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Vikings in Graphic Novels

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Saved by Sigren Gram
on December 4, 2009 at 6:46:20 pm
 

 

Vikings, specifically Viking culture, pop up in Graphic Novels from the land of the rising sun all the way to the Wild West.  You can find everything from vague references and similarity's to complete fabrications based on the original subject.  You can also find representations from Viking culture within a variety of different sources within the same virtual medium. 

Going from such things as the Thor comic book in America to Oh! Megami-sama from Japan, even so far as to join the web-comic ranks in Sparkling Generation: Valkarie Yuuki.

Each individual series takes what it wants from the mythos, gives it a spin from the local popular culture and adds to it.  Even going so far as to create its own mythos from seeds based in truth.

They don’t all range into the fantastic and mythic of might and magic.  There are other series based in science, attempting to explain away the origins of gods and demons such as the Stargate series based on the popular TV show.  Or those based in ancient times within the realm loosely held by the Vikings of yore like Vinland Saga a semi historical Japanese Manga.

 

 

American Comics

 

 

http://www.shockya.com/news/wp-content/uploads/thor_comic_book_cover.jpg 

Marvel comics seem to have a huge stock in Viking trade thanks to The Mighty Thor series of comics.   Which has allowed a foothold for many of the other Asgard to show up in various other places within the Marvel universe.  This stretches to gods such as Loki as well as the Norns.  On the other side Loki’s followers the Frost Giants move to begin Ragnarok. (Loki has made appearances in Spiderman as well as the off color and unusual Deadpool.)  Much of the story is based around Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir.  While there seems to be less of a mythological facet to the story due to the nature of the origins within the mythos built up for the new version of Thor it still has its roots in the legends of the ancient Vikings. 

 

 

http://i.livescience.com/images/VikingTeaser.jpg

            Image comics have a Norse based comic called Viking that is owned by its writer Ivan Brandon.  The plot is apparently a sort of Sopranos in the Viking world.  Day to day life of a Norseman trading in goods acquired from going a-viking.  There is also a dark humor within the story, ranging from grotesque to just plan gore type humor.

 

 

 

Japanese Manga

 

 

 http://www.cosplayful.com/media/catalog/category/ah_my_goddess_tv_203_1024_1.jpg

            Within the Japanese medium of Manga (virtually identical to the comic books of America) there are a number of places where Norse heritage and mythos show up.  Such as the popular Ah! My goddess series.  The series is based around the Norns (The three fates of Viking lore Past, Present and Future.) as well as the World Tree (Yggdrasill, the world tree, is a very holy ideal for the ancient Norse being the place that holds the world up).  The story centers around an average Japanese collage student who is granted a wish by one of the three Norns.  His wish causes her to stay with him which puts into motion a great many events that cause chaos and disaster for the story to be fueled on.

 

 

 

Other Sources

 

 

 

 

http://www.sgvy.com/images/style/main_splash_top.jpg

            The Internet is an interesting source of self-published works in today’s age.  This includes web-comics such as Sparkling Generation: Valkarie Yuuki which is a webcomic produced by a person calling themselves Kittyhawk.  The story is about a young man in a large city who loves anime.  He rents an interesting looking new series from a store one night and in the classic manner of magical girl anime he has a transformation, which empowers him to fight off Ragnarok.  Together with the trusty sidekick Hermod, the trusty animal companion, they battle the forces of Surt and try not to let Loki mess things up to badly.  There are several interesting twists to the story but it’s something you should read for yourself.

 

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