Matt Wagner's "Mage"
 

So I've seen this at the local comic book shop. Fifty bucks for the complete Matt Wagner's "Mage" collection, and the glowing baseball bat looks positively White Wolf "Hunter" to me.

I've been tempted to buy it multiple times. That's why I call upon you. Anyone familiar with this enough to suggest a yay or nay? I've seen reviews, but they're scattered at best.

Thoughts?

Matt Wagner is a rare thing -a good writer AND a tallented artist.

MAGE was a work of many years -so some of the early art is a bit rough. You MAY want to pick up a smaller collection on the internet where you'll get a huge discount to try his style out before dropping $50.

My favorite Wagner work of all time is easily GRENDEL: WAR CHILD. Beats the pants off of anything else he's ever done IMO. I would drop a fair amount of cash on a TPB of that series.

I would go online...but it's a small comic book shop, and the owner happens to be one of my better friends. I really prefer to support him. I'll trust you and pick it up next week.

Way to go, Wegener. If he doesn't like it we'll lose a customer!

I should take this moment to mention that I did NOT pay the $50 for it myself.

Because $50 for a big comic book is just nuts. :D

I wait for softcover.

Get it, it's the bomb, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Hunter: The Reckoning. Also, Grendel: Black, White, and Red is super good, but only really makes sense if you're familiar with Wagner's Grendel stories to begin with.

So, I picked it up today and finished it. Come to find that it's only A Hero Discovered, and I need to go find a copy of A Hero Defined.

I can safely say that it's a really good comic series, though. A few spelling errors aside ("Ler me around", for example, instead of "led"), I really like Kevin's character, and the small Shakespearean references for each chapter were great.

Now I need to go find Matt Wagner and beat him with a glowing baseball bat until he does Part III.

You NEED to find a copy of GRENDEL: WARCHILD.

I'm glad you liked Mage. Matt's writing is very smart. Unlike someone else's writer I could mention . . . ;P

Well my favorite thing behind Mage - ignoring the misleading name - is the concept.

King Arthur 2000. It just seems badass, especially when you've got the lightning-bolt symbol on the chest and everything. Classy.

Yeah its really well done. Its also an autobiography of Wagner's life. If you read the first Mage series and the last you'll see how the tone changes because the man himself is changing.

Same thing goes for his Grendel work. Or a lot of it anyway.