(re-)Introducing: Northlanders

When I set out to create Northlanders, I wanted to strip away the myth and romance and bullshit surrounding the Vikings and explore their world as it really was: brutal, complex, and deeply human. A raw, historical anthology about survival, identity, and the clash of cultures, specifically the invading religion of Christianity meeting the “old ways” of paganism. That tension is one of those things some people called “story generators.”

The comic book series debuted in 2007, before Vikings TV show debuted in 2013, before Assassin’s Creed Valhalla brought Norse culture to the mainstream, Northlanders was there, carving out a new space for this sort of nuanced, character-driven sagas*. Most portrayals of Vikings, and I’m talking strictly about American comics here, fell into two categories: something like Thor or a generic sort of “barbarian,” and the stuff of fantasy literature. Many a bare chest and a horned helmet was used, and, after that TV show, box braids and expensive looking razor-cut hairstyles.

* Aside from historical sources, I drew some inspiration from Bernard Cornwell and Tim Severin.

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I approached the characters as complex people—warriors, farmers, outcasts, and survivors, as children and mothers and fathers. The series was groundbreaking because it didn’t just use history as a backdrop; it set its stories within the historical timeline.

I think this was why it sold well enough to run for 4+ years, or 50 monthly issues. It was an outlier and it kept shifting its approach from story to story, and, not to be understated, the art teams* would swap in and out. It was reinventing itself every few months.

* Davide Gianfelice, Ryan Kelly, Dean Ormston, Leandro Fernández, Riccardo Burchielli, Fiona Staples, Declan Shalvey, Becky Cloonan, Paul Azaceta, Danijel Žeželj, Simon Gane, Massimo Carnevale, Dave Gibbons, and the late John Paul Leon. Geniuses, all of them.

DC Comics/Vertigo published it until recently, when I was able to reclaim the publishing rights and the copyright, which is why I’m experimenting with some new Northlanders stories, seeing how the 2025 version of me does compared to the 2007 version.

The art is being handled by this new outfit called Iron Avenue, that I played a small role in helping to establish. I always wished there was a comics version of the Gorillaz, anonymous (at least to start) and making art collectively, and maybe this is it.

-b

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