September 2010
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Northlanders #32 / METAL #3 Preview
Introducing Black Karl.
(bigger images here)
January 2010
3 posts
Sticks & Stones Magazine » Brian Wood’s... →
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Massimo Carnevale Sketches
As seen here, some sketches for the cover of “The Shield Maidens” (Northlanders #18, 19).
December 2009
3 posts
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Another Preview of Northlanders #23
This time off the Vertigo blog. Exploding trees!
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Dec 23 - "The Plague Widow" pt. 3 / Northlanders...
Norwegian public broadcaster torrents 7-hour,... →
November 2009
8 posts
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"Third Long Arc" - process notes
I’m looking at the document I wrote when I was developing The Plague Widow… Northlanders being designed the way it is, each time I start a new story what I’m doing is starting a brand new project. So there’s a lot of proposal-writing and outlining and collecting of reference.
Here’s the working list of titles I had for this story:
Titles: THE WINTER OF THE PLAGUE...
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Iceland
In 2006 I went on a research trip to Iceland (okay, it was also my honeymoon) and brought my shitty old Holga with managed to shoot one last roll of 120mm before crapping out. I got the film developed into negatives, and, long story short, it was ages before I got them scanned. Here are a few shots from that dying plastic camera, only slightly adjusted for contrast and with some double-exposed...
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Northlanders for February 2010
The Vertigo Comics: Graphic Content blog has a post up now about something they are calling “Brian Wood Month”, where I’ll have four books released in February 2010. Up there is the cover to Northlanders #25, but click through to see the art for NORTHLANDERS BOOK THREE, which will be called “Blood In The Snow”, collection all the short stories to date:
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Northlanders Research Source List
(re-posted from an earlier version of this site)
Partial list of the sources and texts that were part of Brian Wood’s research for the book: Non-fiction -The Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley -Queen Emma and the Vikings by Harriet O’Brien -Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by HR Ellis Davidson -The Far Traveler by Nancy Marie Brown -1066: The Year Of The Conquest by David Howarth...
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October 2009
4 posts
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My Top Five Viking Battles
As written for the Vertigo: Graphic Content blog:
Maldon-summertime, 991AD, a large force of Viking raiders landed on what is now Northey Island, Essex, England, and waited for the tide to recede in order to launch a full scale invasion of the mainland. Opposing the Vikings was a much, much smaller party of Saxons. When the tide receded, the Vikings were horrified to see that there was only a...
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Northlanders (#21) "The Plague Widow" Preview
Courtesy of Vertigo and CBR, here’s the cover and some interior preview pages:
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The Plague Widow - 10/28
Northlanders cover artist Massimo Carnevale and I conspire to redesign the trade dress for the next book in the series, called “The Plague Widow”, which will run in installments from #21-28.
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Partial List Of The Source Texts
Partial list of the sources and texts that were part of my research for the book: Non-fiction -The Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley -Queen Emma and the Vikings by Harriet O’Brien -Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by HR Ellis Davidson -The Far Traveler by Nancy Marie Brown -1066: The Year Of The Conquest by David Howarth -Wars Of The Irish Kings by David Willis McCullough -The...
July 2009
2 posts
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Reactions to "The Shield Maidens"
A few comments and reviews on what I consider one of the strongest bits of writing I’ve done:
Brian Wood continues to show what can be done with a Viking comic. Make no mistake, this is a clearly feminist text and yet, perhaps thanks to its gory Viking historical base, Wood makes it one that is accessible to the everyman rather than off-putting. While it’s emotionally heavy stuff, it’s...
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"The Shield Maidens" part 1 preview
(otherwise known as Northlanders #18) This is out this week, part 1 of 2, illustrated beautifully by Danijel Zezelj and Dave McCaig. This is what I said on Newsarama:
….the Valkyries are pure fantasy, and the Norns, the Fates, are a way to humanize the cold, hard facts of how life unfolds… I mirrored a lot of these ideas into my three characters, three wives of dead men who allow fate...
June 2009
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Two New Northlanders Interviews up on Newsarama
Part One
Part Two
Written by Chris Arrant, they cover the recent single and double-issue stories, starting with “The Viking Art Of Single Combat” and ending with “Sven The Immortal” (#20). From concept to research to the process of writing and how the artwork brings it all together.
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Publishers Weekly on Northlanders: The Cross + The...
Northlanders, Vol. 2: The Cross + the Hammer Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. DC/Vertigo, $14.99 paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-4012-2296-3
This reader-friendly second collection of Wood’s series, illustrated by Kelly, tells an engaging tale of cultures clashing. A self-contained story, it relates to the previous volume only as an overall portrayal of the impact of the Vikings in Europe in a way that...
January 2009
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What Is Northlanders?
Vertigo On the Ledge: with Brian Wood (written Nov ‘07)
Pitch me a monthly series, my editor Will Dennis told me. But something different, break out of your box. And so I did. The first line of the NORTHLANDERS proposal was: “A nihilistic crime saga set in A.D. 870, when much of England was under Viking rule.”
I’ve always loved Vikings. As a kid, I thought they were these badasses in fur...
October 2008
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North #11: In 5 Years My Daughter Will Hate Me…
…when she finds and reads this Northlanders scene I just wrote where six dogs are cut to pieces. Similarly, Ryan Kelly’s kids will have nightmares for two months about how Daddy killed the puppies. Also from the script, this description:
“For this entire scene, Ryan, Magnus will be only partially stitched up, two feet of suture whipping around with the curved needle still attached.”
Heads-up,...
October 2007
1 post
Northlanders First Look + Essay →
MySpace.com has a 7-page preview and exclusive essay about Northlanders
