Viking Moon #1: The Vikings Have Landed

Viking Moon #1’s first six pages offer a great hook for the issue: Vikings versus Native Americans. Despite now knowing that such encounters were possible–perhaps even probable–it is an incongruous image. The action oriented in media res opening is effective as these things go, but it’s the combatants involved that really piques curiosity.

It’s curiosity more than anything else that sustains Viking Moon #1 once it flashes back a day from the opening. Most of the issue is quiet and deliberate as the shipful of Vikings makes its first forays on to North American soil. Pruett makes the tedium of establishing a settlement fairly interesting, and the issue flows well as a result.

Overall Viking Moon #1 is an easy read. There is some extra tension later in the issue as the expedition leader explores an abandoned settlement. But the dread behind the mystery is undercut by the opening pages’ having revealed who or what was behind what happened. Most of the tension comes from the expectation of getting to the action depicted early in the issue.

The writing in Viking Moon #1 does fall down at times when it comes to dialogue. There is repeated clumsiness in how exposition is handled. Dialogue is clunky at times, reading more like an information delivery system for the reader than anything one person would casually say to another.

Contributing to Viking Moon #1’s generally easy reading quality are its expressive characters. Frusin’s use of thick black lines and small patches rather than softer shading techniques gives most of the men a sterner countenance–jawlines are sharp, cheekbones are prominent, and brows are hard. Changes in expression largely come through eyes and mouths. Frusin is able to run the gamut of emotions, but the style works best with more intense emotional displays such as during fight sequences.

Character art in general is highly detailed. The action sequences are particularly visceral but never deliver much gore.

Frusin’s color choices are muted for the most part, especially backgrounds. The major exceptions are the night scenes. Frusin uses a rich twilight blue rather than black or other very dark shades. The issue’s action takes place almost entirely at night, and the result is that the most intense parts of the issue take place on the most vivid pages.

Dialogue is limited through most of Viking Moon #1. Martin does a good job keeping bubbles out of the way. There are a few text heavy sequences of panels, most of them early in the issue when the Vikings first land. In those instances Martin successfully organizes the dialogue bubbles to keep them from distracting from the art while remaining easy to follow.