In that same essay, the writer also revealed having initially conceived the character to be the star of a series of prose stories, set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago.

Grimjack is the street name of John Gaunt, a sword-for-hire, ex-paramilitary, war veteran and former child gladiator.

He operates from Munden's Bar in the Pit, a slum area of Cynosure, a pan-dimensional city to which all dimensions connect.

[1] The Grimjack backup story was very popular with the readers of Starslayer, and First Comics decided to give the character his own title.

With issue #55, the character of James Twilley, a future incarnation of Gaunt, was introduced as the timeline jumped forward 200 years.

Throughout its run, with the exception of a few full-length issues (as well as #60 with its expanded letter column), Grimjack featured a backup story in the manner of other First Comics series.

The story brought a small amount of fame to the series for its occasional guest stars, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[2] Starting with issue #70 a new backup feature began, as John Ostrander felt that Munden's Bar was getting too far away from his original intent and he suspended it for reworking.

The miniseries, since reprinted in graphic novel form, serves as a prequel to the First Comics Grimjack series and shows John Gaunt's life leading up to his first appearance in Starslayer #10.

John Gaunt, alias Grimjack, was born in The Pit, a slum area of the pan-dimensional city of Cynosure, where both magic and technology, humans and aliens intermingle.

He studied magic with Rhian's father, Maethe Mathonwy, but while Gaunt could summon power he did not have the inner peace needed to properly control it.

The city's forces were able to repel Hell but demons invaded Pdwyr, causing the destruction of the land and the death of all those Gaunt loved, including Rhian.

After the events detailed in the Grimjack: Killer Instinct storyline, he abandoned Cadre and set himself up as a mercenary and private investigator in Cynosure.

[18] Gaunt operated under this identity for several months, gradually re-establishing relationships with his friends, until he met a man claiming to be an incarnation of himself from 3,000 years in the future.

[19] "FutureJack" convinces Gaunt that his doom is tied to the fate of Cynosure and to accompany him on a mission to hasten the destruction of the city.

Initially unaware of his past life, Twilley began remembering at around age 14 when he witnessed a thug murdering a jock who bullied him in high school.

Sometime later, his family, distraught over the changes that their son had undergone, kidnapped him and forced him into a personality restructuring therapy to erase the troubling memories, but when presented with a copy of John Gaunt as supposed proof that Twilley's memories were false, he flew in a frenzy and ripped out the Gaunt copy's throat with his teeth.

Away from First, Gaunt's corpse made a one-panel appearance as a sight gag in issue #5 of the DC Comics horror anthology title Wasteland.

Old John is described as having a "nasty-looking scar running both above and below his left eye" and a "nasty grin", wearing a dark feathered hat.

In the short story "The Shroudling and the Guisel", published posthumously in Amberzine #8, Zelazny refers to Grimjack by name: "I stood among the grave markers of unknown mortals—Dennis Colt, Remo Williams, John Gaunt—and swore to be her champion if ever she needed one".

Ken F. Levin, co-founder of First Comics, and Mike Gold, Grimjack's original editor, set out to free the rights to the character from legal limbo.

There were several reports over the years that the problem was not the rights to Grimjack, invariably stated in these accounts to be owned outright by Ostrander, but those to its setting, the pan-dimensional city of Cynosure, which was the property of First Comics.

The unique nature of the place was crucial to many of Ostrander's storylines, and some observers even considered it to be a "character" in its own right.

[citation needed] J. Michael Straczynski had reportedly planned to write a film adaptation of Grimjack during his time on Babylon 5.

[citation needed] At San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the Russo brothers announced their production company AGBO were developing an animated television series adaptation for Amazon.