We’ve seen a fair few viking books come our way in recent years, from Asa Wheatley’s Sagas of the Shield Maiden, to Ryan K Lindsay’s Eternal and more. The latest to this list is Sean Fahey’s River of Blood, a Viking horror which is as much about the thrills and chills as it is the big beards and even bigger battle axes!

Publisher: Black Jack Press
Writer: Sean Fahey
Artist: Carlos Trigo, Jok (Colours), Kel Nutall (Letters)
Price: Currently funding on Kickstarter

Our story begins, as all good viking books should, on a boat with a bunch of beardy men talking about Odin. However when they spot a body in the water they soon get more than they bargained for. Cut to Byzantium and we get to meet our heroes of the piece – a ragtag group of mercenaries led by the idealistic Wulfgar – who are currently protecting the Emperor. After some fights and fallings out with the city guard, the gang head north where they come across the boat from the prologue and a village which is being starved by the trade route coming under attack from pirates. Wulfgar and co offer to help the village but there is more sinister elements going on underneath the surface than they might first thing.

Although it takes a while to get going, and the pieces of the puzzle to really fall into place, River of Blood is a really enjoyable slice of all action comic book story telling. Fahey has explored this genre before in Sagas of The Northmen and so this is clearly a favourite subject for him. While there is a lot of dialogue heavy pages early on (something which we often struggle with in these kind of books as they do ramble on) and plenty of Viking speak, Fahey balances this out with a lot of grimacing action as well.

The story and characters all feel fairly familiar: from the idealistic leader to the coin obsessed giant to the enigmatic Christian in the group (who on the surface seems at odds to the more pagan elements); and of course they have the bad ass violent one as well! All this is fine, but lacks a bit of diversity, and there is definitely a few too many male characters that rule this story! While the arrival of a strong heroine towards the end helps to at least balance the scales a fraction, it doesn’t counter balance the scenes with busty tavern wenches at the beginning, which means it does all feel a bit one-dimensional in places!

Fahey is helped on this all action journey, by some strong visuals from artist Carlos Trigo and colouring from the enigmatic Jok (not to be confused with the Snow Angels guy!). The art style is a mix of Mike Mignola with it’s sharp angular feel, but also has the grimaces of 90s superhero books like perennial Pipedream favourites Joe Madureira or Carlos Bacheco. (But don’t worry, this is no Battlechasers wannabe!) Perhaps most of all it reminded us of the brilliant Victor Santos and his work on Mice Templar and Paranoia Killer. Certainly this style helps the more violent scenes as it gives it a really raw energy to the story and stops it being too trad. However in places some of the panels and pages seem almost too busy and the character and scenes lack definition.

While it is easy to talk about all the things River of Blood lacks, at the end of the day it is a hell of a lot of fun! It feels like one of those books which isn’t trying to reinvent the genre, at least not by much, but rather revel in some of the more outrageous elements and tell a story within those parameters. The addition of more horrific and folkloric elements definitely helps make the book feel more unique and while it may lack subtlety, this feels very deliberate. It’s like this is an attempt to play up to the cliches and tropes in order to make a book which is unapologetic in its obviousness. It’s a bit like The Expendables of viking comics, which relies on muscular action rather than anything more nuanced, and if you like that kind of macho nonsense (which we actually do!), then this is definitely the book for you, so be sure to check out the Kickstarter which is currently running for it!