 what we're going to do in this video is have a read through Comical Primer number two, and it's another anthology sort of a collection of works, and this wasn't an independent comic book, and well it is an independent comic book that came out and actually I'm not sure what the exact date on this is, we'll look it up as soon as we crack it open and look inside, and he was, this character is created by Matt Wagner and Matt Wagner is, well he's a legend in comic books, he's he's huge, he's one of the main main players, he's produced a lot of work, and a lot of different artists and writers have worked on Grendel, they've gotten permission to work on Grendel and produce Grendel's work, or stories based on Grendel, and this is one of the sought-after books from that period. As far as grade of this issue goes, this is probably around, probably around the seven or so, it's a nice copy, good for me, I like it, it's got some creases on the on the edge here on the spine, the corners are fairly sharp, so what we're going to do is have a flip through this and take a look at, take a look at what it's all about, who this character is, and see what his first appearance, what the story of the first appearance is all about, okay, so if you can tell, you know, there's little bits of creases here along the edge, it lies flat, which is really nice, the corners are fairly sharp, I would definitely agree this is a little ding here, let's fold it a little bit, I'm not sure if you can see it, and again it lies fairly flat, it's a nice copy, definitely give this, you know, around the seven, seven and a half, great, and as far as value goes, this thing's worth, you know, it's probably worth around 75 bucks, 80 bucks or so, that's a nice collectible for me, I like it, I like this character a lot, there's a lot of different people have worked on it and different stories have been told, some better than others, and it's a fantastic, fantastic little book in my collection, the print runs for these were pretty low because they were independent, so their funds were limited, and this is Comical Primer is also the series that gave us the first appearance of the Max that we've done a reading for, here's Primer number five, we actually read this one, I got two copies of this one, it's a short little first appearance of Sam Keith's Max, so we're about to look at Matt Wagner's Grendel and these two issues, Primer number five and Primer number two are the most sought after issues for this series, for these anthologies, so let's take a look at this thing, again it's a black and white print, and there's a message from, who is this, Pleasant Dreams? Jerry Juvencio, I guess it's Italian guy, Juvencio, I'm bad with pronouncing names, so let's look at the fine print here, this is Primer volume number one, volume number one, issue number two, it's published four times a year by Comico, the comic company, and they're based in north-town Pennsylvania, Primer's copyright 1982, Comico and the comic company characters and their stories are the properties of the creators of each all rights reserved, and that's one of the beautiful things about the independent publishers in from that period, all the characters were copyright, they were their sole property of the creators, which is a lot different from a lot of them, what the main comic book publishers were doing, which is one reason that in the early 1990s there was a huge shake-up in the industry with valiant comics and image and people breaking off and creating their own their own companies and writing their own characters, we already read the little introduction for this primary story, but we're gonna go ahead and go find Grendel, we're gonna flip through this thing though first, but we already read the little introduction that Matt Wagner had written for Primer number five, so we'll skip this for now and flip through this, this is my brother's keeper, Andrew Murphy 1982, so I guess what year was this, yeah this is copyright 1982, so it was definitely mistaken on being in the late 80s or early 90s, I should have known this actually, 1982, I'm not sure why I slipped my mind, I don't know the story, I haven't read this, and I actually have the, after this one I believe the next three issues, well I'm pretty sure it's the next three issues of Grendel, we're Grendel number one, two and three, and I actually have this in my collection as well and maybe someday we'll get a chance to read them on sale now, you can tell the independent comic book publishers, they had the layouts were much simpler, it's black and white and they're extremely appealing from that period, they're amazing really, all of this independent publishing stuff really came, the catalyst in large parts was a Canadian publisher, artist creator Dave Sim with Cerebus the Art Vark, what he was able to do with that series was absolutely amazing, he came out in the late 1970s with the character and decided to do a 300 issues series and he did it and it is actually brilliant and one day I'll go ahead and start collecting those, they're pretty expensive, they're really issues, what's this Judas kiss that's too strong to be denied, who's this by, this is by, there we go, 1982 Jim Alderman, you can see 1982 Jim Alderman is the creator of this one, what is the illusion too intense to be defined, why is the Judas kiss that's too strong to be denied, I might actually come back and read these later after we finish Grendel, we're not putting any stress on the spot and the book sits really well, it's got a nice curve on it right now so it still has its integrity with the pages so great wise the cover was a little bit nicer, I would give this an 8.5 but you know it's got a couple of things in there, actually this could be around an 8, I'm happy with it, very happy with it, maybe I'll try to grab a better copy, hard to find them in mint and they're very very expensive in mint condition, grated mint they run a couple hundred bucks, two or three hundred bucks or higher, higher grades and Matt Wagner considers these issues to be rough while he was just starting out right and here it is here's some information about the company order information copies of primer number one and two are still available, still available back then, what's the price tag on this, it was a $1.50 fantastic investment if you bought a whole ton of these back in 1982 for a $1.50 you kept them in mint condition you could sell them for a few hundred bucks a pop right are still available and if you're going to maybe obtain individual copies maybe a thing through Comic Hall, Declab Street, North Sun Pennsylvania, $1.50 per postage so primer is also available in quantity at discounts from these direct comic wholesalers, capital city this was one of the diamond distributors, diamond comics, diamond distributors in capital city were two of the main comic book distributors back in the day but there was a distribution war in their early 1990s, mid 1990s almost all the independent distributors went bankrupt and basically the only one left that distributes everywhere is diamond comics so let's just flip through this and then we'll come back and have a read through it yeah I don't consider this to be too rough I haven't read this one by the way I bought it and I decided to make these videos so I waited anxiously until I was ready to do it to read this I read a lot of other Grendel stories and loved them there's some amazing Grendel stories around not just by Matt Wagner but by other people as well let's see what the ad says first before we get into the Grendel gee these guys at Comico really know how much fun how much fun it is to create comics they love every minute of it and are glad they have the chance to bring their stories to you now that they've established themselves they want to give others the chance to experience the joy of creating comics that's why they created primer primer will introduce new characters and talent on a quarterly basis all rights belong to the creators isn't that marvelous if you'd like your story to be printed in primer contact comical fast primer next issue is not yet full wow so that's comical primer number this is number two so they're saying comical primer number three is not full which is probably it's probably comical number four five they were talking about maybe that's how Sam Keith got his work max into primer number five hey who is that guy a bit of advice refer to comical before you actually start your work so that requirements can be specified good luck and happy comic making cool very cool I have a story to tell about this about myself and getting into publishing but all reserved that for later I got into publishing comic books in the late 1990s or sorry early 1990s I sort of did the same type of deal took an advertisement in in over street price guide and you know told people I published their work if they said that to me enough I liked it and I went ahead and I actually did and published about 16 issues of different comics so let's go read Grendel's first appearance yeah nice copy nice book feels good yes my child it was a gala event on a most extravagant evening party at the home of the city councilman council chairman Everett Christie alas evil was afoot unknown to all among the guests was that sworn enemy of our noble chair champion champion agent that scourge of all we hold dear the evil ring argent how good to hear your snarl argent how good to hear your snarl police 13th precinct grendel you smile who's this such a charmer just calling to let you know that the city council can elect a new chairman i'm going to kill everett christy tonight i'll stop you this guy says or this creature says well this is grendel by the way well i was hoping you try you know in the name of the heroics goodness and all those other ridiculous concepts you're as good as dead clink puts on his uh tuxedo matt Wagner grendel and so grendel his ego satisfied set about to commit his atrocious act got to admit is a pretty sharp party i would have expected expected it out of slug like christy i would i wouldn't i wouldn't wouldn't have expected it out of a slug like christy well shouldn't have long to wait dear friends please don't write me off as poor don't write me off as a poor host if i excuse myself to attend a few pressing matters in my study enter the evil grendel beware chuckle he's putting on his mask out i hate the social garbage i need a snort so bad it feels like my nose is gonna fall off he's talking about powder click and he's got this rod grendel grendel ah finally he took christy by surprise let it snow let it snow oh he's gonna do some blow let it snow ah there's grendels of staff double-bladed let it snow choke he's freaking out grendel he's named himself the evil grendel and don't look so bug-eyed he twists his staff around i just stopped by for a chat oh he's not gonna kill him he just stopped by for a chat what does that say he took christy by surprise dot dot dot flips over and proceeded to terrorize him ah chat about what the ring of course i don't know what this ring is ring what ring christy in the underworld even the most well-kept secrets aren't safe from grendel you're the invisible head of the largest prostitution ring in the city oh my all right but we never crossed you christy admits it not directly but it has come to my attention that most of your girls are rather young not even 14 i know like that but but why don't question me warm and that's the thing with grendel he's an assassin but he has uh he's got his own code right okay okay i'm sorry i promise no more kitty kitty stuff oh really g okay oh when he kills him he just didn't talk to him he killed him look at this i guess the double-bladed sword here took out his head having killed having killed the hideous grendel attained tomes he sought and made his way to rendezvous with his waiting minions so he escapes comes down hello gentlemen so glad you could make it on time so he's grabbed something i don't know what that is yes troops in my grubby grubby little hands i hold evered christies personal notes and ledgers a very successful evening now let's be off looks like agent agent is too late again there's a hand coming around this guy's neck i guess that's agent suddenly hope arrived as agent the wondrous wolf exploded onto the scene and by his neck throws him as the truck head first you have one chance run i want your boss but would be only too happy to rip your throats out these guys they look scared what this guy does anyway i don't know this character the battle broke out bam bam we just grabbed one throw him across yard idiot i tried but now it's your fault grabs the stick beside him smacks the guy in the head he's pissed oh when he splatters him and soon only two opponents were left oh dear look at this guy's holding his dripping blood i wish you wouldn't do that got any idea how hard it is for me to get good help when you keep destroying them so i guess they're serious opponents setting up the world well here we are again your brutal power versus my electric fork oh it's an electric piece electric staff that gets let's get this over with that's what we're about to fight the struggle was powerful frightening in its intensity his zapped ground a little bit tore off a piece of his clothes it's rose out of the way jumps on him leaped grindle jumps out of the way and he's zapped some argh great i've stuck a wounded animal right between me and the notebook he's right wounded animals are dangerous well not exactly what i had planned but the cops can take care of the ring run away time so he was going to give the exposed prostitution ring this guy stays at the truck and so through though wounded the valiant wolf succeeded in driving off the evil grindle but grindle remained free and here's the kicker this guy seems to be a hero and he's the anti hero but after this issue grindle is the guy that becomes the main character as far as i know anyway i haven't wrecked too much stuff with this guy or not nothing from this guy for his time maybe i have maybe look different but grindle is the key and that's the first issue or first appearance of grindle the comical primer number two awesome maybe we'll come back and read the grindle one two and three that have in my collection but there are um really amazing grindle stories that have come out after that and they're definitely worth the read