A visit to the Comic Con in Paris, allowed us to discover a French publisher, Snorgleux comics that we had unfortunately neglected. With Unholy Grail, a short story published in the United States by Aftershock, we catch up.
Reinventing the myth
The reader also rediscovers the myth of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We are happy to find essential moments of the legend – when Arthur takes Excalibur out of the rock, when he meets Guinevere… However, Unholy Grail is not a simple adaptation. There are unknown or invented moments. Indeed, the first pages show bodies after a battle. Contrary to legend, King Arthur lost the war. Percival – knight of the king – returned with the Grail but too late. He seeks to understand the reasons for this failure. A few boxes later, the story goes back to the death of Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. We then switch to Arthur already king. Cullen Bunn presents readers with a chronological puzzle before gradually connecting the different periods of Arthur and Merlin's lives.
The king and his relatives
Arthur appears as a weak king manipulated by Merlin or by his feelings. Arthur must fulfill different duties to ensure his power. Even if the story is very far from historical reality, the reader discovers the History of England – Arthur is a king but he has to deal with powerful barons and kingdoms around. In order to charm the Lady of the Lake, he must throw into the lake the swords of the slain pretenders to the throne. Still on the advice of the demonic Merlin, he builds the fortress of Camelot to ensure his power. Bunn successfully blends medieval narrative with horror elements. However, Arthur falls in love with Guinevere when he has sworn fealty to the Lady of the Lake.
On the contrary, other characters emerge grown from this reinterpretation. Morgane is a demonic woman certainly, but complex. Guinevere and Lancelot are not just lovers.
A Merlin away from Disney
We also discover the dark side of Merlin. Finally it is no longer him because from the beginning, he was killed and a demon took his skin. This demon will manipulate Arthur and his relatives in order to divide the country. This dark tale of the manipulation of the powerful by a man of the shadows is told mainly by the image and short dialogues. There is little text and the reading is therefore very fast. Mirko Colak's realistic drawing is also vivid with many pencil strokes. The page is nicely organized around large, colorful boxes. Colak just sometimes lacks originality in his line especially in the ends of episodes. We feel that the urgency to return the pages was approaching.
Snorgleux offers us a beautiful edition with a quality book but also many bonuses. We discover the creative process on the same page with the starting scenario, the layout by a pencil, the inking and finally the colorization. The volume also contains all the covers of American journals including variant covers.
Unholy Grail is therefore a happy surprise. Snorgleux gives us a pleasant short story and Cullen Bunn has very well appropriated this millennial story. He does not just recite his lesson but brings a touch of fantasy in a story known to many.
