{"id":28143,"date":"2023-06-12T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28143"},"modified":"2023-06-09T17:39:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T17:39:01","slug":"viking-glory-the-viking-prince-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/06\/12\/viking-glory-the-viking-prince-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Viking Glory: The Viking Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Lee Marrs<\/strong> & Bo Hampton<\/strong>, lettered by Tracey Hampton-Munsey<\/strong> (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-56389-001-7 (HB) 978-1-56389-007-9 (TPB)<\/p>\n

During the intentionally anodyne mid-1950s, when superheroes languished in a seemingly inescapable trough, comic book companies looked to different forms of leading men for their action heroes. Following movie trends, in 1955 writer\/editor Robert Kanigher devised an adventure comic entitled The<\/strong> Brave and the Bold<\/strong> featuring historical action strips.<\/p>\n

Illustrated by Russ Heath, The Golden Gladiator<\/em> was set in the declining days of Imperial Rome. Courtesy of veteran draughtsman Irv Novick, Silent Knight<\/em> fought injustice in post-Norman Invasion Britain and the already-legendary Joe Kubert limned the increasingly astounding and uncanny exploits of a valiant young Norseman dubbed the Viking Prince<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This last strip appeared in all but one issue (#6), before eventually taking over the entire comic, until the burgeoning superhero resurgence of the Silver Age saw B&B <\/strong>metamorphose into a try-out title from its 25th<\/sup> issue.<\/p>\n

Those fanciful, \u201cHollywood-styled\u201d Viking sagas are some of the finest fantasy comics of all time and long overdue for a definitive archival collection of their own. Star character Jon<\/em> has long been a fan-favourite, regularly returning in DC\u2019s war titles and guest-starring in such varied venues as Sgt. Rock<\/strong> and Justice League of America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This beautiful, vital and enchanting tale was released to very little fanfare or editorial support in 1991, yet remains a worthy sequel to those early strips and is also long overdue for revival and re-issue\u2026<\/p>\n

Scripter Lee Marrs (Pudge: Girl Blimp<\/strong>, Wimmen\u2019s Comix<\/strong>, Wonder Woman<\/strong>, Zatanna<\/strong>, Pre-teen, Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos<\/strong>, Indiana Jones<\/strong>) took all the advances in our historical knowledge since the 1950s and blended them with the timeless basics of a Classical Edda to entrancing effect. Amidst a culture vibrantly brought to full life by her words and hyper-realist Bo Hampton\u2019s awesome skill with a paintbrush, Marrs took a passionate but reserved traditional archetype and remade him as a fiery young hero of devastating charm, brimming with the boisterous vigour of his mythic breed, before confronting him with his worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

In 10th<\/sup> century Scandinavia, Jon Rolloson<\/em> – heir to Jarl Rollo of Gallund<\/em> – is an ideal Northman\u2019s son: fast, tough, fearless and irresistible to all the village maidens. However, the greatest horror of his 16 years has finally come for him: an arranged marriage for political advantage. He must leave his home and the Viking life to wed a \u201cCivilised\u201d princess. His joyous days are all done\u2026<\/p>\n

Princess Asa of Hedeby<\/em> is a young beauty every inch his match in vigour and vitality, but also as composed and smart as he is coarse and oafish. Sadly, someone is stealthily seeking to thwart the match, even though Jon\u2019s boorishness is enough to give both fathers cause to reconsider. Following the first meeting, only the Viking Prince\u2019s rash vow to recover a lost rune treasure and slay a fearsome dragon preserves the bargain. The wedding will proceed\u2026 once he has found and killed Ansgar<\/em>, the vilest of all Fire-Wyrms, and not perished in the process\u2026<\/p>\n

As well as being a superb scripter of comics, Marrs is an underground cartoonist legend, animator and computer artist who assisted Hal Foster on that other sword-wielding epic Prince Valiant<\/strong>. Her grasp of human character – especially comedically – elevates this classic tale of romantic endeavour into a multi-faceted gem of captivating quality. Hampton has created some of the best drawn or painted comics in the medium (like Legend of Sleepy Hollow<\/strong>, Verdilak<\/strong>, Swamp Thing<\/strong>, Moon Knight<\/strong>, Greylore<\/strong>, Demons of Sherwood<\/strong>, <\/em>Batman: Castle of the Bat<\/strong>, <\/em>The Once and Future Tarzan<\/strong>) and this book is probably still the very best of them.<\/p>\n

One of the most accomplished and enjoyable historical romances ever produced in comic form, Viking Glory<\/strong> deserves to be on every fan\u2019s bookshelf. Let\u2019s hope that it\u2019s on DC\u2019s shortlist for a swift re-release in both printed parchment and aetheric electrons…
\n\u00a9 1991 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lee Marrs & Bo Hampton, lettered by Tracey Hampton-Munsey (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-56389-001-7 (HB) 978-1-56389-007-9 (TPB) During the intentionally anodyne mid-1950s, when superheroes languished in a seemingly inescapable trough, comic book companies looked to different forms of leading men for their action heroes. Following movie trends, in 1955 writer\/editor Robert Kanigher devised an adventure … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Viking Glory: The Viking Prince”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,305,102,122,256],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-dc-horror","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-sword-sorcery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7jV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28147,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28143\/revisions\/28147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}