This listing is for Viking #2 By Ivan Brandon And Nic Klein For Image Comics. 

Viking #2 is by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein and is published by Image Comics on Wednesday/Thursday priced at $2.99.  Viking #1 was a comic that took a number of people by surprise, an untested team on a new creator-owned book about vikings, in a market where even the sensational Northlander from Vertigo isn’t selling gangbusters. Oh and the comic is in a non-traditional format.

The team and publisher took the bright, if pricey step of printing copies for comic shop retailers to see before ordering. The gamble paid off, retailers were convinced, orders were good, reviews were fantastic, the books still sold out fast and went to second print instantly. nd this Wednesday, the due date for that difficult second issue, is also the day when 39 Marvel regular comic books (plus 14 variant covers and a bunch of trades) hit. That is a lot of shelf space with the Marvel logo staring out.

So this review is part of a series running today and tomorrow that highlight comics that might otherwise get squeezed off the shelf this Wednesday or Thursday.  Viking tells a tale we’ve become familiar with, that of modern organised crime, but in a world where there is much less of a structure to work with, where the kingdoms are not just part of the problem, they are the problem. It’s a primitive Godfather, with many of the themes familiar from such works, family, duty and the lineage of men.

And right from the beginning we’re hit with the theme of consequences, living with them, dealing with them, challenging them. We see consequences of the battle in issue 1, and the whole book looks at everyone dealing with their own particular brand, whether internally, expressed through the vivid colours and experimental storytelling, or with direct expressed language that Brian Bendis readers will much to appreciate. Hell, the first page and a half are speech balloons against a black back ground, before the art goes on its own twisted journey.  That this brutalised image of the past feels so familiar, is testament to the strength of this family saga, the same tensions and fights that feel so familiar turned not so much into subtest but into uber-text, fights with flaming hot swords, strikes from hammers and actual banishment. And in the middle of it all, office politics.  This is a rich book, in expressed themes and well as layered colours. Dive in and be enveloped.

From its basic design to the artwork itself, this book is one of the most gorgeous comics on store shelves today.  The fact that this book is $2.99 is unbelievable.

The art is a perfect blend of painting, modern indie comic, and cartoonish; stylized and beautiful, it’s a sight to behold.  I love Klein’s mastery of lighting in the book; it’s clear that he’s painting a world without electricity, as when it’s night, one gets a real sense of the firelight that is relied upon as everything takes on a dark orange hue.  I also reallyenjoyed Klein’s use of color to depict mood, with everything going a light red in moments of tension or violence. With creative panel layouts and large, impressive splashes, this book does the painted form proud.

There is however a story at work here, as Brandon continues to establish the voices of his characters.  This month, we really get a sense of the “crime fiction” element of the tale.  King Bram sounds like a mob boss and Brandon’s depiction of the Viking lifestyle sounds increasingly like that of the gangster lifestyle taken up by immigrants in the early twentieth century.  The wild and naive ambitions of the young, the difficulty of leaving the life behind, and the Grandfather’s wish that his grandsons do not enter the life of crime carved out by their father all make this comic sound a hell of a lot like a gangster movie.  Brandon is clearly making his generic standing clear this month, and the comic is all the more intriguing for it.  Meanwhile, for the second month in a row, Brandon ends his book with a final scene that packs an emotional wallop.

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