History ComicBook / Gravel

In contrast to the strong sci-fi leanings of most of Ellis' work, Gravel deals more directly with his love of the ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' tradition, such as Lovecraft and his ilk. Ellis and penciler/ co-writer Mike Wolfer tell tales of a {{Magnificent Bastard}} dealing with horrible things [[EldritchAbomination Man Was Not Meant to Fuck With]].

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Arguable; GrayAndGreyMorality is also a viable call. Gravel sure as hell isn't a white knight. He has ideals-- and watch what he does for them.

Starting life when Creator/WarrenEllis wanted to salvage a supernatural story Marvel rejected for not being "kid friendly", ''Gravel'' the series follows Gravel the man. A member of the SAS like his father was, Bill Gravel is also a chronic "moonlighter", doing cash and carry jobs off the books for extra money. Too valuable to simply be offed for this breach of SAS protocol, he's instead often put on K Duty-- deniable ops. The shit the British military needs done off the books. Since it's off the books, it's bad for the Sergeant Major's service record-- and thus his pay. Which leads to more moonlighting.

* ''Gravel'' (2007-). 22 Issues

* ''Gravel'' (2007-). Still ongoing.

* HumanDisguise: Or some sort of organic MobileSuitHuman? The [[spoiler:first story involves an EldritchAbomination in the for of a lizard which sends extensions of itself disguised as attractive humans to Earth. The story compares them to the entity's reproductive organs because when they have sex with humans they're implanted with multiple examples of the creature's young becoming living incubators. These pseudo-humans can die from physical trauma much like real people and when dissected, they are shown to have a large lizard located in their thorax that apparently dies when they do]].

* SquishyWizard: Strongly averted, whenever he doffs his shirt, his fellow SAS commandos look like scarecrows compared to Bill. He's got enough muscles to intimidate Conan and that's under normal circumstances! But all this shoots through the roof when he starts cranking out the magic. When he starts channelling his magic into himself, he has enough super-strength to tear people and monsters in half with his bare hands. Also he can withstand getting impaled in a spiked pit and having his arm cut off (he's also able to use magic to cure holes in him from the imaplement and re-attach his arm).

Gravel first appeared in ''Strange Kiss'' #1 (November, 1999). Gravel's story starts in six collected black and white miniseries known as the ''Strange Killings'' books, available as trade paperbacks or collected in the '''Never a Dull Day''' omnibus. He currently appears every six weeks or so in an ongoing Gravel series, now in color. The first collection has been released, and deals with a major shakeup of the British Occult Community. The next arc should be collected soon.

And Ellis is working on the screenplay for a Gravel film.

* AFriendInNeed: Gravel follows this strongly towards people who save his life and is keen on returning the favor when able. In ''Strange Kiss'', an old (and according to him his only) friend of his was impregnated by an Elder God, so he killed it and sent it crashing into Manhattan at his friends' dying request.

* TomeOfEldritchLore: Bill possesses the Sigsand Manuscript. ''Magazine/WeirdTales'' fans, yes-- '''that''' Sigsand.

* HeroicSociopath: Bill Gravel is this. By his own account, he is a sociopathic bastard with a predilection for killing and only does altruistic deeds out of service to the SAS and a sense of duty as a magician.

* {{Badass}}: Sgt Major William Gravel, SAS Combat Mage

* AFriendInNeed: Gravel follows this strongly towards people who save his life and is keen on returning the favor when able. He once recounted that an old friend of his was impregnated by an Elder God, so he killed it and sent it crashing into Manhattan.

* EvilCounterpart: "Bible" Jack would be this for Gravel. Like Bill, he grew up in vicious destitute conditions and had a natural affinity for magic. Like Bill, he is quite crafty in his usage of magic in addition to being skilled enough to murder an entire roster of the Minor Seven handpicked by Bill like Bill had done to the previous Minor Seven. Unlike Bill, "Bible" Jack is a power-hungry AxCrazy sociopath who wants to use his skill to become the top magician in Britain, while Bill just wanted to wipe out dangerous enemies. Unlike Bill, Jack is a scrawny emaciated upstart instead of a built and seasoned veteran.

* EvilCounterpart: "Bible" Jack would be this for Gravel. Like Bill, he grew up in vicious destitute conditions and had an affinity along for magic. Like Bill, he is quite crafty in his usage of magic in addition to being skill enough to kill an entire roster of the Minor Seven handpicked by Bill like Bill had done to the previous Minor Seven. Unlike Bill, "Bible" Jack is a power-hungry AxCrazy sociopath who wants to use his power to become the top magician in Britain while Bill just wanted to wipe out dangerous enemies. Unlike, Bill, Jack is a scrawny emaciated upstart instead of a built and seasoned veteran.

* XMeetsY: Something like [[ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] meets the Wiki/SCPFoundation.

In contrast to the strong sci-fi leanings of most of Ellis' work, Gravel deals more directly with his love of the WeirdTales tradition, such as Lovecraft and his ilk. Ellis and penciler/ co-writer Mike Wolfer tell tales of a {{Magnificent Bastard}} dealing with horrible things [[EldritchAbomination Man Was Not Meant to Fuck With]].

* TomeOfEldritchLore: Bill possesses the Sigsand Manuscript. WeirdTales fans, yes-- '''that''' Sigsand.

Gravel first appeared in ''Strange Kiss'' #1 (November, 1999). Gravel's story starts in six collected black and white miniseries known as the ''Strange Killings''books, available as trade paperbacks or collected in the '''Never a Dull Day''' omnibus. He currently appears every six weeks or so in an ongoing Gravel series, now in color. The first collection has been released, and deals with a major shakeup of the British Occult Community. The next arc should be collected soon.