070 Viking Release Party at Bergen Street Comics

Ivan Brandon, writer of Viking, and Tom Adams, owner of Bergen St. Comics (Photo Credit: Amy Adams)

This past Friday Bergen Street Comics hosted Ivan Brandon, and together they celebrated the release of Brandon's Viking, his latest release from Image comics which is billed as a "crime book for the 9th century." Ivan was gracious enough to take time out to sign some copies, as well as chat with some customers of the Park Slope comic shop, which included some familiar faces. To see larger photos check out my Viking Flickr stream.

Eric Carlsen and son Oliver. I'm kicking myself for taking this with my iPhone before remembering I brought a real camera. What a cute kid. Little man loved comics.

Ivan Brandon will fucking kill you.

Jared K. Flethcher and Brian Wood do not want to take this photo.

Nikki Cooke

Amy's brother Dan, Swifty Lang, Brandon from Private Stock, and Rick.

Theadora.

You guys! It's Kristyn Ferretti, Amy Adams, Jenny Lee, and Becky Cloonan!

How's the book? Pretty fantastic, actually. Brandon succeeds in writing dialogue that's not too corny, Thor, "verily" this and that, while at the same time giving an authentic feel to the interactions between characters, as well as to the characters themselves. Annikki and her father were an interesting pair, while the protagonists were the kind of anti-heroes you hate to like. Within these pages Brandon puts together a solid, complex, while still fun to read introductory issue.

With all due respect to Mr. Brandon, however, the art is what steals the show here. Nic Klein's artwork, previously seen gracing the covers of Marvel's New Warriors, is so refreshingly unconventional. A sort of painted pen and ink, the artwork is equal parts dark and colorful, classic and modern. In many of the scenes Ben-Day dots accompany the fury of his pen, juxtaposing the wild and almost sloppy, with the neat and uniform. The effect is really quite striking.

As many other reviews have pointed out, the sheer size of the comic is eye-catching (it's slightly taller and wider than an average floppy), of course. But what first got my attention was the quality of the cover and paper. A beautiful, glossy cardstock cover and thick, heavy paper makes you wonder why you're only paying $2.99 for a book of such high quality with no advertising while other companies are making books smaller and charging more. Image is such a hit-or-miss-and-really-just-mostly-miss publisher but they really got lucky with this. If giving stars was the kind of thing I did I'd give this book five out of five, but it isn't so instead I'll just say that you should go out of your way to buy this.

"Keep it real, everybody."