Barbarian Lord

I’m a little hesitant to say that Barbarian Lord began as a joke and would cringe to hear it referred to as a mash-up, but the fact is that the character got his start as the pairing of two seemingly incongruous things - the unvarnished tone of the medieval Icelandic Sagas and the designs of 1980’s barbarian cartoons. I suppose you could say he began as equal parts Egil Skallagrimsson and Thundarr the Barbarian. After a short run of one-page strips, I began to think that a larger story could take shape. I had inspiration enough from countless years spent with Norse mythology, fantasy novels, comic books and heavy metal. I was ready to make something more out of this idea, a proper barbarian saga in it’s own right.

Though the story developed much further than the initial “joke”, the original pair of disparate elements remained as two defining poles by which I kept the story in the right spirit -- a simplistic cartoonish skin enclosing a resolute and glowering heart.

Since wrapping up the final page of the first full-length story, the ideas for Barbarian Lord have continued developing and the world he lives in broadens still.

The trailer for The Barbarian Lord graphic novel:

A gallery of interior art, prints and promotional images from the graphic novel and stand-alone single issues.

The Books.
Currently Barbarian Lord exists in one 172 page graphic novel published by Clarion Books and 3 additional stand-alone comic books which are currently out of print but available to read below.

Barbarian Lord Tales 1 (2014)
Tales 1 reworks older BL strips that predate the main book. Some of those contradict events in main book, hence framing them as stories shared between a wolf and a bird. Most of those original strips were a few panels with BL killing someone and then spouting a bit of his grim poetry. Tales 1 fleshes them out a bit into a couple of pages, sometimes tying them in with events in the main book which was also then in progress.

Tales 1 notes:
Thinking back on the original short strips that this issue reworks, they were done because a job fell through. The job was a series of spot illustrations for a Harry Potter magazine. After the sketches were approved, I proceeded to cut all of the illustration board for the final inked work. WB then decided to go with all in-house illustrators and cancelled work with freelancers.. I forget if I got a kill fee or not, but I was pretty bummed out. I was also reading the Icelandic Sagas for the first time, completely taken with the unvarnished language. So after brooding like a troll for a while, I started pencilling out the first 8 or 10 short BL strips on the board intended for HP.

Gorm the Possessive (page 5) is the draugr Skullmaster unleashes in Tales 2: The Draugr. Gorm’s buried wealth is also how Skullmaster is able to afford the services of the witch in the main story.

Golden Eagle (pages 14-15) is a little bit of a holdover from when BL was going to be more of a cross between He-Man and the Icelandic Sagas. By the time the main book really got going it leaned a bit more towards the Sagas. Though Skullmaster and Man-Beast carried over and Golden Eagle does make a brief one-panel appearance, bemoaning his missing hands.

We see a bit more of Groaltth Half-troll (pages 20-21) and his connection to the poetry of the gods (we just see his legs in the main book.)

Tales 2 notes:
This one first came out as a short for the Zombie comics anthology FUBAR and was then reworked for previously used BL 8X8" format. I had initially pitched a zombified take on the last scene in the Song of Roland but was asked if I'd do something with BL instead.

This issue connects to the main book where we see how Skullmaster gets the silver to pay off the corrupt lawspeaker and hire a witch in the main book. Also, here is the burial mound mentioned in the first story of tales 1--that of Gorm the Possessive.

Tales 3: The Sword
The uncompleted Tales 3: The Sword. It was written out as a 2-issue story but only part 1 got finished.

Following back cover: 3 limited palette color-test images.

Roughs from the unfinished issue 2.