 |
| Copyright REBELLION |
I knew him as Erik The Viking from the pages of the revamped Smash! back in 1969, but he started life as Karl The Viking in Lion comic in 1960. Now, under his original appellation, his strips have been collected and reprinted in the above handsome volume by the Treasury Of British Comics. Written by Ted Cowan and superbly illustrated by Don Lawrence (pre-Trigan Empire), all true lovers of UK classic comic strips will surely want to have this one in their collection.
The front and back covers are scanned from my softcover edition (priced £19.99), which arrived this morning, the other images are borrowed from Rebellion's own site. If you'd prefer to have a hardcover copy, there's an exclusive web-shop edition with a different cover for £35. Don't hang about - get your orders in today!
As I said, I knew him as Erik and I find it difficult to dismiss that name from my mind. I'm therefore going to regard Karl as his first name and Erik as his second (as in middle - though presumably his surname isn't Viking), and that way, my personal association with these strips remains extant. If you have any thoughts or memories of Karl/Erik, feel free to express them in the comments section.
Incidentally, a couple of years before appearing in Smash! he popped up in Lion & Champion in 1966/'67, rechristened Rolf (and this time a Danish chieftain), but I never saw those reprints at the time so I'm under no compulsion to regard his Danish name as part of his Viking heritage. (He was, in fact, born a Saxon.)
******
I've now read the first adventure and it looks like at least one episode has been sourced from a later reprint, as it's obvious the name Karl has been re-lettered from something else. However, his father's name, Eingar, which was changed to Rangar for one of the reprints, has been overlooked and remains in its altered state. Also, one speech balloon has a blank space where Karl's/Eric's/Rolf's name should have been, so it was obviously removed in order to be changed, but then forgotten about.
