More:
Sample pages
Reviews
Sketches
Teacher's guide

Medium:
The three sections of Beowulf are done in different materials. Part 1 is drawn with ink using a dip pen and brush, then colored digitally.

Part 2 is drawn and painted on wood panels using technical pen, watercolor, acrylic, and color pencil.

Part 3 is drawn like part 1, but colored using Dr. Martin's dye and white charcoal.



The epic tale of the great warrior Beowulf has thrilled readers through the ages — and now it is reinvented for a new generation with Gareth Hinds’s darkly beautiful illustrations. Grendel’s black blood runs thick as Beowulf defeats the monster and his hideous mother, while somber hues overcast the hero’s final, fatal battle against a raging dragon. Speeches filled with courage and sadness, lightning-paced contests of muscle and will, and funeral boats burning on the fjords are all rendered in glorious and gruesome detail. Told for more than a thousand years, Beowulf’s heroic saga finds a true home in this graphic-novel edition.

Where to buy

Praise for Beowulf:
“ A first-rate horror yarn... Hinds stages great fight scenes, choreographing them like a kung-fu master... Visceral.”
– The New York Times Book Review

"Gives young readers the Geatish warrior as the hypermuscular, hard-hitting proto-comic-book superhero he's always been... With treatments like this available, honors English may never be the same."
- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“ Retells the old tale as a series of dark, bloody, chaotic clashes... A strongly atmospheric alternative.”
– Kirkus Reviews


Beowulf has now been reissued by Candlewick Press. My self-published (TheComic.com) edition is also still available. The primary difference is in the choice of translation: Candlewick uses a more straightforward prose translation by AJ Church, while my edition uses a more archaically-flavored verse translation by Francis Gummere. Candlewick's book is also printed on heavier paper, with french flaps and an embossed spot-lam cover, so it has a more deluxe look and feel.
Compare the translations.

Purchase Online

The reason my edition is referred to as The Collected Beowulf is because it was originally published in three comic-format issues; below you will find samples from each part. The individual issues are now out of print.

To view the full text of the Gummere translation, click here (new window).


beo 1 cover
Samples

Book 1: With Grimmest Gripe
Beowulf battles the swamp-fiend Grendel, unarmed.

beo 2 cover
Samples

Book 2: Gear of War
Beowulf fights Grendel's vengeful Mother in her watery lair.

beo 3 cover
Samples

Book 3: Doom of Glory
Now an aged king, Beowulf confronts a marauding dragon.