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Mage (Comics)Mage is a semi-autobiographical superhero comic book written and illustrated by Matt Wagner. Three books are planned; as of 2005, two have been published. Book one, The Hero Discovered, was a fifteen-issue series published by Comico from 1984 to 1986. Despite advertisements saying that a sequel was "coming soon", The Hero Defined did not appear until 1998, published by Image Comics (Comico had gone bankrupt in 1990, and it had taken some time for Wagner to regain the rights to the series). It too ran for fifteen issues. The third and final chapter, The Hero Denied, is planned, but no firm publication schedule fixed. Wagner wrote and drew both series, with Sam Kieth as inker for part of the first, and Jeromy Cox as colourist for the second. The Hero Discovered follows Kevin Matchstick, an alienated young man with an uncanny resemblance to the author, as he meets a wizard called Mirth, dicovers he has superhuman abilities, gains a magic baseball bat and defeats the nefarious plans of a being called the Umbra Sprite. He ultimately discovers that Mirth is Merlin, the baseball bat is Excalibur, and he is, in some ambiguous way, King Arthur. It's a story of existentialist engagement and can be read as an allegory for Wagner finding his own voice as an artist. The Hero Defined picks up Kevin's adventures several years later as he fights supernatural menaces in the company of other heroes such as Kirby Hero and Joe Phatt, among many others. Each hero he encounters is based on a genuine mythological character (Kirby as Hercules, Joe as Coyote) and a comics professional Wagner has collaborated with (Kirby as Bernie Mireault, Joe as Joe Matt). There is a new Mage this time - Mirth has disappeared, and Kevin is followed around by an old tramp called Wally Ut, who insists he is his new mentor. In the course of the story he learns that he has misunderstood his mission, meets his future wife, and is alienated from his fellow heroes. He also discovers that he represents more than one mythical character: he is also Gilgamesh, and Kirby is also Enkidu. The story is an allegory of Wagner's time as writer of Grendel, where he was the head of a team of artists, and deals with his assumption of leadership and the arrogance that comes with that, the loss of that leadership when Grendel's publisher went bust, and the balance between his personal and professional life. External links
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