Oathbound #1
Creator: Luke Horsman
Kickstarter Link: Oathbound #1
I should preface this review by saying that I’m a big fan of Luke Horsman’s artwork, which has appeared most notably in 2000AD’s Prog and Judge Dredd Megazine. Horsman has a keen eye for character design as well as an over-the-top aesthetic all his own (one that would have right at home in animation during the heyday of Adult Swim). He brings a playfulness to all his work, whether it’s traditional fantasy, or space adventures, or even Judge Dredd. There is also a kinetic sense of action within his comics storytelling, an almost frenetic feeling of motion between panels. I just think it’s great (and, full disclosure, we’ve collaborated on comics in the past and have more in the works).
All that is to say that Luke doing Norse mythology as he is in Oathbound #1 both seemed obvious to me and like something I could not quite wrap my head around. That’s the perspective I brought into my reading of Oathbound #1, a comic that is currently in pre-launch and will hit Kickstarter soon for a full print run. There are some very specific Norse inspirations at work here, too. As Luke notes in the intro, the book was inspired by his interest in Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, along with broader Icelandic Sagas and some pagan histories, too. What results on the grandest scale is an illustrated retelling of the creation of the cosmos, sort of mashed up with a new Norse-inspired saga.
But moreover, there’s a lot of visual humor to this comic. And that’s part of what I enjoyed about it most. There’s a great tone to it, in everything from the writing to the coloring, which is a lot brighter in certain ways than you might expect a Norse mythology-inspired comic to be.
Anyway, the main character in this book is the disembodied head of the giant, Mimir, and that’s a fun choice that pays off in a lot of fun panel gags. There’s a little bit of Mike Mignola humor to the book in that way. You’ve got monsters and creation and Gods, all filtered through a shared lens hyper-specific to the cartoonist…and then you’ve also got a disembodied head who responds to it all at one point the way you might respond to stubbing your toe, simply muttering, “Crap.”
It’s good stuff. A fun blend of grandiose mythological elements with humor, bright action-heavy cartooning, some tentacles, a handful of ambitious splash pages and more.
If you’re a fan of Norse mythology, you’re definitely going to want to check this book out and snag yourself a print copy when it hits Kickstarter later this year. You’ve just never seen these ideas, concepts, and characters done quite this way.
Oathbound #1 is coming to Kickstarter soon!
