Capes and Space

guminudli:

So, Northlanders. All of the arcs in this series are self contained stories and this spam will be about the first one, Sven the Returned. It’s not a very complex tale, but I do like it. Possibly because of my slight obsession with the Varangian Guard, which Sven is a member of, though the story is not about them. (Shut up, it is slight.) Then there is the amazing art of Davide Gianfelice, which does help a whole lot. There are epic empty landscapes and bloody freaking battles and all of the Vikings. (For the record, there are also multiple off panel rapes and buckets of blood, heads chopped off with axes kind of graphic violence in this one, just in case you want to avoid things like that.)

(Northlanders #1)

guminudli:

The year is A.D. 980. This here handsome young dude is Sven. He’s on his way home to Grimness Settlement on the Orkney Islands.

(Northlanders #1)

guminudli:

Twenty years ago, Sven’s dad went away raiding with his pals. Sven’s evil uncle Gorm took this great opportunity to torch their house and rape Sven’s mother. Sven dishonored himself by running away and not trying to defend her, so he left home. But as soon as the next morning, he was caught and sold first to a shipmaster, then years later to a merchant in Constantinople. Here we see his young self’s lol edgy ideas about life, the universe and everything.

(Northlanders #5)

guminudli:

As chance would have it, Sven fell in love with the merchant’s beautiful daughter, Zoe. So, when the merchant’s nice business partners murderized him, Sven defended Zoe and her newly inherited riches. Zoe paid his way into the Varangian Guard, Sven hunted down her father’s murderers and kept helping her business deals by looming darkly in the background. Meanwhile, they had a ten years long sexy open affair. Meanwhile, this page is so awesome.

(Northlanders #5)

guminudli:

But then! Sven’s father died and he decided to return home to claim his leadership rights… Wait. To claim his money. Unfortunately, evil uncle Gorm has already did those things, ruling the settlement with an iron fist, treating everyone like slaves and generally making everything go to shit. Here they are, looking great in their double page facing offing.

(Northlanders #1)

guminudli:

While you’re looking at this beautiful landscape goodness and Sven’s silent contemplation thereof, I’ll tell you that evil uncle Gorm and his cronies beat up Sven and put him out to die. But he does not. He does meet some people, though. For example, Enna, the Hunter’s Daughter, good with bows, as you can see by the results here. And some dudes from a nearby village, good with rejecting his offer to team up against Gorm and also fishing.

(Northlanders #2)

guminudli:

Sven moves in with Enna, as of yet strictly platonic roommates. They even have a pet raven.

(Northlanders #4)

guminudli:

Sven keeps killing the men Gorm sends after him, decorating his front lawn with their heads. He’s also quite an accomplished troll, although opinions in the settlement differ on whether it’s the man with the head of a stag or the walking dead terrorizing them.

(Northlanders #3)

This part was so amazing. This is one of the selling points of this series.

guminudli:

This is Hakkar, of the epic beard, who’s not so convinced by these supernatural shenanigans. Here he’s sending a man to Constantinople to kill Zoe. Meanwhile, Sven has hooked up with his old flame, Thora, who is now Gorm’s slave and there is no end to the unpleasantness that all happens to her. :/

(Northlanders #4)

guminudli:

As we arrive at the end of today’s spam, Sven has a sudden change of philosophy. Guess what happened. Coming next time: the second half of this spam. Along with the Saxons.

(Northlanders #5)