT:
This is the earliest chronological appearance of the Manx Cat statuette (which has been a part of Grimjack lore since his very first appearance in Starslayer #10). There is a bit of cognitive disconnect here, however, in that the statuette had always been merely a piece of bric-a-brac sought by collectors in prior/future appearances. In this story it has been redefined as something ancient, tied to the "chaotic gods." (There is a hint that something, we don't know what but something, will happen between "now" and Starslayer #10 which will rob it of its mystical powers.) This story is also the chronological first appearance of Blackjacmac's main squeeze, Goddess. In Grimjack #3 she hates John Gaunt, but she's okay with him here. A flashback tale in Grimjack #28 will explain what happened between "now" and #3 to change her mind. This story also reintroduces the Lizard-gator (briefly seen in Killer Instinct) and reveeals how he came to become "Bob the watchlizard" of Munden's bar. The femme fatale is Darlin' Lil, a new, never-before seen character. This wouldn't be as good of a "jumping on point" as Killer Instinct because it provides those three surprising "origin" stories, which would have greater effect for those familiar with the overall story. This 2010 series is the most "recent" Grimjack published to date. We are now up to the point of the original back-up stories (at least there are no other published stories which occur in the gap between The Manx Cat and Starslyer #10), if not the framing sequence (which must must occur after issue #7 at the earliest).
You may have noticed that the tpb cover of The Manx Cat is made up to look like an old, beat up book (perhaps one written by Dashiell Hammett). Those familiar with the story may have noticed that the statuette depicted on the cover looks nothing like the one in the story itself. It does, however, look like the Maltese Falcon. The first Jon Sable Freelabne story I read was the one which dealt with the theft of the famous statuette... not the "real" one (which doesn't exist), but the original movie prop, a valuable collectable in its own right. Many years ago I had the opportunity to order a Maltese Falcon prop replica but I chose not to (for whatever reason) and have regretted it ever since. after re-reading The Manx Cat, however, I decided to look online. (For what other rerason does the internet exist, after all?) I found many, ranging in price from $13 to $199. I picked one toward the more reasonable end of the spectrum and expect to have it decorating my shelf (next to my gold statuette from Raiders of the Lost Ark) soon.
VOLUME TWO:
We are now up to the beginning of the ongoing series.
The first issue of the ongoing series introduces the concept of a Trade War, a subject which will carry through the first story arc. The theme of the story is Truth, and it also is the first actual appearance (as opposed to chronological appearance) of Cynosure's finance minister, William Honesworth. Lingering in the background in the ACCE, the Alpha Centauri Commercial Empire, carried over from Starslayer.
In the second issue, Grimjack learns of illegal "bloodsport" matches being held in The Pit. Such fights have been outlawed since the Dancer became a crimelord and led ex-Arena fighters in a revolt 15 years before. (That's a key piece of information we didn't have before; the Demon Wars were 20 years ago.) By this point in the series, Grimjack's history has been laid out in broad strokes, but it's up to the reader to put it all together (as I did in the intitial post to this thread). This issue also makes the first mention of Grimjack's brother's, Nick, Jake and Joe, who he lost track of when he got thrown into the Arena. This story leads directly into the second as the man running the matches, one the Dancer's former lieutenents who calls himself Mac Cabre, is Blacjacmac's father.
The third issue is not the first appearance of Blacjac (either actual or chronological), but it is a good introduction to the character. It is, however, the first actual appearance of Blacjac's paramour, Goddess. It is rumoured that Goddess is a deity (or the daughter of a deity) back in her home dimension, but no one pushes the issue. this isn't a majot plot point (or even a plot pouint at all), but Mac Cabre's first line of defense is werewolves wearing "Santa Claus" outfits. Only in Cynosure... only in Grimjack. Mac Cabre is creating laboratory-grown mutants and is fighting them in the bloodsport matches to test them. Grimjack and Blacjac put a stop to his operation, and leave him in the laboratory just before it explodes. On a nearby rooftop stands the Dancer with his latest protégé, Katar.
#2 leads directly into #3 and the comparison between Seth and his father with Blacjac and his is obvious. The theme here is "family", and I took a lesson from these stories that I have carried with me ever since: "Friends are the family we choose."
Jim Lanyon and his wife Anna are basically John and Yoko. Poul Caedmon, Lanyon's former partner and current producer is basically Paul McCarney. Caedmon is the promoter of the return concert and it is he who hires Grimjack to follow up on the threats the Lanyons have received. They've got the right assassin, but the wrong target. This issue introduce the concept of "Battlerock." ("We made war, not music," says Grimjack.) It is left up to the reader's imagination what that might entail, but it would be made more explicit in a later issue.
"Shadow Cops" is an important story for many reasons. It introduces: PRGs (portable reality generators, back-pack sized units which project a relative functional reality around the wearer); Eternity Road (an actual paved dimensional portal that allows transportation of large amounts of goods with dimensions that are out of phase with the city); and "snowball dimensions" (ambient little rolling pocket dimensions with strange senses of reality). It is also the first actual appearance of the Shadow Cops (the TDP's answer to Cadre), Lillian Seffington (their leader), Feetus (Tom Feester, disabled veteran of the Demon Wars and a prime sourse of information for Grimjack), and last but not least, TDP bike cop Jericho Noleski.
Despite an abrasive fist meeting, Jericho becomes one of Grimjack's best firends and most trusted allies. Grimjack calls him "Mule" and Jericho calls Grimjack "City" (as in "cityboy"). Jericho owns the Dead end Station out on Eternity Road in the Badlands (possibly a dimension of its own) surrounding Cynosure. Roscoe's nephew Hubie Burke was a TDP officer out of O. & S. (ordinance and supply) and is implicated in the sale of stolen RPGs, the most effective weapon in the TDP's arsenal. The trail leads to Mayfair and Cadre, Hubie's name is cleared, and the real culprits are revealed.
In Munden's Bar: The tpb collections do not include the "Munden's Bar" back-up features, but the one from #5 tells the origin of Bob the Watchlizard, written by Tim Truman and drawn by Jow Staton, from Bob's POV. This is basically the same storu that would later be expanded upon in Killer Instinct and The Manx Cat.
VOLUME THREE:
In case you're wondering how elections work in a pan-dimensional city, #8 explains it to you. Because this issue came out in 1984, I didn't ecpect to glean any insights into the election of 2024, but I did anyway. Crayne resurfaces running a scam as sham candidate Lazlo Carpathian (based on Michael Jackson). Crayne was a supporting character in Starslayer, and was kater revealed to be the person behind the Manx Cat scheme in the first Grimjack story. We learn in this issue that Minister of Finance William Honesworth (from #1, remember?) has been relieved of his post. (Keep that in mind.)
The Psyche Column is a swirling pillar of mists, a half-mile in diameter, rising all the way to the vortex wall that encloses the pan-dimensional city of Cynosure. It reads the mental state of those who enter it and then manifests it in the surrounding physical environment. No one this side of Jack Kirby has come up with as many far-out concepts as John Ostrander. Althea Mueller is a brilliant porofessor of macrophysics at the University of Cynosure, but her body wasn't in as good a shape as her mind. She had a stroke which shut down both her body and her mind. Dr. Leslie Geraci, Mueller's partner, cloned her body in hope of reintegrating Meuller's body and mind, but due to seven months of sensory deprivation, her mind was driven deep inside itself and the reintegration didn't go as planned. Geraci then hired Grimjack to take Mueller's cloned body into the Psyche Column to facilitate the process.
Needless to say, the procedure does not go as smoothly as anticipated. Grimjack at first used mental disciplines taught to him by Maethe in order to control his own psyche, but when he loses that control, things go south. They do make it out, but just barely. Dancer, Mac Cabre and Katar are observing from afar, and Dancer alludes to his "plan" which is the basis of the first arc. Also, remember Althea Mueller; she will play a vital role in the series later on.
A trans-time merchant is supplying guns (Uzis and AK-47s) to a man in 1870s Texas (local time/place description) who intends to re-establish the Confederacy in the American Southwest. Doing so would, of course, not only affect Earth's timelines, but also invalidate certain contracts in Cynosure, which (as we have learned) might lead to a massive Trade War. He soon meets Spook, who claims to be a real spook (i.e., a ghost) back in her home dimension. She was stranded in Cynosure when her dimension slipped out of phase, and soon discovered that hwer density varies depending on where she is in the city. She became a Hardtimer because she's got the most matter when she travels back in time. But a group called the "Lawkillers" soon arrive to bounty jump Grimjack's contract. The Lawkillers are lead by Major Lash, a.k.a. "The Hanged Man."
"Story was he had gotten strung up once, and his body left dangling as a warning to others. In the middle of the night, a strange wagon came, cut the body down, andcarted it away. When next seen, the Major was alive, but he no longer had a soul. He became a Hardtimer, always picking disturbed personalities to ride with him." Grimjack rode with him for a time, immediately after the Demon Wars. Spook rode with him at one time, too. Now he rides with Preacher and Grunt. In Spook's case, she is a soul without the protection of a body. As she explains it, "The Major, he is without soul. I am nothing but soul. He feeds upon me. Near him, I lose my will, without which I am literally nothing. I barely escape him before... I will allow nothing to put me in the hands of Major Lash again. Nothing!"
It is a near thing, but Grimjack and Spook manage to escape back to Cynosure through the spaciotemporal portal before destroying it, stranding the Lawkillers in the past.
After a sequence in which the White Sox play the Cubs in the World series (and win the final game 6-4), Manny Weese (a.k.a. "Manwyyes" a.k.a. "Weevil") and Elvanna (see "Mortal Gods") show up in Munden's looking for a missing kid. Grimjack takes the job and finds the kid... dead; the trail leads to XCI, Xygan Corp. Interstellar. Also introduced this issue are the Psyphyaliens or "Jelly Babies": immense creatures like two-story jelly fish, who swim in a gaseous dimension. I have been meaning to mention that a lot of graffiti appears in Grimjack, enough to make Will Elder green with envy. All of it is written and lettered by Tim Truman. Some of it I get, but some of it is obviously "inside" references.
Roscoe narrates "Suspect," which also features the Manx Cat.
Journalist Pauley "Koop" Kooper is investgating the plight of "migs" (migrant workers) aboard a space station for his newspaper, the Cyn Times. When his transmissions stop. the paper hires Grimjack to investigate. The station is a standard orbiting matter factory processing nuclear/chemical waste in a matter furnace which boils it down to its elements. First actual appearance of Mitch Socket, who blames Grimjack for the loss of his hand during the Demon Wars. The story also sees Grimjack's first use of the "Joe chaney" alias.
VOLUME FOUR:
In "This Wheel's on Fire!" Grimjack runs afoul of Phaeton, Lord High Protector of Cynosure. According to Grimjack, "Lord Protector was an old semi-religious function that, a few years back, had been revived and to which the tall blonde gink had laid claim. He'd never done anything for me." I'm a pretty big fan of First Comics, but I didn't read them from the very beginning. One of their earliest titles was Warp, which, if I understand correctly, was based on a stage play (or perhaps a series of plays). Phaeton is a Warp character who had crossed over at various times into Starslayer, E-Man, and now Grimjack. I'm not a big fan of comics adapted from another medium, and although I did eventually acquire all 19 issues of Warp (plus a few specials) I have never read them. At this point, though, my chances of seeing Warp performed onstage are exactly zero, so who knows what the future might bring.
Now back to #15.
Grimjack is summoned to the University of Cynosure (#1) by the clone of Althea Mueller (#9). Something went wrong with the cloning process (explained in detail within the story), and she now finds herself trapped in a hideously deformed body. Professor Mueller's research is in the field of Macro Unified Field Theory (which concerns why all universes eventually come into phase with Cynosure), and has invented a device to prevent that from happening and to seal a dimension off. Clones have no rights in Cynosure. She and her other clones are considered little more than property and plan to break away from the university, flee to a pocket dimension and seal it off. They need Grimjack to transport the device where it needs to go while they create a distraction.
Transport is being supplied by a driver named Jumbo XX. Jumbo had suffered an accident which paralyzed him, and had himself grafted to his truck. the accident also impaired the speech and memory center of his brain a bit, and he can only communicate with a vocabulary taken from 20th century rock and roll songs. (Only in Cynosure, right?) While fleeing from Lord Phaeton, Jumbo drives his rig onto the Escher over-and-under-pass, and Truman designs pages 10-13 to be turned 180° and back again. I've seen this kind of thing elsewhere to achieve a certain desired effect (noteably by Bisette and Totleben in Swamp Thing #34), but never better.
This issue also includes a light-hearted (?) jab at the then-current black-suited Spider-Man which makes me laugh (although admittedly not "OL") to this day. Elsewhere in this issue Truman inserts a plug for his own Time Beavers graphic novel, which I acquired on the backissue market some time ago. I've never been a fan of "funny animal" comics to a great extent, so I still have not read it. (Maybe when I get around to reading Warp.) In another issue, a sign advertizes "Crisis of the Indefinite Secret Wars XIII" using the actual Marvel and DC logos.
Grimjack ends up tricking Lord Phaeton into a dimension just about to go out of phase and trapping him on the world of Poot from "Night of the Killer Bunnies" (Starslyer #17). It turns out that Grimjack and Jumbo were not hauling the dimension-sealing device; they were the distraction. In a double-twist, the whole thing was actually orchestrated by the Dancer. All of the clones got away (except the clone of Althea Mueller with the original's memories), and Dancer ends up with the device. In addition of Mac Cabre and Katar, his lieutenants now include Molech, Leech, Puppet, C'pa and a little "Tinkerbelle" type fairy named Dink.
The "Wolfpac" storyline is the first actual appearance of Uncle Willy, the man who trained Grimjack and Blackjac when they were in the Arena and who supplies Grimjack with his weapons today. Back in those days, Uncle Willy called Grimjack "Jacknife" and Blackjac "Eightball." This story also introduces the state of mind called "The Dark," which Grimjack slips into when times are bad. Tech includes guard robots called "ET-2 Brutes" and a device called a "Bugeye" (which Grimjack used in the series once before). I might also mention that Grimjack has gotten a short haircut prior to this story; he got a trim back in #8 when her was working with Crane, but this is short.
Grimjack and Blackjac trace the Wolfpacs to a pair of "Chickenhawks," Linus Feldt and his wife Nasty Detmer. Nasty was in the Wolfpac when the Arena was shut down. Blackjac knows her but Grimjack doesn't. They are running a small scale version of the Wolfpac games for their Patron, who ends up being Hugo D-Orsini, the man who replaced Lil Sefington as Minister of Security when she was forced out (#5-7). Also recall that Finance Minister William Honesworth was forced out of office in #8. A third party working behind-the-scenes against both parties is the Dancer and his lieutenants.
Grimjack and Blacjac escape from the hands of Linus Feldt and his wife Nasty Detmer with the help of Blackjac's paramour, Goddess. She is the daughter of Shango the Storm and Olokun the Sea of the land of Ife. Goddess has the powers of the Living Lightning back in her home dimension, and is able to manifest them in the Wolfpac arena as well. Grimjack learns that ACCE (from Starslayer) now controls 13 of the 20 ministers on the council. If word of this were to get out, the results would be catastophic.
Grimjack makes copies of his proof, then gives it to Feetus to hold while he goes to confront C'Janus and his nephew Cser at ACCE. Unfortunately, Katar and Dink murder Feetus and steal the evidence. C'Janus was aware of Cser's treachery and had planned to have him killed at some point, anyway. Just after agreeing to Grimjack's terms that ACCE stop sponsoring the Wolfpac games, news breaks the the CynTimes has broken the news of ACCE's power grab and a massive trade war erupts in Cynosure.
The "Trade Wars" errupt in #18 and run for three issues. This is what the entire series has been leading up to since #1. Everything ties together. The story is so big it even spills over into the "Munden's Bar" back-up for the duration. Grimjack is one of the best series of the '80s, a decade of many great comics.
VOLUME FIVE:
Tom Sutton took over from Tim Truman for a short tenure as regular penciler with #20. He has a distinctive style, but the switch from Truman to Sutton mid story was jarring. He settled in to his first full story with #22, but before I get to that, I would like to mention #24, the "anniversary" (one issue too soon). It was a reprint of "Mortal Gods" plus a new story with art by Timothy Truman (and a new "Munden's Bar" story). In "You Say It's Your Birthday," Gaunt turns 50 and manifests his memories, giving them substance. Spook snaps him out of it. This story is presented between parts two and three of the first full Sutton story, but it must take place before it. This is also the point at which I personally place the framing sequence from the Legends of Grimjack Vol. 1 collection. Now on to the Sutton era.
Grimjack's left hand was badly crushed during the Trade Wars. Uncle Willy replaces it with a low-tech, multi-purpose prosthesis. Due to a manpower shortage, Cynosure beat cops have been replaced by "Hot Cops," mechanical "centaurs" with robot bodies attached to motorcycles, supposed to handle low-grade TDP duties such as traffic violations, which is great in theory but lousy in practice because they are heavy in armament but light on computer software. William Honesworth offers to hire Grimjack on retainer as a sort of one-man Cadre, but Grimjack turns him down.
Jennifer Welles' half-brother has been killed and she suspects demons are involved. Her father is the wealthy Hanson Welles. Her mother divorced her father when Jennifer was three and married his brother, Edourd. They had twins, Brion and Bryant. Sloanes is Welles' top assistant who intends to marry Jennifer one day and become part of the family. Bryant is murdered and Brion has disappeared. Grimjack breaks out the Miller Medallion (see "Buried Past") and discovers that Brion has been murdered as well, his body turned into a demongate. After Grimjack solves they mystery, he reconsiders and accepts Honeworth's offer, on his own terms.
Starslayer supporting character Free Marine Chris Heyman falls from a rift in the sky into the Badlands and is found by Jericho Noleski. She brings news of
Kalibos, the evil robot the Free Marines have dedicated themselves to destroy. Grimjack and company manage to defeat it, perhaps destroy it, but Kalibos destroys Grimjack's prosthetic "hand" in the process, losing it's own in the process.
Blacjac and Goddess have a fight over Grimjack. He explains why he is loyal, she explains why she hates him. They break up. #28 is Tom sutton's last issue as regular penciler. There will be two issues with fill-in artists until the new penciler debuts.
Who remember's Comico's Fish Police? (Who here remembers Comico?) #29 takes place in a dimension with a thick, soupy atmosphere, "just barely breathable bu human standards" (which reminds me very much of Fish Police). The plot is also loosely based on the song "Mack the Knife."
Dynamo Joe debuted as a back-up feature in Mars, had a one-shot special collecting those appearances, was featured in First Comics' short-lived anthology series First Adventures, then spun-off into its own three-issue limited series which ended up lasting 15 issues.
Next up: the debut of the new regular penciler.
VOLUME SIX:
With this volume, Tom Mandrake becomes Grimjack's new penciler. When editor Rick Oliver made the announcement, he said something to the effect that Mandrake came from Batman, where DC had to get Frank Miller to replace, which is true, but it's also hyperbole, which caused me to view Mandrake's tenure with a highly critical eye. I had been familiar with his prior work, but I didn't feel one way or the other about it. It was during this run of issues that I truly became a fan of Tom Mandrake's work.
Spook's home dimension is coming back into phase with Cynosure. She is drawn to it, but she needs Grimjack's help, which will mean losing her forever. Jericho Noleski and Chris Heyman's relationship progresses. With Goddess out of the picture, Blackjacmac falls in with Mayfair, who is looking for a political stooge to take the Dancer's place. A woman named Shari comes to Munden's looking for Grimjack. She had a affair with him 20 years ago, and now she wants him to find her son... their son... Billy Blue. But "Billy Blue" has adopted another name: Katar. Grimjack knew nothing about having a son, but when he tells her he killed him during the Trade Wars, she vows revenge. While Grimjack carries Spook's mortal remains back to her home dimension, Shari contacts Major Lash and the Lawkillers. Blacjacmac's political aspirations come to the attention of his father, Mac Cabre, and the Dancer. Grimjack learns the story of Spook's, or Gen-Marie's, murder, and helps put her soul to rest as her killer is revealed.
Grimjack returns from Spook's dimension at his lowest ebb. He hasn't been this low since the destruction of Pdwyr anf the death of Rhian (and we haven't even actually seen that...yet). He is accosted outside Munden's Bar aby Althea 8, one of the Mueller clones, but he ignores her. As he endter the bar, he is hit from behind. When he awakens, it is to find the patrons of the bar slaughtered, and a bloody Gordon slumped over the bar. Marjor Lash and the Lawkillers have attacked "on behalf" of the woman Shari. Then Lash kills Shari just because he knows it will hurt Grimjack. But Gordon is not dead, and Bob is hiding behind the bar. Gordon creates a distraction and Lash sets fire to the bar before he, Grunt and Preacher leave.
Word on the street is that the Lawkillers are waiting for Grimjack at Wildwood Cemetary (which is where at least one of Gaunt's brothers is buried, not to mention Denny Colt). Roscoe offers Grimjacj backup, but he refuses. Roscoe then tries to contact Blacjac, but Mayfair blows him off and doesn't pass the massage along. Roscoe does manage to contact Jericho Noleski and chris Heyman in the Badlands, however, and they are on their way. Gordon is in a coma, but Gordon learns from Bob about the showdown at Wildwood Cemetery. Grimjack arrives and has words with the Major. The battle last for eight pages. Briefly, Grimjack kills Preacher and Grunt, but Major Lash kills Grimjack. Actually, Grimjack had the drop on him, but his gun jammed. At that point, he had had enough killing and simply turns his back and walks away. That's when Major Lash shoots him in the back.
At Grimjack's funeral, there is a certain amount of friction among the mourners, basically centering around why Blackjac was not there to help him. Meanwhile, Althea Mueller has grown a clone of Grimjack from the remains of his left hand, which he last during the Trade Wars, in an effort to prove that she is more than a simple "copy" and is capable of independent thought. Major Lash is having nightmares about Grimjack. What if the same people who resurrected him do the same for Grimjack? Or what if Grimjack returns as a ghost, like Spook did? Anything is possible in Cynosure. There's no guarantee that Lash will be resurrected a second time. Soon, Grimjack (or someone who looks very much like him) begins stalking Major Lash. whoever it is tracks him to a blind alley and shoots him dead, never once revealing himself. Soon, the wagon which brought "The Hanged Man" back to life after his first death, picks him up again.
Back at Mueller's lab, Althea 8 laments that her attempt to unite Grimjack's soul with the bady she cloned was a failure.
Back at Munden's Bar, the man who killed Major Lash removes his "Grimjack" disguise. Gordon has avenged "Mr. Gaunt."
This is where I chose to stop buying the tpbs: with the death of the main character.
That was where I stopped buying the tpb reprints, but IDW published two more volumes.
VOLUME SEVEN:
Volume seven comprises #38-46, but if I had been editing this series, I would have included #38-39 in v6 (although I can guess what they did it the way they did). In #38, Grimjack makes it to Heaven but it is a near thing. Back in Cynosure, the Dancer has reanimated Grimjack's corpse to send against Blacjacmac. In #39, Grimjack walks out on Heaven, with no guarantee that he will ever get back in, in order to save hhis friend (who will decidedly not get into Heaven at this point). He ends up inhabiting the body cloned by Althea 8 after all, and it is this issue which brings the "Death of Grimjack" storyline to its final conclusion (and no, that is not redundant in this case). Issue #40-46 relate his first set of adventures as a clone.
VOLUME EIGHT:
Volume seven comprises #47-54, the second and final collection of his adventures as a clone. In #53-54, a man shows up in Munden's claiming to be a future incarnation of Grimjack himself. According to "Futurejack," Grimjack's soul has been consigned to endlessly reincarnate as a consequence of his choice to walk out on Heaven in #39. He has a plan to break that endless cycle, but he needs "Clonejack's" help... if he can convince him he's telling the truth. He is (at least partially), and this is the last story of Grimjack's incarnation as a clone. With #55, the story jumps 200 years to Grimjack's next incarnation, Jim Twilley. I think the editors at IDW broke up the stories the way they did 1) to keep the number of issues per volume consistant, and 2) to end the series with the last of the "John Gaunt" incarnation (clone notwithstanding).
VOLUME "NINE":
A ninth volume was never published, but I found a cover for it online nevertheless. (This cover doesn't really make sense because it depicts John Gaunt when it should depict Jim Twilley.) It does, however, give me the opportunity to discuss the raison d'être of this thread. When I first decided to revisit "The Legend of Grimjack," my original intention had been to do a "quick hit" of the highlights: "Youngblood," "The Demon Wars," "Clonejack," "Futurejack," "Grimjim Twilley," etc. When I decided to throw "Killer Instinct" into the mix, I thought the new covers of the "Legend of Grimjack" series of tpbs were all worth posting. But I couldn'y just post the covers; I felt I had to say something about them as well. So I decided to go with bullet points. The "bullet points" got out of hand and I ended up posting summaries as well. But now I'm up to the point where I originally intended to begin this discussion in the first place.
NEXT: "Youngblood"
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