Lögberg-Heimskringla - 14.07.2006, Blaðsíða 10

Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca
mentions the poem Lokasenna,
“The Flyting of Loki,” which is
filled with references that have
not been fully explained.
There were also a wide va-
riety of stories, from the clown-
ish story of Thor dressing up as
a giant’s bride, to the tragedy of
Baldur’s death.
And while Thor gets much
of the attention in the comics,
in the myths Loki emerges as
a singularly complex character.
“Most of the gods in most of
the myths, they’re pretty much
set; they’re who they are all the
way through the stories,” says
Simonson. “Loki is a very inter-
esting, odd character, because
he is a kind of a different guy
in earlier stories from what he
becomes in later stories.” Loki
goes from being
a clever trickster
who is helpful
to have on your
side, to a mali-
cious force con-
spiring against
the gods and
men.
“So when
you read the
stories them-
selves, there is a
progression, an
almost modern
progression of character that a
lot of mythologies don’t have.”
Norse comics as
part of your heritage
Loki is a character who gets
a great deal of attention in the
popular Danish comic series
Valhalla, drawn by Peter Mad-
sen and written by Henning
Kure.
The series is published by
Interpresse in Denmark. The
first volume, Ulven er Løs
(about the binding of the wolf
Fenrir) was published in 1979,
and the 13th, Balladen om
Balder (“The Ballad of Baldur”)
will be published this fall.
Madsen’s take on the Norse
myths is humorous, and his
tales adhere in many aspects to
the original stories. The theft of
Iðunn’s apples and Thor’s “be-
trothal” to the giant king, among
other myths, are brought to life.
Madsen says his attraction to
working on Valhalla was sim-
ple. “The Norse myths are part
of my cultural background,” he
says. “As a child I was told the
stories by my mother, and as I
started to draw I was very much
attracted to fantasy material, so
a logical step seemed to com-
bine the two interests. Besides,
when we got the chance to make
our own comic strip we wanted
to make something original with
roots in our own culture instead
of a western, a space opera or a
totally out-of-the-blue fantasy
world.”
After a few volumes had
been published,
he also worked
on the Danish
feature-length
animated car-
toon, Valhalla,
about Thor’s
journey to the
court of Út-
garðaloki, which
appeared in
1986. Since then
he has continued
with the Val-
halla series as
well as other graphic novels,
such as Menneskesønnen (“The
Son of Man”) based on the life
of Christ.
In approaching the myths,
Madsen says, “I honestly just
read translations of the stories
and some interpretations of
them and go from there. Hen-
ning Kure, the writer of the
series, has learned to read the
Old Norse language — the only
‘old’ text I’ve read is the Old
English story Beowulf — mean-
ing he has been able to read, for
example, Snorri Sturluson in the
original language. Henning also
attends a lot of Nordic mythol-
ogy conferences, lectures and so
forth at universities all over the
world to get inspiration and vent
his own ideas.”
The Valhalla series has been
extremely popular — it has been
translated into ten different lan-
guages, though not English,
and the audience ranges from
young children to university
professors.
When asked why he thinks
modern readers enjoy these
tales of gods and giants, Mad-
sen replies, “The short answer
would be that stories that have
been told and retold so many
centuries are bound to distill an
essence of human experience,
and in the case of the Nordic
myths an essence of drama, hu-
mour and... even wisdom.”
Influenced by Led Zeppelin
A new series in recent years
was Michael Avon Oeming and
Mark Obie Wheatley’s Hammer
of the Gods, published by Image
Comics in the U.S. In it, a Norse-
man named Modi is blessed by
a valkyrie. However, the gods
seem to have turned their backs
on men, and Modi seeks them
out to challenge them for their
negligence. The first series,
“Mortal Enemy” was so well
received that it was followed by
further series chronicling Mo-
di’s mythical adventures.
Oeming says his initial inspi-
ration for the series came from
Led Zeppelin, of all things. This
may not be so surprising given
that one of their biggest hits,
“The Immigrant Song,” is about
vikings and Iceland — and its
influence is clear in Oeming’s
work (Hammer of the Gods is,
of course, the title of a famous
biography of the band).
He too, however, went back
to the original stories. “I had
been reading about the Norse
myths for a long time, so I had
all that stuff build up,” he says.
The character of Modi,
seems to embody some traits
of the mythological Thor — he
is hot-tempered and fierce in
battle. His crisis of faith over
the desertion of the gods seems
very modern, however. Is he,
then, the 21st-century’s viking?
“He has to be,” Oeming says.
“We couldn’t do a real viking.
I couldn’t have our hero steal-
ing, raping and killing during
the springtime. There was a dif-
ferent moral code back then, so
he’s certainly updated — though
quite a bit aways from [televi-
sion’s warrior-princess] Xena!”
Oeming’s work on Hammer
of the Gods attracted Marvel’s
attention, and he was hired to
work on ending the Thor series
created by Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby. Of stepping into their
shoes, Oeming says, “It was
certainly a bit scary, especially
since they wanted me to do Rag-
narök. I was pleased though,
once I found a way to tie the
origin with Thor, both as a char-
acter and a series, into the final
story to wrap up the series.”
Surviving Ragnarök
Given that in comic books,
heroes rarely “die” permanently,
does that mean Thor will once
again be rubbing shoulders with
Spider-Man and the Hulk?
Tom Brevoort edited Mar-
vel’s Thor series for six years
from the point it was relaunched
in 1998 until the character died
in 2004. He says, “The death of
Thor wasn’t ever truly intended
to be a permanent thing.” The
intention was to bring him back
as part of a relaunch of other
major Marvel characters such as
Captain America and Iron Man.
“Thor was supposed to be a part
of that — but our initial launch
plans fell through, and since that
happened, we’ve been biding
our time waiting for the proper
stars to align in order to bring
the character back correctly.”
He also says the death was
part of an ongoing continuity.
“Ragnarök is one of the princi-
pal components of the original
Norse myths, and we’ve hinted
at it in the comic book pages
many times. So when it came
time to close out the previous
series of Thor, it felt right for
us to do our version of the Rag-
narök legend, and bring the tale
to a proper close.”
The story was popular, but
adds that “certainly a vocal fan
base has told us that they’re
anxious to have him back on a
regular basis again.” While he
did not give details, he hinted
that Marvel’s Thor will be reap-
pearing soon.
For more information, visit
www.marvel.com for Mar-
vel Comics’ interpretation of
Thor; www.petermadsen.info/
for Peter Madsen and Henning
Kure’s Valhalla comics and oth-
er series; and for Michael Avon
Oeming’s Hammer of the Gods
and other work visit www.mike-
oeming.com/.
10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 14 July 2006
HAMMER OF THE GODS © MICHAEL AVON OEMING AND MARK OBIE WHEATLEY
Odin receives news from ravens Huginn and Muninn in Mi-
chael Avon Oeming’s Hammer of the Gods.
Eric Stefanson, FCA
Regional Managing Partner Manitoba
800-200 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
T: 204.926.7200 F: 204.926.7206
www.bdo.ca
Continued from page 9
Lesser known
incarnations
Norse mythology crops up
in comics in other surprising
places. Neil Gaiman’s Sand-
man series for DC/Vertigo
featured an exasperated Odin,
sly Loki and brutish Thor. Jef-
fery Stevens’ online series
Brat-halla (http://storyboard.
darkora.net/brat/) chronicles
the misadventures of the Norse
gods in elementary school.
Read a satirical debate be-
tween evolution and the Eddas
at The Pain (www.thepain-
comics.com/weekly041229a.
htm). A boy from Minnesota
wields the hammer of Thor
in Darkstorm Studios’ The
Hammer Kid by Kevin Gre-
vioux (www.astoundingstu-
dios.com/thehammerkid).
Furthermore, Dave Sim,
Canadian writer/artist behind
underground institution Cere-
bus the Aardvark named his
publishing company Aard-
vark-Vanaheim — the Vanir
being the mysterious rivals of
the Æsir, whose war is referred
to in the poem “Völuspá.”