Number 2507: Beowulf and the monster

Beowulf is a very early epic poem, 3000 lines in old English. In the story it tells, Beowulf comes to the aid of a group of Danes attacked by the monster, Grendel. Beowulf is a real tough guy. He rips Grendel’s arm off. There is a lot more, but...you want me to ALL your work for you? Go online and look it up.

In this version of Beowulf, spelled “Beowolf,” Grendel is a small T-Rex, a dinosaur. When I went online in search of Beowulf,  I found new and old illustrations from the saga, which present Grendel as a monster, but not a dinosaur. Artistic license, no doubt.

Bill Ely, an artist I consider to be one of the most underrated artists from the early history of the comics, did the pictorial renderings for the story, published in Conquest, a one-shot comic book from Famous Funnies. Besides Beowolf the comic book featured stories about Richard the Lion-Hearted, the Swamp Fox, and Lochinvar. Conquest came out originally in 1953, but was reprinted with Comics Code approval in 1955.