One of the most famous, if not the most famous, Irish legendary heroes is Cu Chulainn. His tale is well known not just in Ireland but all over the world. There are a ton of different mediums where he is shown, but one medium that fits him well is comics.
Comic writers Paul J. Bolger and Barry Devlin teamed up to make a Cu Chullainn comic called “Hound†with Bolger also doing the art. This is a comic book retelling of “The Legend of Cu Chullainn.†His name at birth was Setanta but was later called Cu Chullainn after killing a giant hound owned by Culann. His name means “The Hound of Culann.†It tells his adventures from birth until his death. This comic version is told through the point of view of Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of death. That added detail gives a little weight to the narration since Morrigan throughout the comic is torturing Cu Chulainn and wants to see him kill everything in sight.
One thing about these old myths is that a lot of them would perfectly fit the comic book medium. A lot of them are mainly about a figure fighting other figures or creatures. Bolger and Devlin do this tale justice by covering all the gory things that Cu Chulainn did to almost everyone. Speaking of gory, the artwork looks like it was lifted straight out of Frank Miller’s “Sin City.†The entire comic is in black and white with specks of red here and there, especially when there’s blood. There are characters getting decapitated with blood spouting out and even hot females with giant breasts who get naked.
Yes, even Queen Maeve and Morrigan get naked. This style may not sit well with some traditionalists, but in comic book form, especially one about someone killing everything in his path, this works in the comic’s favor.
“Hound†is one of the few comic book adaptations about Cu Chulainn and it shows that this medium is a perfect match. With lots of action, gore, nudity and some sex it shows off what these kinds of myths are about because, in many ways, these myths are early versions of comics
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