There is no denying that the past decade has been a godsend when it comes to Viking and Norse-themed media. Every form of entertainment and media, from Hollywood films to television and video games, seems to have been impacted by the unstoppable cultural assault of the northern hordes.
Although major mainstream properties og the likes of Marvel’s Thor, Skyrim, or the Vikings TV show are what might come to the mind of the average joe when discussing this trend, many independent creators have also been dabbling with this theme in recent years. One excellent example which will be discussed today is the Ragnarok comics series, whose first volume was just made available in English.
The series, which debuted last year from the Nordic publishing house Egmont, is created by Odin Helgheim, a Norwegian illustrator and comics artist based in the southern Norwegian city of Sandefjord. Odin, who briefly lived in South Carolina with his family when he was a child, has mentioned how his American sojourn deeply influenced him and introduced him to the world of animation and comic books. Upon returning to Norway, he progressively upgraded his childlike doodles into more refined illustrations which took inspiration from Japanese manga.
After joining Instagram and quickly gaining a significant following there, Odin released his first short comic, Ōkami, on the popular Webtoons platform, where it amassed thousands of views. While the art displayed in this seventeen-page short black and white story could feel at times somewhat rudimentary, it already showcased one of its author’s great passion, namely, the Viking Age.
Comic artist Odin Helgheim (C) Egmont Publishing
The following year, Odin started to post less and less fan art of popular media franchises, and started to upload a lot more sketchbook ideas. In those sketches, a young boy with spunky hair holding a hammer started to make a recurring appearance. This was the birth of Ubbe, the main character of Ragnarok, Odin’s first full length comic series, which is set in an alternative version of the Viking world where gods, monsters, and heroes walk across the frostbitten plains of Midgard. (A Norwegian-language preview is available online.)
The story of Ragnarok starts, like many origin stories, in a small village, where a young Ubbe enjoys a parochial life alongside his brother Hod the boatbuilder and his fierce, red-headed mother Gunnhild. When Ubbe and Hod’s father, the stern and silent Herjan, comes back from a successful viking raid, he is welcomed by all and duly feted in the longhouse hall. But on the other side of the village’s walls, a mystical threat looms, and will soon bring tragedy in its wake. Only Ubbe and Thyra, a young shaman, can bring back peace to not only the village, but the whole world.
If this storyline can seem a little bit cliché, it nevertheless manages to aptly establish the world of Ragnarok, a colorful world where Vikings of both sexes are covered in tattoos, wield dragon-headed bows, and are continuously covered in furs. While this general aesthetic won’t please the most hardcore of reenactors, this alternative, heavily fantasy-influenced take on the Viking world remains convincing and certainly provides much visual stimuli to the attentive reader. Almost every page is filled to the brim with small details which complement an easy-flowing composition which focuses more on establishing gorgeous scenes than to fill pages with mindless action.
A glimpse of Ubbe’s village. (C) Egmont Publishing
In terms of colors and shading, this sophomore volume of Ragnarok manages to impress as well. Everything, from flame-lit halls, snow-capped forests and glimmering seas, looks dazzling and participates in establishing complex ambiences that can recall modern anime, a form of media Odin is especially appreciative of. When it comes to character design, the manga/anime influence remains more muted, however, and more closely resembles Japanese-influenced western animation than either pure manga or Franco-Belgian bande dessiné style.
While the art of Ragnarok is beyond a doubt its strongest selling point, there are still passages where some improvement could be made. Some scenes do feel somewhat flat, with not much interplay between foreground figures and vaguer backgrounds. During the few action scenes found in this first volume, one may also be somewhat taken aback by the stiffness of some characters and the lack of dynamic flow between strips, which is unfortunate considering how good and memorable most characters look.
Besides these few minor points, Ragnarok gets most things right. If there only was one true flaw to this series, it is how the story leaves us at the end of this first volume, just alluding to the beginning of Ubbe and Thyra’s adventures, leaving the reader avid for what looks like an absolutely epic quest. I, for one will do my best to get my hands on the second volume to see in which direction Odin Helgheim took his compelling characters, mysterious mythological figures, and beautiful world.
Ubbe’s brother, Hodd the boatbuilder (C) Egmont Publishing
Regrettably, while I personally could simply just walk down the street to the local bookstore to get a hold of the second volume, putative readers unfortunate enough not to reside in Scandinavia will have a much harder time obtaining even just this first book. Even though the English translation has been available in Norway for several months already, no distribution deals have been made outside of Scandinavia, and no ebook version of it seems to be available either. This means that the only way to get a hold of this book, for now, would be to go through the single Norwegian online bookstore which ships abroad, Bokkilden. This web-store, however, is entirely in Norwegian, so one would likely need to directly contact the platform for help, either via telephone, snail mail, or digital contact form.
However, I have no doubts that, given a little bit of time, this promising new comic will be made available outside of its native Scandinavia and make waves. Who knows, maybe by this time next year not only this first, but maybe also the second volume of Ragnarok will be made available worldwide, and likely end up under the Jule tree of many fans of Vikings, Norse myth, and comics, young and old. One can only hope!
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