Sagas of the Northmen #1
Black Jack Press 2018
Written by Mark Wheaton, Sean Fahey, Tom Pinchuk, Derek Fridolfs
Ken Jones & Susan Wallis
Illustrated by Jok, Borch, Marcelo Basile, Ezequiel Rosingana
Micheal Kennedy & Totor Hristov
Letters & Production Design by Kel Nuttall
Sagas of the Northmen is a comic book anthology about the bold lives and heroic deeds of the men and women of The Viking Age. In the tradition of the medieval Icelandic Sagas, the book features tales about (seemingly) ordinary men and women finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
I do like an anthology series but for me seven tales in this was a bit much I think four to five stories in a book this size is preferable. Personal feelings aside I loved this book I think the subject matter of it is what tipped that scale for me. With Vikings, Norsemen and The Last Kingdom we are really seeing a resurgence of properly good stories that feature the brave men and women from the Viking Age.
I think why I would like fewer stories in an anthology is that I want each tale to be longer. Shorter ones end when I find myself smack dab in the middle of it’s grip and that leaves me wanting more that’s not going to come. Which is the reason I don’t read short stories in novel form either but here there are some stories that are left open-ended so that perhaps they can be revisited at a later date. Whomever decided upon which story went where in this book deserves some rather high praise because I think the order in which we read these is not only important but the first one is the one that will make someone decide whether to keep going or not.
Universally throughout the stories we see things that we are all consciously aware whether we realised it or not. Some taken straight out of history books and others taken from supposition and logical conclusions of what has happened in the past. In that regard the stories resonated with me and then I felt as if they were accurate and that impressed me. Even with a shorter amount of space the pacing of the stories are rather impressive and the characterisation equally so. This whole issue at sixty-three pages is impressive laid out and each story while done by separate teams still feels as if it all flows naturally from one to the other.
The interiors here are extremely impressive to me! The linework that we see throughout is utterly sensational and the varying weights we see to create the attention to detail is delightful. Black and white is an unforgiving style to work with and you’d best hope for the strongest and best work you can possibly do, it would really easy for us to see the mistakes in the work. There is not one among these seven that wasn’t done beautifully. The styles may vary but the strength of the work does not and each one perfectly expresses the story and makes the reader FEEL. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a number of stellar eyes for storytelling and that backgrounds are utilised as they really flesh out these stories beautifully.
I have my favourite stories out of these and if you read the book, which I am hoping you will, then we can discuss them then. This happens to be a prime example of why I keep telling you all that small press or indie books are those you need to be paying attention to. Some of the most interesting and talent folks don’t work at the familiar named companies and quite honestly this freedom they have to their stories is so much more appealing.
You can head over to the following links to get the book and see why I am making such a strong fuss over it!
https://www.drivethrucomics.com/browse/pub/3616/Black-Jack-Press?fbclid=IwAR3i7-vr_RTZ0ULcmpnUyQ_aORAg7-ugchhxUxCfpNKIXSkJjyVjIW2iu9g
https://www.facebook.com/BlackJackPress/
Black Jack Press 2018
Written by Mark Wheaton, Sean Fahey, Tom Pinchuk, Derek Fridolfs
Ken Jones & Susan Wallis
Illustrated by Jok, Borch, Marcelo Basile, Ezequiel Rosingana
Micheal Kennedy & Totor Hristov
Letters & Production Design by Kel Nuttall
Sagas of the Northmen is a comic book anthology about the bold lives and heroic deeds of the men and women of The Viking Age. In the tradition of the medieval Icelandic Sagas, the book features tales about (seemingly) ordinary men and women finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
I do like an anthology series but for me seven tales in this was a bit much I think four to five stories in a book this size is preferable. Personal feelings aside I loved this book I think the subject matter of it is what tipped that scale for me. With Vikings, Norsemen and The Last Kingdom we are really seeing a resurgence of properly good stories that feature the brave men and women from the Viking Age.
I think why I would like fewer stories in an anthology is that I want each tale to be longer. Shorter ones end when I find myself smack dab in the middle of it’s grip and that leaves me wanting more that’s not going to come. Which is the reason I don’t read short stories in novel form either but here there are some stories that are left open-ended so that perhaps they can be revisited at a later date. Whomever decided upon which story went where in this book deserves some rather high praise because I think the order in which we read these is not only important but the first one is the one that will make someone decide whether to keep going or not.
Universally throughout the stories we see things that we are all consciously aware whether we realised it or not. Some taken straight out of history books and others taken from supposition and logical conclusions of what has happened in the past. In that regard the stories resonated with me and then I felt as if they were accurate and that impressed me. Even with a shorter amount of space the pacing of the stories are rather impressive and the characterisation equally so. This whole issue at sixty-three pages is impressive laid out and each story while done by separate teams still feels as if it all flows naturally from one to the other.
The interiors here are extremely impressive to me! The linework that we see throughout is utterly sensational and the varying weights we see to create the attention to detail is delightful. Black and white is an unforgiving style to work with and you’d best hope for the strongest and best work you can possibly do, it would really easy for us to see the mistakes in the work. There is not one among these seven that wasn’t done beautifully. The styles may vary but the strength of the work does not and each one perfectly expresses the story and makes the reader FEEL. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a number of stellar eyes for storytelling and that backgrounds are utilised as they really flesh out these stories beautifully.
I have my favourite stories out of these and if you read the book, which I am hoping you will, then we can discuss them then. This happens to be a prime example of why I keep telling you all that small press or indie books are those you need to be paying attention to. Some of the most interesting and talent folks don’t work at the familiar named companies and quite honestly this freedom they have to their stories is so much more appealing.
You can head over to the following links to get the book and see why I am making such a strong fuss over it!
https://www.drivethrucomics.com/browse/pub/3616/Black-Jack-Press?fbclid=IwAR3i7-vr_RTZ0ULcmpnUyQ_aORAg7-ugchhxUxCfpNKIXSkJjyVjIW2iu9g
https://www.facebook.com/BlackJackPress/
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