Comics

OUT NOW: history and fantasy collide in Don Lawrence’s ‘Karl the Viking’

19th January 2022

A sweeping historical fantasy with stunning art from one of British comics’ undisputed masters, the first Karl the Viking collection is out now!

Following its best-selling reprints of his The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire series, the Treasury of British Comics brings one of master artist Don Lawrence’s most popular and enduring comic book strips back into print.

The paperback collection is now available to buy alongside the limited webshop exclusive hardcover, with a brand new cover by breakout comics artist Tom Foster (Judge Dredd)

Originally serialised in Lion, Karl the Viking is a sweeping historical fantasy story of an orphaned Saxon boy, adopted and raised by the Viking Eingar after his raid on Britain. Upon coming of age Karl succeeds Eingar and leads his tribe into battle in Britain against wild tribes of Picts, and re-connects with his old Saxon family, gaining an ally in his cousin Godwulf, and making an enemy of the Earl of Eastumbria.

These fast-paced stories were drawn by Don Lawrence shortly before he revolutionised painted comic art with The Trigan Empire, when he was already a master of pen and ink, and his Karl the Viking series was the pinnacle of black and white comic art.