Another day, another trade:
That’s just how this game is played;
So since we’re doing this again,
Let’s talk the Demon, Etrigan.
In this, the evil Asteroth be schemin’
To awaken and raise the Gothodaemon:
Gotham’s original shadowy monster of hate—
The rhyming Etrigan must stop him before it’s too late.
Ennis’s Demon is over-the-top.
He took over the series as it was about to flop
And made it dark and made it fun
(And wasn’t afraid to make a dirty pun).
I must confess, I can’t quite tell
If the exploits of this Hitman from Hell
Are just silly in a 1990s way
Or if he was parodying comics of the day.
In either case, it was fun, if not always deep;
And McCrea soars when drawing things that creep.
Sinewy and grotesque, his monsters shine—
He really does know how to form a line.
Should you read The Demon? Well, you might—
Interested in funny, sacrilegious things going bump in the night?
How about The Tick but dark and with guns?
Or stooges’ heads getting punched off into the sun?
(PS, for Mike: this book has two humps:
Tweedles Dee and Dum, those dimwitted lumps.)
Collected in
- The Demon, Volume One: Hell’s Hitman (#40, #42-49, Annual #2)
Credits
Writer: Garth Ennis | Penciler: John McCrea | Inker: John McCrea (42-45), Matt Brooker (44) | Colorist: Stuart Chaifetz | Letterers: Todd Klein | Assistant Editor: Peter Tomasi | Editor: Dan Raspler