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Karl the Viking #1
The Sword of Eingar
Don Lawrence's first masterpiece, from the artist of The Rise and Fall of The Trigan Empire comes the epic historical fantasy of Karl the Viking!
"Lawrence [is] celebrated for his richly coloured, highly detailed visions of fantastic worlds." - The New York Times
Originally serialised in Lion, Karl the Viking is a sweeping historical fantasy story of an orphaned Saxon boy, adopted and raised by the viking Eingar after his raid on Britain. Upon coming of age Karl succeeds Eingar and leads his tribe into battle in Britain against wild tribes of Picts, and re-connects with his old Saxon family, gaining an ally in his cousin Godwulf, and making an enemy of the Earl of Eastumbria.
These fast-paced stories were drawn by Don Lawrence shortly before he revolutionised painted comic art with The Trigan Empire , when he was already a master of pen and ink, and his Karl the Viking series was the pinnacle of black and white comic art.
"Lawrence [is] celebrated for his richly coloured, highly detailed visions of fantastic worlds." - The New York Times
Originally serialised in Lion, Karl the Viking is a sweeping historical fantasy story of an orphaned Saxon boy, adopted and raised by the viking Eingar after his raid on Britain. Upon coming of age Karl succeeds Eingar and leads his tribe into battle in Britain against wild tribes of Picts, and re-connects with his old Saxon family, gaining an ally in his cousin Godwulf, and making an enemy of the Earl of Eastumbria.
These fast-paced stories were drawn by Don Lawrence shortly before he revolutionised painted comic art with The Trigan Empire , when he was already a master of pen and ink, and his Karl the Viking series was the pinnacle of black and white comic art.
240 pages, Paperback
Published February 22, 2022
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January 14, 2022As with a lot of the stuff the Treasury Of British Comics imprint puts out, this may be much-loved by some, but I'd never heard of it. Still, after The Trigan Empire, Don Lawrence art was enough to grab my interest. He's working in pen and ink here, rather than the painted stuff there, but the monochrome suits the grimmer tone of Norse adventure, as against the Trigans' midpoint between classical civilisation and pulp SF. Spooky forests, daring assaults, stormy seas – Lawrence can do them all justice, though as in Trigan Empire, on occasion monsters who according to the captions are meant to be terrifying can come across a bit on the endearingly gormless side instead. There's also the slight issue, and this is not something I've ever encountered before in a comic that wasn't a clearly signposted spoof, that leading man Karl is very obviously being played by a worse actor than the rest of the cast. Honestly, this himbo's hair is fabulous, but you just know that his delivery of the lines ain't great and he's very probably been redubbed. As for the lines he's delivering...well. The writers here are Ted Cowan (whose potted bio suggests a war record reminiscent of Launchpad McQuack) and Ken Bulmer, rather than Trigan Empire's Mike Butterworth, but it would take a closer and more expert reader than me to pick up much difference between their styles. Particularly once Karl faces that Trigan Empire mainstay, a fungus which takes over people's minds. Which, granted, is weirdly plausible given what we've since learned about how deeply weird fungi are. What's less so is that a fungus would fall into the same 'take them alive, then leave them in a slow deathtrap from which escape is unlikely but possible, before hurrying off so that it's unsupervised and they can get away' error as your dafter strain of human villain.
This is an important point to bear in mind here, and one which threw me. I wasn't expecting rigorous historical accuracy from a 1960s boys' adventure comic, but I was expecting something which felt broadly Viking-y. Maybe the odd fight with trolls, y'know? And the first story lulled me into a false sense of that – dynastic struggles, coastal raids, a bit of light prophecy but nothing too far gone. I initially tutted at the idea of Vikings fully destroying settlements they attacked, but then Karl himself, the child of Saxons adopted by Vikings, gets positioned as the originator of their real practice of renewable raiding, and I thought, oh, OK, maybe this lot know what they're about. Most obviously, horned helmets are scarce, and generally being worn rather awkwardly by characters who look like they're meant to be a bit of a try-hard berk, which if not accurate per se, certainly feels right. Hell, they even seem to know that Viking is something you do more than a race you are. Granted, the Saxons' 'Earl Gyrth of Eastumbria' (he's a bit on the porky side, DO YOU SEE?) has a castle and followers who look a lot more Norman, and everyone involved seems to have forgotten that the Norse pantheon went further than Odin, Thor and the Fates (would a Thor-priest really be the best fellow for visions, or healing?), but there's an underlying stratum of Norse nous which is still ahead of Hollywood accuracy levels.
Except then we get to the second story, in which Karl et al get caught up in the politics of the Zapotecs. Yes, as in South American Zapotecs. Which already feels more like the sort of stuff you do a few years in, once ideas for plausibly Viking adventures are running thin, but OK, the Norsemen got pretty much everywhere else, why not? This didn't happen, so far as we know, but it could have, and the image of a longship sailing upriver into rainforest is glorious. It's a might-have-been, that's not a million miles from the tone of the opening story, right?
But then it turns out the Zapotecs have cavalry. Who dress like Mongols. And the crossing has had a few stops for giant-slaying, mysterious cities of gold, and dinosaurs. Which is already pushing it in terms of thematic consistency, from legend through myth to just sheer bunging it all in, but when the Vikings sink Atlantis the sheer 'huh?' of the timeline got too much. Leaving me in a bit of a 'yeah, whatever' once a subsequent story ends up on Sicily where Roman civilisation seems to be continuing pretty much intact. And let's not even get into the religious practices of the Saracens once they turn up, let alone the location of their temple. Now, I know it's a category error to expect a comic which has clearly decided to be a romp instead to worry about this stuff, but at times it also mis-steps even qua romp. Bringing an adversary back from the dead for another go-round, for instance; it's the sort of move which even after an intervening story might feel unfair, but when you do it straight away, it just feels like cheating, or the 2020s. Never mind consistency of tone, even consistency of character sometimes seems a stretch, and I don't mean in terms of psychological nuance; there's one page where, for no apparent reason, Karl is suddenly called Erik for the duration.
Still, ludicrous as it all is, it's very pretty - indeed, that photorealistic art is part of why I was expecting a greater realism of story - and it does clip along at a fair old rate, so I will almost certainly read the second volume, even if at this rate it will probably see the Vikings fighting Blackbeard for his steamship. On Saturn.
(Netgalley ARC)
This is an important point to bear in mind here, and one which threw me. I wasn't expecting rigorous historical accuracy from a 1960s boys' adventure comic, but I was expecting something which felt broadly Viking-y. Maybe the odd fight with trolls, y'know? And the first story lulled me into a false sense of that – dynastic struggles, coastal raids, a bit of light prophecy but nothing too far gone. I initially tutted at the idea of Vikings fully destroying settlements they attacked, but then Karl himself, the child of Saxons adopted by Vikings, gets positioned as the originator of their real practice of renewable raiding, and I thought, oh, OK, maybe this lot know what they're about. Most obviously, horned helmets are scarce, and generally being worn rather awkwardly by characters who look like they're meant to be a bit of a try-hard berk, which if not accurate per se, certainly feels right. Hell, they even seem to know that Viking is something you do more than a race you are. Granted, the Saxons' 'Earl Gyrth of Eastumbria' (he's a bit on the porky side, DO YOU SEE?) has a castle and followers who look a lot more Norman, and everyone involved seems to have forgotten that the Norse pantheon went further than Odin, Thor and the Fates (would a Thor-priest really be the best fellow for visions, or healing?), but there's an underlying stratum of Norse nous which is still ahead of Hollywood accuracy levels.
Except then we get to the second story, in which Karl et al get caught up in the politics of the Zapotecs. Yes, as in South American Zapotecs. Which already feels more like the sort of stuff you do a few years in, once ideas for plausibly Viking adventures are running thin, but OK, the Norsemen got pretty much everywhere else, why not? This didn't happen, so far as we know, but it could have, and the image of a longship sailing upriver into rainforest is glorious. It's a might-have-been, that's not a million miles from the tone of the opening story, right?
But then it turns out the Zapotecs have cavalry. Who dress like Mongols. And the crossing has had a few stops for giant-slaying, mysterious cities of gold, and dinosaurs. Which is already pushing it in terms of thematic consistency, from legend through myth to just sheer bunging it all in, but when the Vikings sink Atlantis the sheer 'huh?' of the timeline got too much. Leaving me in a bit of a 'yeah, whatever' once a subsequent story ends up on Sicily where Roman civilisation seems to be continuing pretty much intact. And let's not even get into the religious practices of the Saracens once they turn up, let alone the location of their temple. Now, I know it's a category error to expect a comic which has clearly decided to be a romp instead to worry about this stuff, but at times it also mis-steps even qua romp. Bringing an adversary back from the dead for another go-round, for instance; it's the sort of move which even after an intervening story might feel unfair, but when you do it straight away, it just feels like cheating, or the 2020s. Never mind consistency of tone, even consistency of character sometimes seems a stretch, and I don't mean in terms of psychological nuance; there's one page where, for no apparent reason, Karl is suddenly called Erik for the duration.
Still, ludicrous as it all is, it's very pretty - indeed, that photorealistic art is part of why I was expecting a greater realism of story - and it does clip along at a fair old rate, so I will almost certainly read the second volume, even if at this rate it will probably see the Vikings fighting Blackbeard for his steamship. On Saturn.
(Netgalley ARC)
November 15, 2021
I was given a digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity.
Karl the Viking Volume 1 is a fun and entertaining graphic novel bringing together 6 stories all of which were originally serialised in Lion in the 1960s. The artwork is done by the amazingly talented Don Lawrence and is very detailed and evocative of the exciting tales told in the stories. The artwork does most of the heavy lifting in this book, making it easy to visualise exactly what is happening in the plot and the locations and emotions the characters are feeling. The accompanying words are definitely not the star of the show and there are a few instances of an editor being needed. Eingar, Karl’s adoptive father, seems to change his name to Ragnar occasionally, for one example and Karl is also sometimes referred to as Erik. However you do not usually read a graphic novel for its prose and the black and white artwork is visually stunning. The stories are imaginative and exciting with giants, monsters, the fall of Atlantis, a wolf-man, giant seed pods invading Scandinavia, lions and a rhino in a gladiatorial arena, plenty of fights and peril and our hero floating unconscious in the ocean on more than one occasion. He does seem to lead a somewhat charmed life, no doubt protected by Odin, which is of course necessary for him to be able to return for more exciting stories in the next volume! I enjoyed the drawings accompanying these stories very much. The tension of the action sequences is very well conveyed. I would recommend this book to all fans of fast-paced action-packed graphic novels with stout-hearted heroes.
The stories within this volume are:
THE SWORD OF EINGAR
Serialised in Lion
29th October 1960 – 11th February 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Eingar the Viking chief adopts a baby Saxon boy he has orphaned and raises him as his own son and heir, Karl the Viking.
THE LONG VOYAGE TO OXACA
Serialised in Lion
18th February – 22nd July 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Returning a boy king to his far distant home of Oxaca, Karl and his Viking shipmates encounter many adventures and overcome many obstacles.
SELGOR THE WOLF
Serialised in Lion
29th July – 11th November 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Karl is pitted against a wolf man, Selgor who has burned his village and killed his blood brother. Only the fiercest of the two will win the riches of Woden.
THE FALSE GOD
Serialised in Lion
18th November 1961 – 24th March 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
An old enemy returns, wearing a golden mask and pretending to be the god Thor. Karl is determined to prove he is not a god and follows him to Egra in Sicily, where gladiatoral exploits follow.
THE POWERS OF HELVUD
Serialised in Lion
31st March – 28th July 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Giant mind-altering seed pods invade Scandinavia and threaten madness for an already decimated population following clan wars.
EL SARID THE MERCILESS
Serialised in Lion
4th August – 1st December 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
North African Saracen raiders with the appearance of wild beasts attack the Viking villages in search of plunder.
Karl the Viking Volume 1 is a fun and entertaining graphic novel bringing together 6 stories all of which were originally serialised in Lion in the 1960s. The artwork is done by the amazingly talented Don Lawrence and is very detailed and evocative of the exciting tales told in the stories. The artwork does most of the heavy lifting in this book, making it easy to visualise exactly what is happening in the plot and the locations and emotions the characters are feeling. The accompanying words are definitely not the star of the show and there are a few instances of an editor being needed. Eingar, Karl’s adoptive father, seems to change his name to Ragnar occasionally, for one example and Karl is also sometimes referred to as Erik. However you do not usually read a graphic novel for its prose and the black and white artwork is visually stunning. The stories are imaginative and exciting with giants, monsters, the fall of Atlantis, a wolf-man, giant seed pods invading Scandinavia, lions and a rhino in a gladiatorial arena, plenty of fights and peril and our hero floating unconscious in the ocean on more than one occasion. He does seem to lead a somewhat charmed life, no doubt protected by Odin, which is of course necessary for him to be able to return for more exciting stories in the next volume! I enjoyed the drawings accompanying these stories very much. The tension of the action sequences is very well conveyed. I would recommend this book to all fans of fast-paced action-packed graphic novels with stout-hearted heroes.
The stories within this volume are:
THE SWORD OF EINGAR
Serialised in Lion
29th October 1960 – 11th February 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Eingar the Viking chief adopts a baby Saxon boy he has orphaned and raises him as his own son and heir, Karl the Viking.
THE LONG VOYAGE TO OXACA
Serialised in Lion
18th February – 22nd July 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Returning a boy king to his far distant home of Oxaca, Karl and his Viking shipmates encounter many adventures and overcome many obstacles.
SELGOR THE WOLF
Serialised in Lion
29th July – 11th November 1961
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Karl is pitted against a wolf man, Selgor who has burned his village and killed his blood brother. Only the fiercest of the two will win the riches of Woden.
THE FALSE GOD
Serialised in Lion
18th November 1961 – 24th March 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
An old enemy returns, wearing a golden mask and pretending to be the god Thor. Karl is determined to prove he is not a god and follows him to Egra in Sicily, where gladiatoral exploits follow.
THE POWERS OF HELVUD
Serialised in Lion
31st March – 28th July 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
Giant mind-altering seed pods invade Scandinavia and threaten madness for an already decimated population following clan wars.
EL SARID THE MERCILESS
Serialised in Lion
4th August – 1st December 1962
Written by Ted Cowan
Art by Don Lawrence
North African Saracen raiders with the appearance of wild beasts attack the Viking villages in search of plunder.
November 7, 2021
A bit old fashioned in its storytelling style, but still an enjoyable read.
March 1, 2022
5 for anyone who likes pulpy Viking fantasy.
December 8, 2021
My thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher Rebellion-2000 AD for an advanced copy of this British comic classic.
Karl the Viking - Book One with art by Don Lawrence and stories by Kenneth Bulmer is a throwback to the early comic strip classics. Big, long stories, with historical plots, and a touch of the fantastical and fictional when story needs it, of bold men on bold adventures, with art that is more realistic, and ahead of its time. Similar to the works of Hal Foster in Prince Valiant, though the art is in black and white, and Karl a Saxon is adopted Eingar (sometimes Rangar) who was responsible for the death of Karl's village, stopping only when a voice only Eingar could hear, told him that Karl was to be spared. Eingar takes Karl home, calls him his son, and teaches him the raiding ways of the Viking.
The stories are big broad adventures both historical and fantastical. Atlantis, dinosaurs and the intervention of the gods share pages with good old pillaging, sieges, and being set adrift numerous times. Dangers are faced, villains are fought and derring-do is committed.
The art is black and white, and really crisp and clean with the characters all given a distinctive look and great backgrounds. The book might be a hard sell for modern readers, but it really is a lot of fun. Fans of the aforementioned Prince Valiant or even Conan might enjoy these stories, though Karl is not as hyper-violent, nor as much a barbarian.
Karl the Viking - Book One with art by Don Lawrence and stories by Kenneth Bulmer is a throwback to the early comic strip classics. Big, long stories, with historical plots, and a touch of the fantastical and fictional when story needs it, of bold men on bold adventures, with art that is more realistic, and ahead of its time. Similar to the works of Hal Foster in Prince Valiant, though the art is in black and white, and Karl a Saxon is adopted Eingar (sometimes Rangar) who was responsible for the death of Karl's village, stopping only when a voice only Eingar could hear, told him that Karl was to be spared. Eingar takes Karl home, calls him his son, and teaches him the raiding ways of the Viking.
The stories are big broad adventures both historical and fantastical. Atlantis, dinosaurs and the intervention of the gods share pages with good old pillaging, sieges, and being set adrift numerous times. Dangers are faced, villains are fought and derring-do is committed.
The art is black and white, and really crisp and clean with the characters all given a distinctive look and great backgrounds. The book might be a hard sell for modern readers, but it really is a lot of fun. Fans of the aforementioned Prince Valiant or even Conan might enjoy these stories, though Karl is not as hyper-violent, nor as much a barbarian.
December 26, 2021
There's something about this bit of British Comic history that hits notes similar to Star Wars: Clone Wars and Conan the Barbarian. It certainly does relate to the non-stop action, but I think that mainly has to do with how danger and the drive to survive is at every corner. Of course I can't ignore a few typos and I can only hear "Wyrd Weaver of Destiny help us!" for so long. But the fact that there were instances where Karl felt like he was genuinely in danger like with that Berserker Seldor really felt like an epic story. There were plenty of close calls and while Karl definitely has the cheaper plot armor, I can't help but remember how many times luck came his way and how many times it looked like on battle could be his last. Thrills like that are hard to come by.
Read
November 13, 2021DNF
I got annoyed that the author switched a characters name back and forth so I put it down to read other things. Apparently my time ran out with it because when I went back to read it, it was off my device. I hope this gets a look over by a good editor so they catch the mistakes made in this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and 2000 AD for a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.
I got annoyed that the author switched a characters name back and forth so I put it down to read other things. Apparently my time ran out with it because when I went back to read it, it was off my device. I hope this gets a look over by a good editor so they catch the mistakes made in this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and 2000 AD for a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.
April 1, 2023
A kidnapped baby becomes a Viking who ends up fighting anywhere but in the Northern wastes. It's pretty but the dialogue repeats ad nauseum.
November 29, 2025
Some stories can be very faithful to the historical context and some others are like reading Conan. Art by the legendary Don Lawrence but overall it's a kinda typical 60s British comic.
August 17, 2024
[image error]
Don't miss out on this beautiful Don Lawrence classic viking pulp!
I show the Rebellion books in this video:
https://youtu.be/idHFZ7jSHgg
Don't miss out on this beautiful Don Lawrence classic viking pulp!
I show the Rebellion books in this video:
https://youtu.be/idHFZ7jSHgg
December 10, 2021
Karl the Viking Volume One is a series of six stories originally published by Lion in the 1960s. This is the perfect throwback to the old-school comics with detailed black and white illustrations, plenty of action and adventure and the perfect mix of heroes and villains.
I loved the variety in the stories as there’s a mix of history, fantasy, mythical creatures, a dinosaur and plenty of action as well. One little thing that threw me was the name changes (Eingar became Ragnar) which took me a while to figure out. Karl looks like a he-man action figure and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of stories.
Karl the Viking Volume One will be published on January 20th 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and 2000 AD & Rebellion for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I loved the variety in the stories as there’s a mix of history, fantasy, mythical creatures, a dinosaur and plenty of action as well. One little thing that threw me was the name changes (Eingar became Ragnar) which took me a while to figure out. Karl looks like a he-man action figure and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of stories.
Karl the Viking Volume One will be published on January 20th 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and 2000 AD & Rebellion for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
March 6, 2022
I found this incredibly uninteresting overall, and ended up DNF-ing at about 30% because I just couldn't slog through more of this.
It was an interesting look at how much comic/graphic novels have changed over the years though.
It was an interesting look at how much comic/graphic novels have changed over the years though.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews