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 chapter titles of The Hero Defined are from Macbeth, and Matchstick's wife and her siblings are heavily based on the Weird Sisters. The Hero Denied takes place several years after the second series. Matchstick and his family are in hiding, trying to avoid the Umbra Sprite, now known as the Umbra Witch, who has regenerated in a female form, and has female children called Gracklethorns, instead of the males in the first two series called Grackleflints. All of the chapters have titles taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The final issue came out on February 27, 2019, thirty-five years after the publication of the first comic. The ultimate issue of each volume was double-sized, and featured a gatefold page of panoramic art. The final issue contains an 8-page gatefold. Mage ran as a back up feature in Comico's Grendel series issues #16–19. Collected editions The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks and a hardcover limited edition. Mage: The Hero Discovered: Starblaze Graphics, Trade Paperback Volume 1 (March 1987, ) Volume 2 (December 1987, ) Volume 3 (June 1988, ) Mage: The Hero Discovered: Starblaze Graphics, Hardcover, Slipcased, Limited Edition of 1500 Volume 1 (March 1987, ) Volume 2 (April 1987, ) Volume 3 (May 1987, ) Mage: The Hero Discovered: Image Comics, paperback Volume 1 (216 pages, June 2017, ) Volume 2 (206 pages, October 2017, ) Mage: The Hero Defined: Volume 3 (208 pages, January 2018, ) Volume 4 (208 pages, May 2018, ) Mage: The Hero Denied: Volume 5 (208 pages, October 2018, ) Volume 6 (206 pages, April 2019, ) Awards The trade paperback, Mage: The Hero Discovered, Vol. 1 was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1999. Other media In June 2002, Zack Snyder took over directing the film adaptation, after F. Gary Gray left the project to remake The Italian Job, for Walt Disney Pictures with Spyglass Entertainment producing the film, but in 2010 the rights were picked up by producer Lloyd Levin. Notes References External links Matt Wagner's home page Mage at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 12, 2016. Steinberger,