Northlanders

Northlanders
Cover to issue #1 of Northlanders (December 2007). Art by Massimo Carnevale.
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Historical
Publication date	February 2008 – present
Number of issues	42 (As of July 2011)
Creative team
Writer(s)	Brian Wood
Artist(s)	Davide Gianfelice Massimo Carnevale Dean Ormston Ryan Kelly Vasilis Lolos Danijel Zezelj Leandro Fernandez
Letterer(s)	Travis Lanham
Colorist(s)	Dave McCaig Dean Ormston
Creator(s)	Brian Wood
Editor(s)	Mark Doyle Will Dennis Casey Seijas
Collected editions
Sven the Returned	ISBN 1401219187
The Cross + the Hammer	ISBN 140122296X

For the Canadian train, see Northlander.

Northlanders is an American comic book series published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint. The stories are fictional but set in and around historical events during the Viking Age.

Northlanders is written by Brian Wood, illustrated by various artists on a per storyline basis, and with painted cover art by Massimo Carnevale. The first issue of the series was published on December 5, 2007.

On June 9, 2011, Brian Wood announced via Twitter that the series had been canceled by Vertigo. It will end in March 2012, at issue #50.

Plot

Wood has said that the series will be divided into long story arcs alternated with short arcs.

In the first arc, "Sven the Returned," (issues #1-8) we follow the protagonist Sven, a self-exiled Viking warrior serving in the Byzantine Varangian Guard, as he returns (in A.D. 980) to his birth region in the Orkney Islands in order to reclaim his rightful inheritance.

The second arc, "Lindisfarne," (issues #9-10) is about a young boy and the sacking of the Lindisfarne monastery in A.D. 793, the beginning of the Viking Age.

The third arc, "The Cross + The Hammer," (issues #11-16) is set around Dublin, Ireland circa the Battle of Clontarf (A.D. 1014), and follows the chase of an Irishman who attacks the occupying Viking forces using guerrilla tactics. He also accompanies his daughter Brigid while on the run.

Collected editions

The series is being collected into trade paperbacks:

#	Title	ISBN	Release date	Collected material	Artists
1	Sven the Returned	ISBN 1401219187	October, 2008	Northlanders #1-8, "Sven the Returned"	Davide Gianfelice
2	The Cross + the Hammer	ISBN 140122296X	July, 2009	Northlanders #11-16, "The Cross + the Hammer"	Ryan Kelly
3	Blood in the Snow	ISBN 1401226205	March, 2010	Northlanders #9-10, "Lindisfarne" Northlanders #17, "The Viking Art of Single Combat" Northlanders #18-19, "The Shield Maidens" Northlanders #20, "Sven, The Immortal"	Davide Gianfelice, Vasilis Lolos, Dean Ormston, Danijel Zezelj
4	The Plague Widow	ISBN 140122850X	October, 2010	Northlanders #21-28, "The Plague Widow"	Leandro Fernández
5	Metal	ISBN 1401231608	July, 2011	Northlanders #29 "The Sea Road" "Northlanders" #30-34 "Metal", "Northlanders" #35-36 "The Girl In The Ice"	Fiona Staples, Riccardo Burchielli, Becky Cloonan
5	Thor's Daughter		February, 2012	Northlanders #37-41	Simon Gane, Matthew Woodson, Marion Churchland

Awards

• 2007: Nominated for the Eagle Award for "Favourite Comics Cover published during 2007" for cover the of issue 1B by Adam Kubert

See also

• Viking, a Viking comic book from Image Comics

References

• Northlanders at the Grand Comics Database
• Northlanders at the Comic Book DB

External links

• Official site
• Northlanders #1 at DC/Vertigo comics
• Northlanders on Brian Wood's website
• Viking Clash Pits Old Against New in Northlanders, Publisher Weekly, November 13, 2007
• Comics Wikia page

Interviews

• Y1K PARANOIA: Brian Wood talks "Northlanders", Comic Book Resources, October 16, 2007
• Interview/Preview: Vertigo's Northlanders, IGN, October 22, 2007
• Ragnarok n’ Roll: An interview with Brian Wood, Comics Bulletin, November 20, 2007
• Brian Wood Talks Northlanders 2009, Comic Book Resources, January 27, 2009
• The Viking Chronicles: Brian Wood Talks Northlanders, Newsarama, June 24 , 2009

Reviews

• Northlanders #1 #4, Comics Bulletin
• Northlanders #1 and #2, IGN