Northlanders | |
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Cover to issue #1 of Northlanders (December 2007). Art by Massimo Carnevale.
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Vertigo |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Ongoing series |
Genre | |
Publication date(s) | February 2008 – April 2012 |
No. of issues | 50 |
Creative team | |
Created by | Brian Wood |
Written by | Brian Wood |
Artist(s) |
Davide Gianfelice Massimo Carnevale Dean Ormston Ryan Kelly Vasilis Lolos Danijel Zezelj Leandro Fernández |
Letterer(s) | Travis Lanham |
Colorist(s) |
Dave McCaig Dean Ormston |
Editor(s) |
Mark Doyle Will Dennis Casey Seijas |
Collected editions | |
Sven the Returned | ISBN |
The Cross + the Hammer | ISBN |
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 ended on April 11, 2012, at issue #50.
Northlanders alternates long and short story arcs, each of which deals with a different protagonist in a different time period within the Viking Age.
The first story arc, "Sven the Returned," runs through issues 1–8 and is set in A.D. 980. It follows a self-exiled Viking warrior named Sven who has been serving in the Byzantine Varangian Guard, and is now returning to his birth region in the Orkney Islands in order to reclaim his rightful inheritance.
The second arc, "Lindisfarne," runs through issues 9 and 10, and 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," runs through issues 11–16 and is set around Dublin, Ireland circa the Battle of Clontarf, which took place in A.D. 1014; it deals with the pursuit of an Irishman and his daughter who attacks the occupying Viking forces using guerrilla tactics.
The series is being collected into trade paperbacks: