Over 40 years after he first launched Grendel, Matt Wagner is returning to the roots of his creation with Grendel: Devil by the Deed—Master’s Edition, in which he re-imagines the story of Hunter Rose, the first Grendel, with a new story and art. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Wagner described the new graphic novel as “recapturing the style and substance of the original Devil By The Deed but through the eyes and skills of a much more seasoned creator.” He wrote and drew the new story and his son, Brennan Wagner, is the colorist.

“It’s surprising even to me that the original Grendel storyline, which spawned so many incarnations of the character and a forty year narrative history was, in fact, only 37 pages long,” Wagner said. The new story expands the narrative to 121 pages. Dark Horse will publish the hardcover in a standard edition with an MSRP of $29.99 and a Limited Edition with a signed tip-in sheet and slipcase and an MSRP of $124.99. Both editions will be released on October 31, 2023, in bookstores and November 1, 2023, in comic shops.

Wagner returned to Dark Horse in 2019 for Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey, his first new work on the property since 2007 (see “Matt Wagner Brings ‘Grendel’ Back to Dark Horse”). Netflix announced a Grendel series in May 2022, but they dropped those plans later that year, although the producers are shopping the project around elsewhere (see “‘Grendel’ Dead at Netflix”).