Grimjack was a comic that ran from 1984 through 1991, created by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman, published by First Comics. The title character is a thoroughly nasty man, birth name John Gaunt. He lives in the city of Cynosure, which is a sort of multi-dimensional crossroads. He starts out as a gladiator, fights in the Demon Wars, becomes a trans-dimensional policeman, and eventually goes freelance. His self-description, from the first issue:

I bust people out of prison, hunt down vampires, fight alien gods -- all the fun jobs people are too squeamish or too polite to do themselves. Call me a mercenary. Call me an assassin. Call me a villain. I am all that and more.

Later on in the series he dies a few times, getting resurrected in a couple different ways. Eventually John Gaunt dies for good, but the spirit of Grimjack enters a young man named Jim Twilley, who carries on in issues 55 and up.

There are 81 issues that I know of, plus the Demon Knight graphic novel. Grimjack made appearences in "Warp" and "Starslayer" as a backup feature before getting his own book, and later showed up in Marvel's "New Mutants". He also appeared briefly in Roger Zelazny's second Amber series as a courier/assassin.

List of issues.

Cast of characters.

Credits.


Note: many of the images on these pages are copyright by First Comics, and are used here for purposes of criticism and comment under the provisions of 17 USC Sec. 107: Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use. Additionally, use of the trademarked Grimjack logo is intended only as nominative use to indicate the topic of discussion, as specified in "New Kids on the Block v. News America Publishing, Inc., 971 F.2d 302 (9th Cir. 1992)", and should not be taken to imply any sponsorship or endorsement by First Comics.
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